AYou walk into a bakery on a main street you've never been to before. There are some dummy cakes on display, and also some predone cakes in the case. The case next to it is filled with small pastries. What kind of pastries? What kind of small pastires do you like to eat/make? If you have this kind of bakery, what are your big sellers?
Depends on if you have a refrigerated case or a dry case. I personally like a variety of colors and shapes. I'm never too inspired to see a bakery with lots of tan/same colored items.
I like all kinds of unique cookies (some decorated, some not) and bars, various forms of petit choux, tartlettes with and without fruit, petit fours, chocolate confections that are a candy/pastry hybrid.
Are you trying to decide on your perfect product mix?
Liz
Stitches already said almost everything I was going to say, haha.
Macarons, madeleines, profiteroles... pretty much anything French will sell really well these days. Cupcakes are always a favourite as well.
My test of a good bakery are their scones. If they look like those monstrosities at Starbucks, I will leave, lol. (and every bakery needs scones, imo)
AWhen I was a kid, my favorite thing to get was a crumb board. YUM! We moved away and now I cannot find them.
One bakery we go to now we get brownies, giant cookies, tri-color Italian cookies, gourmet cake slices, cannoli, cupcakes. They have a lot of other things, but those are our favorites.
AI am dreaming about my future bakery and am just thinking about all the stuff that we could make. Wonder if I'm missing any good ones. I loooove Madeleines.
AA question about eclairs. Do you prefer them to be one bite? Two bites? Or big big?
ABig eclairs are messy, but sooo good! For a high foot traffic area, maybe smaller ones would be best?
AI really want to make bite size or individual pithiviers.
AI know I usually get scared to buy a big eclair cause I know I will make a mess.
After you choose all the things you think would be lovely to have, then start sorting them by shelf life/productive to make. For example, take biscotti. A dream item for a bakery - easy to make, can upsell a cup of coffee with it, and they have a very long shelf life (weeks). Virtually no waste. Madeleines though, taste best fresh, so they wouldn't be at the top of my list - it would be hard to keep them at their best all the time.
And on ease of production, what items can you pre-prep and freeze? After recipe testing for the perfect version of each item or category, I see what I can prep in advance without affecting quality.
Liz
AThat's smart. That had skipped my mind before. Macarons get chewy when frozen and o atechoux can last a really long time
AWhat about when you start out and dont know how much business you will have. What ifbyoubmake waay too much and waste a lot of product and that could even cause you ro go our of business, or you make too little and people dont come in because yo u don't have enough stuff or variety.
Good morning! I'm going to quit posting at night because I guess I was half asleep (not sure why my brain typed "petit" choux instead of pate a choux). Guess they sounded enough alike.
OK, you need to budget a fair amount of money in the beginning for food waste, until you know how much business you will have. You don't want to run out, and you want a full case at all times. That is why your product mix is so important - cookies like shortbread and springerle get better as they age, so there won't be as much waste. Find brownie and bar recipes that you can have made and frozen so you just have to pull them out and frost or decorate.
Yes, pate a choux can be frozen in cream puff or eclair forms and just pulled out and baked off. Mini cakes can be split and filled and frozen. Fudge and truffles can be made in advance, and if packaged well, can be frozen without compromising texture or taste.
I have even made a baking and mixing schedule that starts my day with my oven at 400 for eclairs and puffs, and then work my way down through the temperature dial until I end with macarons and meringues. But I am working days in advance, prepping to restock my freezers and storage racks.
We have a local bakery who has one dry case and one cold case. Typical three shelf cases. They are rarely full. Yesterday the cold case had 2 cakes and a pie. All spread out. Looked terrible. When people come in to a bakery, they want to see abundance, not something that looks picked over. I'm having a Laduree style dry case built, because for a small bakery, it can look full and abundant at all times, without having tons of product out at once to waste.
HTH
Liz
AIt sounds like you currently sell these? What do you sell them for? And how do you sell a macaron? Individually?
My husband and I own a restaurant, and I am the pastry chef, among other things. :) I have to cover brunch pastries and desserts, and our party and menu desserts.
We are opening a separate bakery across the street this winter in a new indoor farmer's market our city is opening. So I am fortunate to be able to test run all my recipes and techniques at our restaurant before the bakery opens later this year.
I sell 1.5" diameter macarons for $1.50 a piece. They are very popular on our menu of desserts for cocktail parties.
Liz
AWow, sounds like you've got it good. Do you experiment with the shape or different flavors? My future business partner is Filipino and we wanted to incorporate some Filipino foods into our desserts. i ewonder how an ube macaron would turn out
AWhat style of restaurant is it? What are your plated dessserts like?
Wow, sounds like you've got it good. Do you experiment with the shape or different flavors? My future business partner is Filipino and we wanted to incorporate some Filipino foods into our desserts. i ewonder how an ube macaron would turn out
ube macarons are lovely, they are actually somewhat common, surprisingly enough :)
We have a Filipino bakery not too far, they started out very traditional, and are branching out a bit now. They do these little buko pie tartlets, with pandan curd inside, so yummy.
We live in a small town (25,000 pop.) so a regular 'ole macaron is pretty fancy to most people. :) Our restaurant is a steakhouse/brewpub in a renovated historic building. We have weekend brunches, lots of receptions and parties, and host a lot of business travelers.
We do tableside Bananas Foster (old school) and then fun desserts like fried PB&J sundaes for our regular dessert menu. For parties and brunches I try out new things all the time. I'm currently on a Pierre Hermes/Laduree kick and have been making tarts with his lemon cream, and little eclairs with violet sand I found online from a shop in England. (I got both the rose and the violet, and they smell heavenly)
Liz
AOooh! Speaking of laduree, I meant to ask you what that is earlier. I've been eyeballing a few display cases but they are kindof expensive. I love floral flavors, so that sounds delicious!
This is the type of display case I was referencing. :) Isn't it beautiful?
Liz
ASo jealous of that display set up. Beautiful.
My husband and a friend are re-creating a mini version of that for me. I only have a 12' x 16' foot space in my new area, so they are building me a 10' long version of the front case and a matching bookcase/back wall to go behind it. I will have storage hidden behind the tall bookcase. I just love how it looks, too, but you really can't find anything close ready made.
Liz
AWow scrumdiddly, I didn't see that post yesterday but that sounds awesome! I bet an ube macaron is very pretty too. Now I need to find a good recipe for bekeloy! What city do you live in or by if you don't mind me asking
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