Sour & Sweet

An iconic favorite has paved the way for a home baker’s fast ascent, but profit isn’t the only thing rising at Kristen Hardy’s house in Port Washington.

Hardy has worked to create just the right atmosphere in which to make sourdough bread, which made her signature chocolate chip cookies look like a cake walk.

“Every starter acts different in every environment,” Hardy said. “It was a lot of trial and error.”

The starter is a flour mixture that ferments before baking. Hardy keeps hers on the kitchen counter in large jar sitting on a mat designed for seed germination that provides heat.

Hardy started a little more than a year ago watching videos on TikTok.

“This seems annoying but fun,” she said.

One afternoon, Hardy began taking copious notes and embarked on the venture.

In winter, she had to adjust to the dry heat and in summer the air conditioning affects fermentation. The mixture likes to work when it’s 75 degrees and humid.

Hardy even has a humidifier to help conditions.

“It can be a real challenge sometimes,” she said. “My mood depends on how the starter’s reacting.”

Lately, Hardy has been happy.

“I’ve got it dialed in for this time of year,” she said. “A lot of my loaves have looked really good.”

She also has her cookie recipes down, which is what launched her Sweet Nothing Bakery home business.

“It was my Covid project to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie,” she said.

Hardy tweaked her recipe over the years as she supplied desserts for parties and family and friends, and they told her she could sell them.

She took the leap last summer when she set up a stand outside her front door and took orders from people.

She, her husband Noah and miniature Schnauzer Maui live in a growing neighborhood in the Highland Pointe subdivision, and Hardy knew how to greet her neighbors.

She filled a wheelbarrow with bags and boxes of cookies with informational sheets on her business and walked up and down the street, delivering goodies to area residents.

Many neighbors have turned into regular customers.

“They are my biggest supporters for sure,” Hardy said.

Most of her marketing is through Facebook and word of mouth, sometimes with crumbs tumbling out of them.

Business peaked last fall.

“The week prior to Thanksgiving I baked close to 30 loaves of bread and 1,000 cookies,” Hardy said.

One neighbor who works at a medical concierge office recommends eating sourdough bread since it’s healthier, and referred her 100 patients to Hardy.

Hardy’s bread flavors include plain, smoked pepper jack, jalapeno cheddar, bagel, as well as cinnamon swirl that is used for French toast. She also does seasonal flavors such as apple pie and pumpkin spice.

Bread orders require 24 to 48 hours of notice. She feeds the starter at 8 a.m., and it usually peaks around 2 p.m. Then she stretches and folds it, shapes it into a bowl and refrigerates it overnight. The next day, it gets baked for 30 minutes covered in a Dutch oven, then 10 minutes uncovered. She uses a scoring knife to make simple designs.

If a bread comes out flat, Hardy uses it for dipping with an olive oil mixture. She has also made soft pretzels.

A batch of muffins takes about 45 minutes. She offers chocolate chip, double chocolate and her husband’s favorite, cinnamon chip.

“He gets excited when somebody else requests it and I’ll have extras,” Hardy said.

Noah, who works from home in sales and marketing, sometimes helps with the baking, but he specializes more in cooking. Buffalo chicken sliders and steak sandwiches are two of his popular dishes.

The aftermath of the kitchen escapades is evenly divvied up.

“Usually whoever cooks does less dishes,” Hardy said.

Cookies remain a favorite. In addition to chocolate chip, Hardy makes dark chocolate with sea salt and snickerdoodle “for the real sweet tooth.”

Those aren’t as labor intensive.

“I can whip up a batch of cookies in 20 minutes,” she said.

But she still needed help with an order for 10 dozen from an orthodontist’s office last Christmas. She can only do a double batch at a time, so Hardy’s sister came over with her mixer. They spent one day making and one day packaging the goodies.

Hardy loves standing back and taking in her delicious creations.

“I just like the satisfaction of I did that,” she said.

Hardy, a 2016 Slinger High School graduate who has a graphic arts degree from Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon, had no plans to open a business  but the hobby has grown to the possibility of having a storefront and full-time job someday.

She remembers wearing princess dresses and eating cookie dough as a young girl while helping her mother bake cookies.

Now, she said, “My mom doesn’t do cookies anymore. She likes mine better.”

For more information, visit the Sweet Nothing Bakery Facebook page.