A step-by-step information to constructing a pastry program seamlessly into your café.

BY MAXWELL MOONEY
FOR BARISTA MAGAZINE

Each barista value their salt has devoured their share of day-old croissants throughout a hurried 10-minute break, solely to return to bar with shattered croissant exoskeleton littering their shirt and an extended line that accrued within the transient time they have been gone. And many individuals in that line have been seemingly brief on time and in search of a sugary increase to get them by the morning. 

To each baristas and friends, pastries are now not simply an choice; they’ve turn into a cultural expectation. Even probably the most minimal espresso packages provide pastries as a result of they really feel they should—and since the one factor worse than a morning with out caffeine is a morning with caffeine on an empty abdomen. 

So, what ought to we do about pastries? How can we offer this anticipated deal with for our friends—and let’s be trustworthy, our baristas—in a approach that aligns with the model story we’re creating? Ought to we go along with an outdoor native supplier, bake frozen choices from a restaurant provide retailer, or deliver baking in-house? There’s no single right reply, however completely different options will match numerous conditions. 

In my work as a enterprise guide, the very very first thing we concentrate on with purchasers is establishing a transparent mission, imaginative and prescient, and values (MVV). Investing time in refining your MVV yields a return not like anything; it’s the one resolution that influences a thousand different selections. And the reply to the pastry query lies inside your mission, imaginative and prescient, and values: Every firm could have a special reply primarily based on what they’re attempting to attain.  

Utilizing an Exterior Supplier

The most well-liked choice for pastries on the café is usually sourcing them from an outdoor supplier. Area constraints are a standard difficulty; for instance, a 300-square-foot walk-up bar in New York Metropolis merely can’t assist an in-house pastry program. Specializing in what you do greatest—like your espresso program—is a brilliant enterprise transfer, and partnering with suppliers to deal with the remainder is sensible. 

Laminated pastries reminiscent of croissants, kouign-amann, and ache au chocolate—these with layered dough that require a skillful contact—are notoriously tough to excellent. Attaining excellence with these requires as a lot effort and experience as making nice espresso, which might be powerful to determine. Collaborating with an outdoor supplier helps cut back the workload and the necessity for early mornings to supply high-quality pastries. 

What must you think about when selecting a pastry provider? Initially, they should meet a couple of key competency standards: 

• Supply merchandise that align together with your firm’s MVV and successfully serve your goal market. 
• Be reliable and able to delivering inside a timeframe that helps your enterprise’s success (often at the very least half-hour earlier than opening). 

• Give you ample margin (extra on this shortly)  

• Be glorious communicators  

• Create significant partnership alternatives  

In the end, the fitting provider helps you higher obtain your organization’s mission. In the event you’re a high-end espresso model that individuals count on true excellence from, your laminated pastry should have a shattery crust, correct crumb density, and be contemporary—in any other case, you danger sending combined messages to your friends about your institution’s requirements. You wouldn’t look forward to finding fast-food French fries at a Michelin-starred restaurant, so that you shouldn’t serve lackluster pastries alongside your thermal-shock anaerobic Sidra. 

Ex Animo in Vancouver, B.C., has been within the pastry enterprise for many years and makes top-quality pastry. Aaron Surman, Ex Animo’s co-owner and pastry chef, has managed each in-house and wholesale pastry packages. He believes a café ought to obtain at the very least a 50% margin on baked items, obtain supply seven days per week for laminated pastries that spoil shortly, and all the time obtain their pastries earlier than their café opens. 

Aaron mentions that Butterboom, the enterprise he ran earlier than Ex Animo, tried to scale back their supply days to 5 per week, nevertheless it didn’t work as effectively for his or her purchasers’ success, so that they went again to seven-day supply. Wholesale bakeries face the identical challenges you would possibly encounter when bringing pastry in-house—primarily that discovering folks keen to work early mornings is a continuing battle, and it’s a skill-intensive job that takes time to study.  

Aaron emphasizes the significance of getting excellent pastries to spice up pastry gross sales. The straightforward fact is {that a} top-quality croissant and a poor one aren’t that completely different in worth when contemplating the price of items offered. Nonetheless, approach, ingredient high quality, and execution in the end decide the ultimate product. In a crowded market the place many locations serve good croissants, product high quality turns into an important consider driving gross sales. Once you work with a pastry supplier that aligns together with your firm’s mission, imaginative and prescient, and values, you possibly can ship a constant model message and construct stronger belief together with your friends. 

Enterprise partnerships are a two-way road; so what makes a café a fantastic associate for a bakery? Brett Fisher, common supervisor of wholesale and retail bakery Bread Craft in Roanoke, Va., emphasizes the significance of communication: about enterprise wants, considerations concerning product, product gross sales, and potential areas for enchancment. “You don’t need a consumer who’s sad however by no means says something to you,” Brett says, because it makes it troublesome to work collectively to create a profitable program that enables each events to thrive. 

Brett and Aaron each point out how exhausting it may be to get gadgets delivered on time due to the tight deadlines. Every thing is made by hand, and generally issues go unsuitable—with proofing, manufacturing, or cooking processes. Brett says that, as with espresso, “there’s extra that may go unsuitable in a bakery than methods to get it proper.” Good communication between each events can assist forestall conflicts and permit every of them to succeed extra by promoting extra merchandise. 

Help out of your supplier in managing waste can be essential. One thing Ex Animo does for his or her purchasers that I’ve by no means seen earlier than is encouraging them to save lots of day-old pastries by wrapping them in plastic wrap and freezing them for the week. They then reduce these croissants and fill them with almond frangipane obtainable from Ex Animo to make almond croissants. This type of partnership towards mutual waste discount and shared monetary acquire is precisely the kind of communication that results in success. 

