Lucy Damkoehler of Sweet Lucy’s Bakeshop in Bernardston is very much a hometown gal. Although she claims not to know the names of all her customers, she certainly seemed to know everyone in the shop the day photographer Paul Franz and I stopped in to visit.

Her smile and sense of humor seem easygoing, although clearly she is a bundle of energy. And she loves what she does.

The Bernardston native started baking when she was in the fifth grade. She told me she was influenced by her father, who was passionate about food and gardening.

One day when she was in the eighth grade, as she was loading the dishwasher, she recalled, she suddenly thought, “I want to be a chef.” Her supportive father immediately started researching culinary schools, although she wasn’t yet old enough to attend one.

She worked at the late lamented Elm Farm Bakery in Deerfield in high school and went on to attend the New England Culinary Institute. She cooked in various locations — New York City, Austria, Hawaii — before spending 12 years in Seattle. There she married and had two children.

She wasn’t thinking of moving back home permanently. In the winter of 2018, however, the company for which she worked as a pastry chef in Seattle lost its all-important contract at Seattle University.

By coincidence, the owners of the 7 South Street Bakery back in Bernardston were getting ready to retire. They had known Damkoehler for years and called to let her know that they wanted to offer her first refusal on the bakery building. She saw a way out of looming unemployment.

She turned to her husband. A mail carrier, he could get a job just about anywhere. It turned out that he wanted to get one in western Massachusetts. “He was the one who wanted to move back here before I did,” Damkoehler smiled.

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles

Project Skydrop winner revealed as Boston meteorologist Dan Leonard

As I See It: Melania Trump’s nude photos — Art of pornography?

Athol man gets 5 to 7 years for child rape

Football: Josiah Little runs for 200 yards as Franklin Tech defeats Athol, 34-12 (PHOTOS)

Turners Falls man arrested in Rhode Island sexual assault case

Football: Frontier beats Commerce, Greenfield falls to Ware

Your Daily Puzzles

Cross|Word

Flipart

Typeshift

SpellTower

Really Bad Chess

They relocated to Bernardston, and in October 2018 Sweet Lucy’s Bakeshop was born. Damkoehler quickly started offering cooking classes, something she had learned to do in Seattle, first for extra money and eventually because she had discovered she just plain loved teaching.

When Sweet Lucy’s cooking school outgrew the busy bakery in 2022, she raised funds to put an addition onto the building, a colorful space completed last year in which teachers and students can prepare and eat food together.

Damkoehler has 15 employees, including six full-time bakers who produce cakes, pastries, spiced nuts, and to-go meals. She supervises the staff, steps in when someone can’t come to work, keeps track of finances, and teaches multiple classes.

When I asked how she manages it all, she laughed. “I love what I do,” she replied. “I’m one of five kids. I thrive on chaos!”

The classes vary in subject matter. Some use a competition format; others stress collaboration. Most are for adults, but Sweet Lucy’s also offers classes for young people from time to time.

Damkoehler excitedly told me that on Sunday, Oct. 20, at 6 p.m. the cooking school will welcome a special guest instructor: Gail Gand. A renowned pastry chef, cookbook author, James-Beard-award winner, and Food Network personality, Gand approached Sweet Lucy’s out of the blue.

Gand’s daughter is starting her education in Hampshire College this fall, and the chef thought it would be fun to find a place to teach near her child.

Gand will teach a class titled “French Desserts for a Crowd.” It will walk participants through the preparation of three classic French sweets: Chocolate-Dipped Madeleines; Chocolate Pots de Crème; and (my personal favorite) Palmiers, yummy heart-shaped puff-pastry cookies.

“She’s an absolute legend, a true necessity for female chefs,” Damkoehler asserted. “She really has paved the way.”

Lucy Damkoehler has a simple mission at her school: “Cooking has to be approachable.” She tries to teach her students simple, tasty, replicable ways to produce excellent baked goods.

“Baking’s got such a bad rep,” she said, explaining that she likes to share “the skills to be flexible in the kitchen.”

A full list of Sweet Lucy’s classes is available at the bakery’s website, sweetlucysbakeshop.com. Those who prefer to have someone else create delicious baked goods for them may visit the bakery on South Street in Bernardston Tuesdays through Saturdays from 7 a.m. to mid-afternoon.

There, patrons can find popular pastry items like Damkoehler’s twice-baked croissants, macarons, and (on Thursdays!) donuts, plus take-home-and-bake savory treats. The bakery is worth visiting for its delectable aroma alone.

Lucy Damkoehler sent Paul and me home with bags of these flavorful nuts. I nibbled on them plain, but Damkoehler also uses them to add crunch to salads or to top off a festive pumpkin pie. The nuts may be halved.

Ingredients:

for the simple syrup:

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup water

for the nuts:

8 ounces pecans

8 ounces cashews

8 ounces walnuts

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon cumin

2 ounces (1/4 cup) simple syrup

Instructions:

First, make the simple syrup. Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan.

Bring the mixture to a boil. Turn it off and allow it to cool. While it is cooling, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

When the syrup is cool, make the nuts. In a large bowl, combine the three types of nuts. Mix in the sugars, the salt, and the spices. Pour the simple syrup into the nut mixture, and blend well.

Pour the nuts onto a large, rimmed, unlined (i.e., no parchment or silicone) cookie sheet. Smooth them out flat; they should not be crowded together.

Bake for 10 minutes. Stir well, and continue to cook in seven-minute increments, stirring each time. Bake the nuts until they are toasted and the sugar is dry.

Remove the nuts from the oven, and continue to stir them every few minutes as they cool to make sure they don’t clump together.

Store the cooled nuts in an air-tight container for up to three months. Makes about 1 1/2 pounds of nuts.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.