Everything You Need To Know To Find The Best Bakery Improver

While baking bread and running a bakery seems like a job for anyone, only true business acumen will guarantee success. With small margins and fierce competition with massive bakery conglomerates, you really must hit the needle in the haystack to succeed running a bakery. Or do you? 

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Bakery consultants Baron Foodtech from Finland, the land of a thousand lakes and rye bread, with more than decades of bakery experience, gives their 8 pieces of advice how to run a successful industrial bakery. Each advice highlights first the problem, then the solution. Enjoy the read and let’s bake some bread!

Bakery business is often considered as a conservative business with old recipes, cost efficient baking and mass production dictating the bakery business model. Many bakeries even pride with their long company history as a source of success. Here however also lies a caveat. Bakeries should constantly follow new trends considering the whole bakery business, as energy efficiency with today’s energy cost increases, optimizing bakery output, new baking machinery vs upgrading existing machinery, new taste trends, better logistics and find the right people and experts for your business. Bakery business is sometimes small margin business and therefore bakeries should constantly find ways to improve margins to stay competitive.

This means that bakery management should be constantly on the know and be ready to act immediately when there are new ways for improvement. Typical ways for staying in the know are exhibitions, workshops and other information sharing events, but these have been down to basically zero during the past years due to covid. Consider therefore using external bakery consultants like Baron Foodtech who works constantly with different kinds of bakery consulting projects around the world with more than 30 years of bakery business experience. They are always on the know, as that is their business model, ready to develop your bakery business.

Bakeries are essentially production facilities where efficiency and production capacity play a major role for success. Bakery machinery will however at some point become outdated, have flaws, need for new production processes and similar problems that will need new solutions. A seemly logical solution is to upgrade your existing machinery or make some machinery specific improvements, but here is where many bakeries typically go wrong. The machinery upgrade may work, but the whole production line may not be in sync at all. The ones who sell the machinery focuses on selling the machinery, not on how to implement it in the whole bakery production process. It might look attractive to have the fanciest machinery, but, it may ultimately just make things worse. 

The bakery should therefore focus on how a solution can improve the whole bakery process, with clear calculations of efficiency and capacity, how to tackle bottlenecks, and eventually payback time for the investment. Implement a lean thinking to the whole process, improve automation and decrease personnel input in the actual production process. Baron Foodtech helps here bakeries to be a neutral consultant that can evaluate in an honest way how functional the existing bakery is, how to improve bakery output, what investments are feasible and how to make the bakery investment profitable. By involving Baron Foodtech already in the early planning process, you can guarantee that your bakery will make the correct choices already from the beginning, saving time, money and take your bakery to next level.

All bakeries are trying to develop new products and improve existing ones, but as bakeries often are kind of conservative, nothing happens before some competitors develop a new successful product. That’s the time when the bakeries wake up and start doing what? Copying the idea from the competitors. Very few bakeries have in-house a highly creative team that comes up constantly with new ideas and instead a long stalemate occurs. Product development becomes reactive, not proactive.

Your bakery should drive a proactive product development culture where new ideas are frequently required from the management. Don’t just give the task to one product development person but try to get influx from others as well in your bakery team. Consider also using external consultants for new creative ideas like companies do employ advertising agencies for new creative ways of communications. Baron Foodtech test bakery in Finland Nastola, is an excellent creative hub where your bakery personnel can develop and improve bakery products sparring together with Baron Foodtech experts. Your bakery will get new fresh ideas and ultimately together with external consultants develop new products that takes your bakery success to new levels, including accurate calculations of product profitability.

Sourdough is one of the most important components of your bakery products, guaranteeing quality and prolonging shelf life. With longer shelf life, your bakery products become more attractive as it will decrease wastage and be overall more attractive for retailers.  However, as retailers are constantly asking for better shelf life without forbidden additives, you can improve the shelf life in a natural way by using propionic sour dough.

Bakeries have been traditionally using acidic sourdough of pH less than 4 and TTA (total titratable acidity) 15-20. Main acids produced by lactic acid bacteria are lactic and acetic acid. Other types of sourdough are exo- and propionic sourdough. Exosourdough contains exopolysaccharides more than lactic acid and other organic acids. Exopolysaccharides are produced by lactic acid bacteria. Exopolysaccharides act as thickening agents and stabilizer in dough. In propionic sourdough lactic acid bacteria produce propionic acid besides of lactic acid. If a baker wants to produce clean label bread with longer shelf life, usage of propionic sourdough offers a practical solution. However, it requires a little bit more training and care than that of ordinary sourdough. Baron Foodtech has been researching the use of propionic sour dough for several years and can now guide your bakery team how to implement the use of propionic sourdough to your bakery products.

