Conshohocken Italian Bakery Installs New Oven

CONSHOHOCKEN, PA – Conshohocken Italian Bakery recently acquired and installed a new Alitech thermal tunnel oven.  The oven will allow for increased production of their Italian roll varieties including Hoagie, Steak and Kaiser Rolls distributed throughout the region. Bakery owners, Domenic and Michael Gambone, expect to have the new oven fully operational the week of November 21^st.  As customary, a blessing ceremony will be held on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 11:00am at their 79 Jones Street location; his Reverend Father Gasper A. Genuardi of SS Cosmas & Damian Church will officiate the ritual.

The new Alitech oven, endearingly named “Irene”, replaces a 25 year-old Thermotun oven. The breakdown/installation process took nearly 9 weeks to complete with an additional 4 weeks for calibrating and testing. The new oven is expected to reduce energy consumption by 10 – 15% in addition to providing more efficiency by reducing baking times while maintaining product consistency. The oven is expected to bake up to 25,000 Kaiser Rolls per hour and nearly 6,300 Hoagie Rolls per hour.  The overall dimensions of the oven are 16 meters long X 4.8 meters wide X 2.6 meters high or 52.5ft X 15.6ft X 8.5ft, which is about the length of a humpback whale. For more information on Alitech bakery equipment, please visit their website at www.alitech-online.com.

During the transition, the bakery was using a similar, but smaller Thermotun oven to keep up with production demands.

Established in 1973, Conshohocken Italian Bakery has been manufacturing and supplying wholesale and retail baked goods to the greater Philadelphia five-county region.  The bakery continues to focus on producing freshly baked artisan products.

Conshohocken Italian Bakery

79 Jones Street

Conshohocken, PA 19428

610-825-9334

www.conshybakery.com

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Apple Cranberry Tart

The Outbound Station in Conshohocken is introducing a line of pastries from pastry chef, JoAnn Settles Landon, of Settles Sweet Specialties in Limerick, PA. If you read my previous post on Outbound Station, you already know how impressed I am with this quaint cafe.  I worked with owner Mary Shaffer on her charitable work in meatball wars, and then discovered her coffee shop in the fall. Her genuine concern for providing healthy cuisine, supporting local purveyors, and creating “green” initiatives makes her incredibly endearing.

When she called to ask for my input on a new line of pastries, I jumped at the chance to sample the treats! I was surprised and delighted, upon arrival, to see the fondant masterpiece that JoAnn Settles had created and had waiting for me.

The Best of Food Logo in Fondant

I brought my 8 year old daughter, a little foodie in her own right, with me for the tasting. She was equally thrilled with the “cake boss” style logo. We went about the business of tasting cupcakes, pastries, and chocolate desserts and found everything to be absolutely delicious. For me to love a dessert is a big deal. I am actually a salty, more than sweet person, as a general statement. The apple cranberry tart pictured above was especially good because it was not too sweet. We also sampled Kahlua sticky buns. They were so off-the-hook delicious that I ate them faster than photographed them! The only photo I have does not do them justice, but I was told that they they will now be available on weekends at Outbound Station. So I HIGHLY suggest you try one.

Cake Ball

Probably the most significant addition to Outbound Station’s new items is the cake ball. Prior to my arrival, I saw on twitter that local residents were already reacting to the scrumptious mini dessert. While the flavors will change weekly, a cake ball is a mini ball of cake, in this case vanilla, covered in butter cream and then coated in semi-sweet chocolate. Last Saturday was their first day on the shelf and they sold out completely, possibly because in addition to being delicious,  they are far more reasonable here than in the Neiman Marcus catalog. Based on the success of their first weekend, the cafe is now taking orders for them in advance, decorated for your themed event (super bowl, birthday, bachlorette parties.)

Cake Balls available for special order

Mary Shaffer likes to change things up daily, so there is no telling what will be available from day to day. JoAnn Settles’ specialty desserts will be available throughout the week, with a larger variety available on weekends, for now. Other fabulous goodies which will be available are cupcakes, brownie pops, cookies and tartlets similar to the ones below.

I heard a rumor about red velvet coming soon….

My daughter’s personal favorite chocolate spice cupcake

Truffle Tartlets

I imagine that another hugely popular item will be the brownie pops. After announcing on twitter that I was headed to the coffee shop to taste new desserts, I heard from someone to ask for smaller brownies for “when you just want a taste.” I bet these are just what she was looking for…………..

Brownie Pops

The brownie pops are coated in chocolate ganache, and adorned with different casings such as nuts, chopped candies, toasted coconut and cookie crumbs.

To special order any of the mentioned treats call: 484-351-8235 or visit

The Outbound Station

2 Harry Street

Conshohocken

The Magic Tomato Pie

Here’s a follow-up on our original post on the Magic tomato pie:

We recently reported on the tremendous amount of activity on @conshybakery’s Twitter page and ConshohockenBakery’s Facebook page regarding the “magic” in the tomato pie. The buzz mounted over the fact that not only had the Flyers entered the playoffs unexpectedly, beat The Devils in just 5 games, but then went on to come back from an unthinkable 3 game deficit to The Montreal Canadiens Boston Bruins and win 4 in a row, then beat an overwhelming favorite Montreal Canadien team 4-2 to enter The Stanley Cup finals.

On Saturday night in Chicago the Flyers took on the Blackhawks for Game 1 and scored 5 goals only to lose in the end 6-5. None the less, record amounts of tomato pie,  for a Saturday of a holiday weekend, flew off the shelves of the bakery and were even served at local restaurants, although many fans had already headed to the beaches. Following the loss, fans still showed support for the magic of the pie in posts on facebook and twitter on a great offensive effort on the road.

Then Monday came, and their closing left the magic tomato pie out of reach and unavailable as they were closed for the holiday. “Not to worry,” came their rally cries yesterday, The Flyers had not shut-out any teams with the magic of the pie, they had simply won the series and would again. The bakery was open with a huge stock of pies ordered and The Flyers prevailed in an overtime victory at home 4-3.

The Flyers will play game 4 against The Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night. Will the tomato pie work it’s magic again?

“You can not deny the power of the pie!”

We’ll see………..

Conshohocken Italian Bakery

79-83 Jones Street

Conshohocken

GO FLYERS!!!!!

Zeppoles at The Conshohocken Italian Bakery

Last night on twitter and Facebook, The Conshohocken Italian Bakery reported they will be offering the fried dough today at its retail store in Conshohocken in honor of St Joseph’s Day. There will also be a priest at the bakery at 9AM for a bread blessing ceremony.

Not sure about you, but I haven’t had a zeppole since I was a kid on the Jersey boardwalk!