Differences between home and commercial baking

Ok we'll start with the most obvious difference:  QUANTITY

As a home baker I make one loaf at a time.  As a small not very automated artisan bakery we made hundreds.    This changes everything, because in order to get all those loaves made you need people.  And people means hiring.  As we made more and more bread, we went from a couple of bakers (me and my partner) to 8 or more at a time.  Plus dishwashers, delivery people, store managers and so on.  This gave the life to the bakery.  There were always interesting people to stand around and chat with as we shaped or mixed or baked the bread, but it also took on a life of its own.  I spent a LOT of time interviewing and hiring.  I spent a huge amount of time training.  I was constantly struggling with the fact that once people learn a little, they want to do things their own way.  And at some point, I decided that I was just going to have to let them do it.  Even if it impacted the next big thing:

CONSISTENCY

Home bakers get to make any damn thing they want and that's one of the things that makes it fun.   When you are baking bread for sale, you have to make what people want, and after that, you have to make it again and again and again.  If you are selling bread wholesale (as I was - in addition to retail) you have a set of educated customers (specialty store owners, chefs, etc.) who know what your bread is supposed to look and taste like, and they expect it to look and taste like that.  And all those green bakers you just hired have to learn to make it that way as well.  As a case in point, it took around two years to get a consistent and consistently delicious bread that we called Lexington Sourdough (shown above.)  Once we started selling it, people liked it.  I was always hankering after the next best sourdough (especially after trips to the Hungry Ghost and to Tartine) but if I started messing with it there would be no end of trouble.   So I didn't. Now that I'm retired I am making up for lost time. 

VARIETY

At the bakery we made a dozen different breads, plus rolls, buns, bagels, and pastries.  If nothing else, that took a lot of different ingredients.  At home, I don't have the room for all that.   So despite the fact that I play around a lot, I just can't make that variety of bread.

EQUIPMENT

The bane of the home baker is steam.  Back in the day, it seems like half the discussions on Fresh Loaf were about how to most efficiently generate steam.  While I was in the bakery the answer to that question was PUSH THE STEAM BUTTON, and clouds of marvelous steam will fill the baking chamber.  I worried incessantly as retirement was imminent.  How am I going to bake without a steam button?   The answer has been surprisingly simple.  I now cover my solitary loaf with the bottom of a small turkey roaster.  And remove it halfway through the bake.  Who needs a steam button anyhow when you are baking one loaf?

I am sure I will think of a million other things once I hit post.  But that's what comes to mind right now.  

Here's my latest home bake.  Happy baking!

Varda