High volume baking production has been the mantra for successful bakeries. This has come at a cost where additives and other artificial ingredients were included for better production properties and longer shelf lives. Consumers are though today voting with their money, preferring natural and healthier bakery products with real ingredients.

Slow baking has been considered the traditional way of baking with the use of only natural ingredients and long baking times for natural quality. This is today possible in even the highest output bakeries, guaranteeing better bakery produce properties, natural taste, no additives, long fermentation times, taking back the baking process to its original roots. Give your clients what they want, stay on the trend, and consider transforming your baking processes to slow baking as well. Baron Foodtech knows the secret how to implement slow baking to your bakery in a functional and profitable way, guiding your team to transform the baking process.

Bakeries are typically clearly hierarchical with a small number of white collars to a massive number of blue collars in the bakery environment. The general planning and production improvements are usually handled by the management and bakery experts, which seems logical as they are doing what they are appointed to do. This format though effectively decreases opportunities for valuable insights from your staff at the baking grounds.

Involve your employees to give their insights on how to improve production output and guide what are the problems in the production, machinery, and other bottlenecks. These employees may have decades of working experience at the bakery, but they have not ever been taught to highlight what could be wrong with machinery and what other improvements could be considered. The hierarchy may also cause the employees to be even afraid to say what they think, and therefore rather keep on working as usually. Baron Foodtech has often been the catalysator for involving employees more in the overall bakery production process, acting as a mediator, asking the right questions and finding useful insights from the bakery personnel. Sometimes it is much easier to talk to someone that is not your boss or working partner, but instead talk to an outside expert who is neutral and ready to listen.

Also in bakery business, too many react that something is wrong when the machinery is already not working. Why fix something when it’s not broken? Well, machinery will be broken if it is not carefully serviced as scheduled. We like to call it service debt, where late service and maintenance causes bottlenecks in automation processes, wastage increases and a need for more employees to guarantee continued output and deliveries to clients. Many bakeries consider maintenance as an additional cost, but if carried out correctly, it will be an investment that pays back in dividends.

Generally, there is no need to service all machinery and processes at same time. Instead schedule maintenance team for different timings throughout a service period. This will minimize possible downtime and keep your machinery on par with today. Also consider the maintenance and service as a possibility for improvement of your production, adding new ideas and proactive thinking of where to take your bakery. A rule of thumb for most professional bakeries is to have a 2 year ahead mentality, guaranteeing your bakery machinery and production is always ahead of the need. With Baron Foodtech, you will get consulting that will help plan the production line service schedule, add creative inputs, estimate efficiency and productivity, better handle maintenance teams and add additional years of high performance.

Pride, traditions, and long company history are considered valuable and highly important attributes for a successful bakery. At the same time, these attributes may also be a road to ruin. The bakery gets blinded in their own thinking of superiority, missing out hints of new innovative ways to develop. And yet again, there are many successful bakeries that have long experience and traditions that keeps on rocking. Part of their success is that they dare to use external help for competitive advantage.

Baron Foodtech bakery consultants have successfully consulted 50 bakeries around the globe, improved business models, relocated bakeries, handled bakery green field investments, developed success story recipes, upgraded bakery machinery and act as a close ally to the bakeries management. One of the secrets of success has been Baron Foodtech’s long experience, unique knowledge and always on the know what is going on in the bakery business. But what really has guaranteed the successful bakery consulting cases have been the client who has been ready to give responsibility to external bakery consultants such as Baron Foodtech. They were ready to take the next step for success.

What kind of bakeries do Baron Foodtech work with? Size? Location?

Baron Foodtech consults a wide range of bakeries, focusing primary on industrial baking. With industrial baking, we highlight bakeries that have bigger baking processes than a minor one-person bakery.

Baron Foodtech serves clients all over the world with experience from Nordic countries, Europe, Middle East, and CIS countries.

If I would like to use external bakery consultants like Baron Foodtech, how much do the bakery consulting services cost?

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Bakery Improver.

Baron Foodtech offers a full spectrum of bakery consulting services. For starter, we talk with the client first by , where after a meeting will be set up if Baron Foodtech is the perfect fit for your company. Based on the meeting, Baron Foodtech will prepare a general project proposal with project pricing for the whole project. The pricing is based on estimated hours for the project.

If I would like to develop new recipes for my bakery, with focus on new trendy products like vegan birthday cakes, can Baron Foodtech assist here? And what will it cost?

Sure, Baron Foodtech is following the latest trends and can most definitely help in develop vegan birthday cakes. The step for cooperation is that you contact Baron Foodtech with your specific request, Baron Foodtech prepares a proposal with timing and cost, and after that starts the test baking in the Baron Foodtech test bakery. For the best possible success, it is recommended that you also participate in the planning and baking process at Baron Foodtech location in Finland, Nastola. Expect couple of days baking, and you will have your birthday cakes.

