Corey Coleman taught himself to be a pastry chef, in public, one bake at a time.
He could not afford pastry school, so he built his own. He set a syllabus, bought a lot of flour, and promised to photograph everything, the failures included. This site follows that road from a first batch of scones to mirror glazes, a Saint-Honoré and a honeycomb croissant.
The plan was written down in May 2017 in a post called The Game Changer. A diploma or years of experience were what kitchens asked for, Corey observed, and he had neither. What he could build was proof. “Photographs,” he wrote, “they are the best index of what you can do.” His stated goal was “to be taken seriously in the culinary field despite my inexperience.”
What makes his record unusual is its honesty. A roll cake that shattered is posted next to the caption “I think I fail... Like a lot.” Croissants that lost their butter are called “merely alright.” Then, months or years later, the same bake comes back, solved. The collection here keeps both halves of that story together.
It is also funny. There are ninja cookies, a brown sugar castle, bear-paw oven mitts and a pie contest invented by an HR manager so that he could win it. And there is a lemon tree that gave 42 pounds of fruit in a single harvest and found its way into half the recipes.
The road so far
Before the blog
Corey is already baking for the people around him, including piping the rosettes on a friend's wedding cake.
Making Some Dough begins
He starts a blog with a plain subtitle: "The story of one man who can't afford pastry school." The first post is lemon poppy seed scones, made with fruit from his own Meyer lemon tree.
A course of his own design
In place of pastry school he writes his own syllabus: breads, cookies, cakes, then pastries and tarts, with every result photographed "regardless of whether I am successful or not."
Into laminated dough
Danish braids, croissants made all day long, puff pastry, a galette des rois. The ruler comes out and stays out.
The application cake
An orange hot milk sponge with chocolate buttercream and 23k gold leaf, baked as his application to a pastry kitchen.
Working pastry
Petits fours "for work", plated desserts for private events, a first glazed entremet, a mirror glaze he can see himself in, and at last a yule log that does not crack.
The quiet years
Quarantine closes kitchens. Corey zests lemons into vodka, labels the jars, and waits.
Back, with viennoiserie
"It's been almost two years since I posted." He returns with a tiered cake and a run of danish, sticky buns and croissants with real structure.
Showpieces
His first Saint-Honoré and a mirror-glazed heart at Cocoaddiction Confections, guided toward a cleaner, more minimal style.
The honeycomb
A croissant cut in half shows a near-textbook honeycomb crumb, seven years after the first batch melted on a heating pad.
Bread, mastered
Bouncy Japanese milk bread, a square-shouldered Pullman loaf, open-crumb sourdough and a cinnamon roll that fills the plate.
