The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Best selling/favorite bread?

PeterPiper's picture
PeterPiper

Best selling/favorite bread?

I've been making bread and selling it to friends and family for a while now, building up my menu to include nine different breads.  Recently I promoted a cranberry walnut brioche braid which turned out to be by far the most popular, selling very well.  I hadn't expected it to be so popular, which makes me wonder what other type of bread might be a best seller. 

I'd like to hear from my baking colleagues what bread they think I should add to my menu.  What do you find is your most requested bread for family events?  What is your favorite to eat?  i've found that my favorites (ciabatta and sourdough) don't sell nearly as well as the sweeter breads. 

Also, I'm opening a contest on my blog for a new bread nomination and the winner gets a free loaf of bread from the menu shipped to their home.  The link is below and feel free to enter.  Thanks and let's hear those nominations!

-PeterPiper

http://psoutowood.vox.com/library/post/bread-contest.html

Erzsebet Gilbert's picture
Erzsebet Gilbert

Hmm... I checked out your current menu - it looks fabulous, and it seems like it'd be so much fun to experiment with new ideas.  Just a few...

Maybe a recipe which calls for some different flours, things people don't always get to enjoy?  Like a durum or semolina loaf, graham flour, bulgur or wild rice?  

Maybe a foccacia?  That's a classic.

I've seen a lot of posts which include fun shapes, like the little piggies, for their loaves - maybe you might have customers who could special order from a list of possible shapes for a birthday, a party, a holiday supper, etc.?

Or perhaps a Bread-Of-The-Week or -Month, varying your loaves?  It could be a blast simply to toy around with a number of different things over time, and if one is particularly popular you can make it a permanent installation...

Hope this helps a tad, and you have fun!

Erzsebet

audra36274's picture
audra36274

   I make white and pumpernickle buns very small that people use for appetizers and a bit larger for kids partys. It is very time consuming weighing out all those dough balls, but it's not something you can get in most stores and they don't mind paying a little extra for my trouble.

Audra

Zenbirder's picture
Zenbirder

My best selling breads this year at Farmer's Market were (all are fresh ground organic whole wheat breads)

#1 Seedy Bread - Millet and Sunflower, they just went crazy over the perfect amount of crunch $6 a loaf!

#2 Rustic European - a basic poolish bread - my least expensive to make and the least expensive full size loaf for them to buy at $5.

#3 Fresh Garden Herb & Onion Baguettes - Parsley, Thyme and a generous amount of fresh Sage with Red Onion with a poolish base, these sold well as an impulse buy, even with tourists at $3.50 a baguette.

Susan

althetrainer's picture
althetrainer

Since I only sell sourdough breads I can't really give you any ideas other than sourdough.  My best selling SD are cottage cheese dill and roasted whole garlic.  I do make yeast bread from time to time, not for sale, and the most popular one is tomato basil mozarrella bread.  Al

breadnik's picture
breadnik

Hi Peter,

My farmers market customers seem to always go for whichever bread has caramelized onions or roasted garlic in them. Moreover, given a choice between caramelized onion bread vs roasted garlic bread, they always buy onion breads first and garlic second. I've made as many as 18 caramelized shallot-thyme loaves at a time, along with about 100-120 loaves of 4-5 other kinds, and that's always the one I'd sell out of first in the three hours of the market.

At the same time, though, it's important to remember that retail sales are not easy to predict -- that's the nature of retail. The bread that sold best last time may not sell very well next time. Go figure! So I've settled on making may be a little too little than a little too much.

Good luck.

Nika aka Breadnik

PeterPiper's picture
PeterPiper

Thanks for the replies.  It looks like the savory breads are a bigger hit than I thought.  Maybe I need to add more herb/onion breads to the lineup.  I made a potato rosemary that was well received, but it didn't sell very well.  As a reminder, the bread contest is still going on at my blog.  A comment post gets you a chance to win.  Thanks everyone for the great recipe suggestions.

 

-Peter

http://psoutowood.vox.com