The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

microbakery timeline for a full time student and father

January 9, 2024 - 11:33am
yonatan's picture
yonatan

microbakery timeline for a full time student and father

hi all - new to the forum (long time reader)

i'm a full time student (9am-3pm daily) with young kids (which need my attention from 3-7:30pm), and i opened up a small microbakery in my neighborhood that has bread for the weekend and maybe one midweek bake. as of now, i have been selling about 40-50 loaves per bake, now about 4 weeks in. it's been awesome! i'm running a Rofco b40 and just got a 15kg Sunmix spiral mixer. My question is really about scheduling the prep. 

For the first month I have been doing everything the night before, but it's been extremely difficult since I am only beginning after the kids go to sleep around 7:30pm, and finishing around midnight - 2am depending on how cold it is in my apartment. I then preheat the oven at 3am and start baking around 5am. it's not ideal... especially if i start closer to 9pm which has happened twice already..

I need to figure out a better strategy for baking and want to first ask the forum their thoughts. I'm thinking of scheduling the following:

Bake is scheduled for friday morning 5am 

1. WED 7:30-9PM - mix all the dough (4-5 batches of 10-15kg in the mixer will take about 60-90 mins total). 

2. WED 8-10:30PM - do 2-3 stretch and folds for each batch (staggered depending on initial mixing time)

3. WED 10:30-11PM - place bins in to fridge (staggered depending on initial mix time)

4. THURS 3-4pm - take bins out of fridge to come to room temp (earliest i can get home from school)

5. THURS 7:30-8PM - after kids go to sleep, divide dough, shape, place in bannetons, and back in the fridge for 2nd overnight 

 

6. FRI 3am - preheat oven

7. FRI 5-10am - bake in rofco b40

my main concern is obviously overproofing. i don't normally do a 36 hour sourdough, at most around 24 hours. i have done 48 hour ferments, but only using loaf pans and not using bannetons. i am not used to this schedule since i haven't had to bake so much ever before. the past few weeks have been absolutely exhausting not sleeping much before the bake, and in fact i even fell asleep on one occasion and over-proofed two of my doughs. for the sake of my sanity and health, please give me any advice! any tools you recommend to judge fermentation process (pH readers or other items)? should i increase salt and decrease amount of levain? should i just shape everything wednesday night and leave it in the fridge for a full 30 hours before baking? any suggestions will be super helpful. thank you!! 

 

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fredsbread's picture
fredsbread
Jan 10 2024 - 7:12am

As someone who has never done large batches of bread in a mixer (I always did them by hand) and maxed out around 35 loaves during my microbakery/farmers market days, here are my thoughts:

  • I would be interested to see whether the machine mix and stretch/folds are both necessary. I would think that 10-15 minutes in a mixer would be enough to get good gluten development, rather than a barely mixed shaggy dough that needs to be worked further. But I'm not familiar with the Sunmix, maybe it's a very slow mix.
  • If you have a fairly consistent temperature in your apartment, I would personally lean toward a smaller levain to extend the bulk fermentation, rather than using the fridge. Refrigerated bulk has just never worked well for me. I do 5% levain, which gives me ~12 hours of bulk fermentation before I shape. If you can figure out the levain dosage that gives you the right timing at your ambient temperature, maybe you could wake up Thursday morning with enough time to mix all the dough before class, then have it ready to shape right after the kids go to bed.
  • With long bulk fermentation, I find an autolyse without salt and levain to be redundant, I just let the dough rest for 45-60 minutes after the initial mix before I do 2-3 stretch/folds. The end point of bulk fermentation is also more flexible, as it will be moving slower, so if you shape an hour later it's not as big of a deal.
  • Assuming you mix multiple batches of the same dough, I wonder if it wouldn't work to mix until just combined and then pool them all together in one large bulk container and do the stretch and folds together.
  • I know some people use pH to judge fermentation progress, but I think the actual pH values will depend on your starter and your process. I find volume increase to be a reliable marker of fermentation; if it's in a container that I can't judge directly, taking a small amount and putting it in a straight jar works well as long as you can keep it the same temperature as the main dough.

Maybe something like this:

  1. THURS 5:30-7:00AM - mix all the dough
  2. THURS 6:30-8:30AM - do 2-3 stretch/folds
  3. THURS 8:00-9:00PM - divide, shape, place in bannetons and into the fridge overnight
  4. FRI 3:00AM - preheat oven
  5. FRI 5:00-10:00AM - bake