People ask me a lot of things. Working in a retail space within a small town will do that to you. After enough years, you start to notice the questions you hear the most often. As I sifted flour this morning for a batch of donuts, I realized what mine were. The first one is easy:

Bear claw or cinnamon roll?

The answer is Bear Claw. Always. I say this with love and without apology. Our cinnamon rolls are wonderful. I should know, as I make them myself. But it’s not just the sweet buttery dough and sugary glaze of our signature bear claws that win them my vote. It’s the love I know that goes into making them. I mean, the bear claw is what my bakery is named for. You’re welcome to disagree, and I’ll respect your opinion, but I’ll still be right every morning at 4:00 am, sprinkling the almonds on before they go back in the oven for one more bake.

The second question is less interesting but more frequent.

Where are the bathrooms?

Down the hall, past the community bulletin board, first door on the right. I've said it so many times I could say it in my sleep. According to my business partner Stacy, I have.

The third question is the one that follows me home.

When are you going to share your peach cobbler recipe?

For a long time, my answer was some version of never. Not that I'm selfish, because anyone who knows me knows that's not the problem. There are just some things that feel like they belong to you. Like, maybe sharing them changes what they are. My grandmother made this cobbler. My mother made it. I make it now, in a commercial kitchen, for a town that has come to expect it every August when the Colorado peaches come in.

Jerry Thornton over at Family Foods calls me the second he gets them. I don't know who he calls second. I've never asked.

I'll be honest with you about something. Part of the reason I've held onto this recipe is a little embarrassing. I made this cobbler for Tony DeLucca when he first came back to Flat Rock, and if you know anything about how things have developed between us since then, well, maybe a woman likes to think her peach cobbler had something to do with it.

He might not agree, and he would be wrong, but I've learned to pick my battles.

I was thinking about all of this recently while watching Stacy handle customers as our morning regulars came in one by one. Harold Parker, who always orders the same thing, sits in the same chair and reads the same section of the paper first. Delores Krensky, who gets her tea to go and has opinions about everything, including, apparently, my window display. The summer people who are new every year and the locals who never are.

My bear claws are the perfect analogy of what Flat Rock is. Sweet, mostly, and occasionally a little salty. Salt doesn't ruin sweetness. It opens it up. It makes you taste it more completely. The salty ones in this town — and you know who you are — they're part of what makes the rest of it better. I'm convinced of that.

So. The recipe.

I'm sharing it because this town has given me more than any recipe could repay. Because my grandmother would have shared it without a second thought. And because if keeping it secret means keeping people from something this good, that's not a secret worth keeping.

The only thing I ask is this: if my peach cobbler works for you the way it apparently worked on Tony DeLucca, then you have to promise to come see me about the wedding cake. We do beautiful work.

The recipe is below. Jerry's peaches are best. Do what you can.

 

Brenda Welch is the Co-owner of The Bear Claw Bakery on Jefferson Street.
Open 6:00 am until somewhere around 2:00 pm.