Opened Home Bakery, Dear Fresh Loafers, Help Me!!!
Hello all, I have recently opened a home bakery with my partner known as "Wild Yeast Bakery". We operate out of Norway Maine. I have a question for anyone who might be able to help me:
When I bake a sourdough loaf like a boule, and it comes out perfect, with crispy crust, how can I keep that crust crispy for the coming days when I am selling it without telling people to reheat the entire loaf at home?
The crust is usually leathery and hard to chew after just a few hours of coming out of the oven. It's not thick, but it's like pork skin, where if it's not crispy, it's not enjoyable to consume. A simple reheating of the bread in a hot oven fixes that, but if the loaf is cut into it begins to toast the crumb which was not the goal. This only works with an uncut loaf and there is a risk of burning it especially on the ears in this case. How can I keep the bead fresh basically? I want to package the loafs with labels for people to bring home. I always let the bread cool (dry) on a rack for 4 or more hours before packaging.
As for desserts like buns and muffins, packaging is not an issue. It's only with artisan sourdough breads that are meant to be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside that suffer from long term storage and from packaging. I feel like when I've bought bread from professional bakeries, the crust was still mostly crispy out of the bag when I cut into it.
Any advice on packaging, labeling and selling home baked artisan sourdough would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks again for your time and for your help my friends!
-edit:
It's very important to us to have the breads on display, so something like paper bags would not exactly be desired, because I want people to see the bread and to go home looking at how lovely it looks. Thanks :-)
I've had this exact problem. I asked the group a while back and there wasn't an easy solution, other than packaging in paper.
One thing I've run across that you can try is a cornstarch wash. Dissolve 1/2 tsp in 1/4 cup water I think. Boil it for a minute. Let it cool down. Brush it on your loaf toward the end of baking. Bake it about 3 minutes more to set the glaze.
I just did that on a loaf and it seemed to work. Nice hard crust.
It's funny that you mentioned the cornstarch wash, because I literally just saw Teresa Greenway from Northwest Sourdough's video about that and I actually recommended it to somebody who was struggling to get a nice crust baking in an outdoor dutch oven. I have not tried it myself but it looks very promising.
So, I use tapioca starch a lot in my kitchen in place of corn starch. I find that everything that corn starch can do, tapioca starch can do better. However I have not tried it for sourdough crust yet. I also use white rice flour at home to thicken sauces and gravies instead of regular flour or corn starch. I find that white rice flour can thicken a lot better than corn starch because it doesn't get all gritty feeling in your mouth. I wonder what a thin batter of rice flour would do vs the starch. I have a feeling it wouldn't brown because rice flour usually stays perfectly white even at 525 °F.
Lot's of things to try out here thanks for your reply!
-Edit:
do you apply the starch wash after the bread has baked/set or to the raw dough like Teresa does?
Ive done it both ways. On dough and after it baked. I saw a new york bakery owner that brushed it before and after baking. He did it twice for good crust.
I've also found the french bakeries fascinating. Check out how they're displayed. In windows etc.
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Do you think that bread is all baked the same day? I mean, a bakery like that must sell all that bread daily, so it doesn't have time to sit around and get stale. Or is that a faulty assumption on my end? Are these loaves sitting in the window or under the counter for more than a day at a time and still being sold? I know a baguette is like impossible to eat after just one day, from my experience.
It's so damn beautiful though!
I spent a month in Paris last year. On the short walk between my apartment and the park I took my kids to, we passed no less than 5 bakeries. All of them had window displays like that. All of them had lines out the door at all hours of the day. Especially at meal times, people picked up baguettes on their way to work, at lunch, and then on their way home again. The bread was definitely baked throughout the day. It was always fresh and often still warm. I think they have a completely different culture around Bread there, but it was wonderful.
We've been selling at farmers markets for a few years and our first year, we really struggled with this question. How do you keep the crust nice and still be able to see the bread?
I found these paper bread bags with windows and I just love them. I haven't been able to find them locally so I order from Mr. Take Out Bags.com
https://www.mrtakeoutbags.com/product/window-bread-bags/2nmf3085pw.html
My customers think they're super cute and rustic and I get lots of "Beautiful bread!" comments from the windows. They'll fog up a little in the direct sunlight but not nearly as much as plastic.
Exactly what I had in mind I just didn't know it! I think I'll look into ordering them, how's the shipping? - I haven't gotten that far. Thank you!!
Might I ask you a question on pricing?
Our biggest seller so far has been the boules. We usually do 500g of flour with 300g water and 50g starter. That turns into a nice sized loaf that fills our dutch ovens. We are selling these loaves for $8 within one-two days of baking. Do you think that's a good price? We do live in an organic "yuppie" town with lots of health markets, micro-breweries and health conscious people, if that means anything.
Feel free to comment on our recipe as well. I am comfortable working with a wetter dough but I've enjoyed the shape and texture of the recipe so far.
Thanks again!
One of the benefits, but also drawbacks, of sourdough is its longevity. A loaf can last 5 days as sandwich bread and a couple more as toast. But in my experience, the wonderful crisp crust you speak of will not last even an entire day. Humidity wins out, even in low humidity areas. Brown bags can help. But nothing I’ve found can delay things beyond a day. Reheating will temporarily restore the crispness. But as a baker, you can’t be reheating the bread for customers on day 2, because you’re also shortening its lifespan.
If you have the time to do so, you could try par-baking the loaves the day before, and then the day you want to sell the loaves, do a quick 10 - 15 minute final bake to create the crust you’re looking for. Not the same as reheating! Beyond that I don’t know.
Hi Tyler,
are you able to dry out the crust by opening the flue and reducing oven temperature for the last 10 mins (or so) of baking? This will definitely dry out your crust, but it can also result in a dryer loaf that goes stale faster. As Wally said, keeping that lovely crisp crust on a loaf over more than a day is pretty tough.
good luck!