We'll admit it: Sometimes, we fudge things when we cook. After all, who needs a recipe for simple weeknight pasta? Off-the-cuff roasted chicken is a snap. We're big fans of that intuitive, little-bit-of-this, little-bit-of-that kitchen style because it makes our lives and our dinners easier. But when it comes to baking, we play by the rules. Baking is a science that requires precision, and often doesn't allow for creative liberties. Senior food editor Dawn Perry and assistant food editor Claire Saffitz, both seasoned bakers, talk us through why instructions like setting a timer, weighing flour, and using room-temperature eggs actually matter. For flakier pie crusts, moister cakes, and chewier cookies, there are just some rules that can't be broken. Follow these 11 tips to be a way better baker.

1. Use Room-Temperature Ingredients

If you've seen it once, you've seen it a thousand times. How many recipes call for room-temperature butter, eggs, and milk? It's a step you should not ignore. Many baked goods start by creaming together butter and sugar, which is made infinitely easier with gently warmed ingredients—if you've ever tried to stick an electric mixer in a brick of rock-hard cold butter, you know why. "If you're going to bake, you've got to either plan ahead or be patient," Saffitz says, adding that she often leaves eggs and butter out on the counter overnight and then begins the project in the morning—they slowly come to the perfect temperature while she sleeps. ____

Equally important as room-temperature ingredients are same-temperature ingredients: "Add hot things to hot things, and cold things to cold things," Saffitz says, citing a fussy chocolate ganache as an example. If you pour piping hot cream over chilly chocolate, the cocoa fat can separate, making your sauce look oily and unappealing. That's why many recipes call for tempering a hot ingredient with a cooler one—it ensures that the emulsion won't seize or separate.

2. Invest in Quality Bakeware

You can bake successfully in a subpar oven—as we discuss in tip number nine, you can adjust for hot spots and ovens in need of recalibration, Saffitz says. But all bets are off when it comes to low-quality bakeware. Flimsy, thin pans and sheet trays won't conduct heat efficiently, causing your cake, pie, cookies, or pastries to bake inefficiently.

This is also important when it comes to mixing bowls—Saffitz insists on glass and metal ones that work best as makeshift double-boilers. "Never use plastic as a double boiler," she says. Another consideration? Nonstick coatings can flake off over time, imparting foreign matter into your treats—it's best to avoid them. A better way to circumvent baked-on pastries? A well-greased pan (see tip number three), a Silpat liner, or a sheet of parchment paper.

3. Butter and Flour Your Pans Generously

"I once asked someone to butter and flour a pan, and she just swiped a few streaks in it," Saffitz says. If this sends chills down your spine, you know the power of a well-buttered pan. When a recipe calls for a greased and/or floured vessel, it's for a reason: Your batter or dough has the potential to bake on and adhere to the pan, so butter it up. Consider every nook and cranny that could get sticky, and be generous and thorough with your application—that means getting into corners and at the seams where the bottom and sides meet.

If you're also flouring a pan, add in more than enough to cover, tip the pan to coat completely, then tap out the excess. Be careful where you hold it—finger marks on the interior leave the pan exposed, and are opportunities for the batter to stick.

4. Weigh Ingredients

Both Perry and Saffitz are strong believers in the power of a digital scale. Successful baking means eliminating as much potential for error as possible, and that means making sure your measurements are exact. A cup of flour measured in volume, for example, can vary as much as five ounces—an amount that can mean the difference between buttery and flaky—and dense and cakey. A good digital scale—which'll cost you about $20—eliminates all the guesswork and the need to wash measuring cups. Don't forget to set the tare to adjust for the weight of your mixing bowl!

5. Toss the Old Stuff

You want to bake a loaf of banana bread. The recipe calls for baking soda. You have baking soda. Sounds great, right? There's just one problem: The soda's been in your fridge since . Solution? Toss it and buy a new package. The majority of ingredients used in baked goods—like baking soda, baking powder, yeast, and, yes, flour—have a relatively short shelf life, so if you don't fire up the oven frequently, purchase them in small quantities so they don't sit in your cupboard, quietly going rancid. If you're not sure how fresh an ingredient is, either simply buy a new one or test it. To check the freshness of baking powder, pour boiling water over a small quantity—if it bubbles, it's still fresh. Flour should smell fresh and feel light, not chalky; and fresh yeast dissolved in warm (110-115˚) water will bubble and foam after a few minutes.

