# Home Bakery Business - Brownies



## Aiden (Mar 27, 2021)

Hello, 

I am in the process of starting a home bakery business. I have already gotten approval from the health department etc, and I am legally allowed to bake 'low-risk' items at home to sell to the consumer. 

I was primarily focusing on brownies, but I am not sure what the most effective baking strategy would be. I currently have recipes for several 'brownie bases' depending on the type of brownie i.e. Gluten Free, Fudgey, Cakey, Salted Caramel etc. I have tested these recipes and gotten feedback from about two dozen people - and as result I have tweaked the recipes.

The two major concerns I have are: 

1) Because all the bases are different, my brownies all have a different height (i.e. some are about ~1" while others are ~1.5")

2) I wanted to be able to sell 'assorted' boxes of brownies, but as I have all different bases, it would mean baking several trays to be able to make an assorted box of half a dozen or a dozen. This would be quite inefficient and could lead to some waste. 

I am not really sure what to do...I really like having different brownie bases as I think these allow you to 'pair' different flavours together better and to be able to cater to different tastes. But logistically I am not sure how I can make that work. 

I would very much appreciate any advice.

Thank you, 
Aiden


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## jcakes (Feb 18, 2007)

Are you going to allow the client to mix and match the box? Or will you select the varieties that go into the box? You can go either way and if your brownies freeze well you don't have to worry about waste. If you feel the quality is compromised by freezing you need to have specific selections and don't allow substitutions. Don't run specials, unless you're "retiring" a flavor (kind of like videos going into the Disney Vault). Once you have a "sale" your customers will wait til the next sale before they buy again.


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## Aiden (Mar 27, 2021)

jcakes said:


> Are you going to allow the client to mix and match the box? Or will you select the varieties that go into the box? You can go either way and if your brownies freeze well you don't have to worry about waste. If you feel the quality is compromised by freezing you need to have specific selections and don't allow substitutions. Don't run specials, unless you're "retiring" a flavor (kind of like videos going into the Disney Vault). Once you have a "sale" your customers will wait til the next sale before they buy again.


Hello,

Thanks a lot for your advice!

I was hoping to sell 'assorted' boxes with 2-3 different types of brownies. I was going to keep a few brownie types as a 'standard' i.e. always available like salted caramel. And rotate new/unique flavours every couple of weeks.

This is my first time running a commercial baking business (previously just baked at home for friends and family). I don't have much experience with freezing baked goods. Over the last couple of weeks as I was trying/tweaking recipes, I did end up freezing some brownies. I found when I did take a brownie out of the freezer to defrost there would be some white sort-of sugar specks on the brownie, almost like sugar crystals - I think this might be because of the moisture developed during the freezing process? The brownie still tasted fine though (i.e. hadn't gone off). Have you ever had any issues with freezing baked good and if so is there a way around this or a proper way to freeze these type of items?

Thanks again, 
Aiden


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

Aiden said:


> Hello,
> 
> Thanks a lot for your advice!
> 
> ...


we used to stack 36 brownies and blondies in 12x12x4 boxes with handi wax sheets, and wrap box in saran, they keep at least a week without picking up after taste, beyond that I didn't try. That was for a wholesale account, not retail.

The more varieties you offer the more waste, mostly time.
You can buy bags of sugar but not another bag of time.


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## jcakes (Feb 18, 2007)

If you're going to have assorted boxes, with 3 flavors (4 pieces each) then you don't really have to worry about waste. You need to decide on the size of the brownie, and make sure you don't have waste with the pan size you are using to bake. (all those cut ends is waste unless you are grinding them up and using them for something else, like rum balls or to mask the sides of a cake). Then add a flavor of the month each month to entice people to buy again and try the new flavor. Box the new flavor by the half-dozen.


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## sgsvirgil (Mar 1, 2017)

There's an inverse relationship between your desire to offer many different styles of brownies and the limitations of your home kitchen in terms of efficiency. In other words, you're going to have to make the decision to operate with waste and inefficiency but, have a large variety of brownies, or keep it simple with a limited variations that will encourage efficiency and limit waste. Welcome to the food industry. 

Since this is your first venture, I would strongly encourage you to start out by keeping it simple. Brownies are one of those items that doesn't have a long shelf life. So, at first, I would encourage you to make your brownies as the orders come in. As you build your clientele and the orders become more steady and less sporadic then, you can work on building some inventory and offer more choices as the dependability and regularity of your sales increase. 

Remember, the biggest mistake most beginners make is over extending their menu. In the beginning, Its always better to offer a few high quality choices than a lot of mediocre quality choices. 

Good luck.


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

I would try selling by the pan, uncut preferably, in 1/4 sheet foil trays. I'm lazy.
its better to sell one thing to 5 people than 5 things to one person.
you can easily get 2 varieties from one pan, just by using different toppings.
No packaging, just plastic wrap the foil pan.
Pizza guys do variety of pizza on the same round.. 

A local woman advertises donuts on facebook, saturday pickup only.
2 varieties (both cake donut) , $10 doz.
i like her approach, she isn't tied to it all week.


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## retiredbaker (Dec 29, 2019)

retiredbaker said:


> I would try selling by the pan, uncut preferably, in 1/4 sheet foil trays. I'm lazy.
> its better to sell one thing to 5 people than 5 things to one person.
> you can easily get 2 varieties from one pan, just by using different toppings.
> No packaging, just plastic wrap the foil pan.
> ...


forgot to add, i would stay far away from gluten free, as soon you do that they want vegan, then they don't want nestle chocolate because of what they did in africa 300 years ago.
Theres no end to the lunacy if you start to cater to them.


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## Aiden (Mar 27, 2021)

retiredbaker, jcakes & sgsvirgi: thanks a lot for your feedback & insight its been really helpful, I appreciate it


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