Jimmie Burgess bakes her pies – apple to blackberry, boysenberry, pecan and pumpkin – with a passion she has had for baking since she was just 12 years old when she was taking tips from her grandmother and mother.

Burgess Baking Co. has been in downtown Ripon on Main Street for the past five years having moved from a Manteca location near Louise Avenue and North Main Street where she turned out her sweets for seven years.

With her mother working nights as a nurse when she was young plus two brothers and a sister, she took on the preparing of the nighttime meals for the family when she was only 12.  She chuckled when she referred to her sister as a “clean fanatic” who did her part in keeping the house in perfect condition for their mom.

Dad was a truck driver and actually owned a fleet of his own trucks and had a daily yearning for sweet snacks.  He had a daughter who managed to supply him with her taste-tempting creations from cookies to pies and cakes.

After her graduation she was employed by a bakery supply firm out of Sacramento, working in sales and always on the road. She witnessed every type of operation in her travels with a yen to have her own business, knowing she could do better than many she had witnessed.

This week Burgess put on a pie-making demonstration for this feature, detailing her techniques in creating her mouth-watering apple pies from making her own real homemade crust, shaping it with a rolling pin and placing it into the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan to the perfect time in the oven.

Preparing the apples by peeling them by hand and placing them on the bottom dough after kneading it for the right amount of time comes first.  Then she adds sugar, spices and lemon juice – just the right amounts that she has learned by doing it time and again.  She also uses an “egg wash” which is a mixture of whole eggs and water that she brushes across the tops of the upper crust dough.

That homemade pie crust is weighed out from a combination of shortening, flour, sugar, salt and a little bit of cold water and chilling it overnight.  Of course a large rolling pin, paring knife and pie pans are necessities along with a flour sifter.  In the first three days of this week she had made some 20 pies. 

Burgess said she and her sister would always take a couple of afternoon before Christmas to bake cookies, cakes, banana breads and stuff like that – always a fun thing to do.  She said her grandma baked a lot and that was a big part of her inspiration.

The bakery is open five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday – Burgess works seven, however  The weekday hours are 6 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Saturday hours are 6 until 3.  She said there is often a group of ladies who spend time in her bakery socializing and having a light snack and a cup of coffee.  Small groups of men have also searched out her bakery during their break times as well as some who are retired.

She said she thas cooked the Thanksgiving dinners for her family from when it was larger and required three birds in the oven to now when she cooks only one turkey.  She and her husband have one daughter and two sons ranging in age from 25 to 33.

In addition to apple the favorites are blackberry or pecan.  For cookies it is the amoretti made with almond paste.

“I make a lot of scones – they are very popular.  I use whatever fruit is in season: blueberry, pumpkin, orange cranberry, lemon and raising.  I do offer sugar-free pies and I have educated myself on artificial sweeteners finding most are from a chemical base and are not good for us, she said.

She tends to lean toward the Stevia sweetener and a brand called Truvia that is sold in Small packets.  Stevia is a natural organic plant available everywhere, she noted.