6. Take Your Time to Fully Complete Each Step

At one time or another, we've all thought, "Well, all these ingredients are going to end up in the same bowl eventually, so why not just dump 'em in together and mix it up?" Unfortunately, this easy way out only burns us in the end. It's imperative to take the time to follow the instructions in the order they're presented—and to do them completely and thoroughly. Creaming together butter and sugar with a handheld or stand mixer, for example, should be done before the addition of wetter ingredients, like eggs. Why? The fat in butter holds air, and, when whipped, expands. In the creaming process, sharp sugar granules slice through the butter, creating air pockets that ultimately give the pastry lift. Skip that step (or do it half-heartedly) and your end result will be dense and heavy. ____

Pay special attention to key instructions like "cream until light and fluffy," "mix until just combined," and "fold in gently." Overmixing overdevelops gluten and deflates the air pockets you worked so hard to create, as does a vigorous or overzealous folding motion. A note on sifting ingredients: Unless it's ultralight, ultra-delicate cake flour, or powdered sugar that needs as much aeration as it can get, it's a step you can skip.

7. Use Salt

"If you're looking to cut down on the sodium, baked goods are not the place to do so," Perry says. The half teaspoon of salt added to two dozen cookies won't set you over your daily allotment, but leaving it out will drastically change the taste of the cookie. Salt isn't necessarily in a recipe to make it taste salty (unless we're talking salted caramel)—it's usually there to keep the baked good from tasting flat, one-note, or overly sweet. Salt makes other ingredients, like vanilla, almond, lemon, and sugar "pop." One instruction the test kitchen happily ignores? Recipes that call for fine salt. Perry and Saffitz always have kosher salt close at hand, and even though iodized salt is "saltier" than coarser kosher crystals, the amount necessary is usually so small that the substitution doesn't make a drastic difference. Plus, heating the salt allows it to dissolve into the batter or dough, making the coarseness a moot point.

8. Rotate Halfway Through

Every oven has a hot spot, and if you don't correct for it, you run the risk of unevenly cooked pastries—or worse, some that burn or wind up underbaked. When a recipe calls for turning a baking sheet or pan 180 degrees halfway through the process, don't ignore it. If the back of your oven is hotter than the front, you need to give every corner and side of your concoction the same treatment. Don't, however, open the oven constantly to check on progress—it'll lower the temperature and alter the baking time.

9. Don't Mess with the Oven Temperature and Cooking Time (Unless You Should)

"Don't try to MacGyver your baked goods!" Saffitz pleads. If a recipe for custard calls for an hour at 300 degrees but you're pressed for time, don't tweak it to 30 minutes at 425: It won't be as silky or luxuriously creamy. Cakes especially lose moisture when cooked hard and fast, and you also run the risk of burning more delicate ingredients, like an almond-meal crust.

First, find out if your oven runs hot or cold—if you know that it's consistently 25 degrees colder than what you set it at, adjust accordingly. A thermometer that lives inside your oven will eliminate any guessing, so if you don't have one, now's the time to invest. Equally important is that you set and use a timer. It's easy to get distracted while your cake bakes, so don't rely on your memory to alert you that time's up.

Now, all that said, there's a caveat: Perry and Saffitz agree that Americans, as a general rule, underbake their pastries. Delicate cakes have the tendency to dry out quickly and should adhere to a strictly prescribed time. But pies? Cookies? Breads? "That baby better be deep golden brown," Perry says. Five more minutes in the oven won't burn an apple pie to a crisp, but it will take it from pale to handsomely burnished.

10. Let It Cool Completely (Unless You Shouldn't)

This is an admittedly hard rule to adhere to—Saffitz cops to preemptively trying to unmold fresh-out-of-the-oven baked goods. But here's why she tries to wait: A completely cooled pastry has allowed the steam to totally evaporate, making the cake (or bread, or whatever) easier to handle. If you've taken the proper steps—namely, buttering and flouring that pan—you should have no problem unmolding once it's properly cooled. Also, ever try to frost a still-warm cake? It's a disaster! A melty, goopy disaster. There's a caveat, though: Some desserts and pastries must be removed from their pans as soon as they come out of the oven, like a tarte tatin. Others, like a fragile chiffon cake, need to settle and cool completely before being handled.

11. Use Substitutions at Your Own Risk

Real talk: There is no real substitution for white, granulated sugar. Yes, we love agave. We adore maple syrup. But these alterna-sweeteners don't have the same chemistry as those fine crystals, and a recipe that includes white sugar is a recipe that relies on the science of how it will interact with the other ingredients. Sugar does a whole lot more than sweeten—it adds color, texture, moisture, and aeration. And don't think you can get away with slashing out half of the sugar in a recipe for a healthier version—assume that everything in the recipe is there for a reason.

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