Signatuer Dish: Palm Harbor cook touts the fun in creating his banana cream pie

WHO: Norman Shockley, Palm Harbor, retired baker, firefighter, and dock worker for Shell Oil; married with three children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

WHAT: Banana Cream Pie

ABOUT THE RECIPE: It was a summer day in 1948 when 12-year-old Norman Shockley walked past the new bakery two blocks from his house.

"Hey, sonny," the baker sweeping in front of the shop called out, "you want a job?"

Norman said he had never had a job before, but the baker assured him it was okay.

"I'll pay you good. I'll pay you 14 cents an hour."

Norman said he can still remember the smell of the bakery that day, with its brick ovens turning out everything from pastries to cupcakes. He never wanted to leave. In fact, he said he "wanted to try everything."

He didn't know it then, but that job would be his introduction to a life-long passion for baking.

He started washing pots and sweeping floors after school. Soon, he moved up to icing cupcakes and baking bread. By the time he was 18, his reputation for icing cakes landed him a job that paid more than his father's.

From the day he started that first bakery job, he wrote down tips. He said he carried a small black notebook in his pocket so he'd never forget anything.

Today, he still has that notebook — along with two more — filled with recipes and tips he's accumulated over the past 60 years. "The book is so old, I have to be careful when I turn the pages," he said.

Norman eventually got the chance to start his own bakery in New Jersey. It just happened to be across the street from a church that emptied out right into his shop every Sunday afternoon. People flocked to buy desserts, like his banana cream pie.

According to Shockley, that pie is so much fun to make, you, too, might want to start your own bakery. If not, your friends will love you for making it.

TIPS: To get a "beautiful professional cut," fill a glass with warm water and dip your knife in it each time before you cut a slice of the pie.

ON THE SIDE: A cup of coffee.

CAN'T BAKE WITHOUT? Imagination. In the bakery, imagination is "how anything ever came about," Shockley said. For him, baking is about craftsmanship – creating a beautiful design on a birthday cake, or choosing the exact pastel shade of the iced flower on a cupcake.

Emily Young, Special to the Times

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