Hybrid Fashions

The following pastry choice within the café is a type of hybrid. It includes shopping for par-baked, frozen pastry you can bake absolutely in your store. There are advantages to this method: You possibly can higher management freshness, cut back waste by baking solely what you want, and it requires much less tools than a full bakery. All you really want is a freezer, a half-sheet pan, a convection oven like a Moffat Turbofan E22M3, and a cooling rack for pastries, and also you’re able to go. 

The standard of suppliers for this kind of providing can range, identical to when working with a wholesale bakery. On-line foodservice retailers like Webstaurant and brick-and-mortar restaurant provide outlets carry frozen par-baked gadgets you can bake in your personal enterprise. Or you possibly can work with extra boutique firms like Salmonberry Items within the Seattle space that give you a wide range of high quality ranges you can match to your MVV. 

One other widespread scenario is that companies work with an outdoor supplier for laminated pastries however make cookies, scones, biscuits, granola, and different much less fussy gadgets in-house. This method often requires extra tools than a par-baked mannequin; you’ll want a stand mixer, extra sheet pans, presumably extra oven house, and extra ingredient storage. However it’s much less equipment-intensive than a full laminated pastry program. This methodology might be a superb method to check the waters for an in-house mannequin and means that you can enhance margins on some standard gadgets whereas retaining extra labor- and space-intensive merchandise outsourced. 

A hybrid mannequin is what I used to launch my enterprise, Narrative Espresso in Everett, Wash. We began working with Salmonberry Items and baked their pastries in-house; we additionally made cookies, granola, and a few vegan bars fully in-house. Utilizing this method enabled us to fulfill friends’ expectations for a wide range of merchandise and gave us the pliability to develop new gadgets as we have been prepared. It additionally helped us safe nice margins on prime sellers: Our salted chocolate chip cookies shortly grew to become one among our best-selling gadgets in each items offered and revenue margins (gross revenue margin was over 90% on a single cookie). In 2019, we offered 7,414 cookies at $3.50 every, netting over $18,000 after accounting for price of products offered (CoGS) and labor. 

Over time, we switched to a pastry supplier that delivered pre-baked laminated pastries as a result of we launched a meals program that elevated oven use. We confronted some challenges discovering bakeries that met our high quality requirements and will ship at the very least 5 days per week, however finally we discovered dependable companions. The present supplier at Narrative (although I now not personal the corporate) is the superb Cottage Bakery in Edmonds, Wash., they usually do superb work.  

In-Home Fashions

The ultimate mannequin is probably the most concerned but in addition offers probably the most management: bringing pastry absolutely in-house. Aaron strongly recommends this mannequin when you can handle it as a result of it provides unmatched freshness and sometimes generates extra gross sales for the reason that product is tastier, to not point out the baristas often know extra concerning the in-house product and are typically extra obsessed with it. 

There are a couple of important gadgets you’ll have to do pastry in-house: a fridge, a freezer, and a convection or deck oven. There are additionally some instruments that may considerably enhance your effectivity and batch sizes: for instance, a great stand mixer—eight quarts is an effective measurement to begin with, however 20 quarts shall be most helpful for bigger volumes. If you wish to make laminated pastries, you’ll want a proofing cupboard. Moreover, you’ll discover {that a} dough sheeter is a really useful piece of kit for laminated gadgets, providing each consistency and effectivity. You’ll additionally want some sheet pans, molds, and a velocity rack to chill gadgets. This setup can work in a comparatively small house, particularly when you maximize cubic footage along with sq. footage. 

One firm I’ve seen bringing pastry manufacturing in-house over time is 5 Stones Espresso in Redmond, Wash. They initially relied on an outdoor supplier known as Bakehouse 55, however needed to shift when Bakehouse 55 closed. They started making pastry in-house as a result of one among their baristas, Aleah Donner, believed she may deal with it. She had some expertise, having attended culinary college, however no formal pastry coaching. She credit 5 Stones proprietor Jacob Archer with being a supportive boss who inspired her as she discovered and experimented, and he or she emphasizes their shared dedication to bettering every day as a key issue of their in-house program’s success. 

They started by renting a small kitchen house from one other enterprise and adopted a hybrid method, the place they made non-laminated pastry in-house whereas sourcing laminated pastry from exterior suppliers. Ultimately, Aleah took a category with famend pastry chef Dominique Ansel and determined to begin testing laminated pastry manufacturing in-house. She says these candy treats have been tough at first however grew to become extra constant over time. She additionally credit an Estella Reversible Dough Sheeter with serving to to spice up high quality and velocity up manufacturing by bettering croissant hydration and avoiding overworking the dough, which may trigger extreme gluten improvement. Later, they moved into a bigger rented kitchen earlier than constructing their third café, which included a devoted house for pastry manufacturing. 

A typical theme I seen within the tales of Aaron, Brett, and Aleah is that creativity performs an important position in a profitable pastry program. Aleah particularly remembers that in their studying course of, they needed to discover methods to make use of less-than-ideal croissants. She explains that cruffins (a muffin-shaped croissant dough) and croffles (croissant dough pressed in a waffle iron) grew to become important options for imperfect batches, permitting the enterprise to nonetheless promote these merchandise. Being versatile as your workforce and enterprise enterprise into new territory can assist ease the transition into unfamiliar challenges. 

However there’s one other precious lesson in that very same story that I feel is necessary: There was a high quality commonplace that needed to be met for the dough to be served as croissants. And when that threshold wasn’t reached, Aleah and the workforce refused to let the product exit. They discovered various makes use of for it that didn’t compromise their friends’ expertise. This creativity and suppleness, mixed with robust high quality requirements, creates excellence. 

Once you deliver your pastry program in-house, goal for CoGS to be at the very least 15%, in response to Aaron’s estimate. He notes {that a} souffle can price lower than $.50 however promote for $20 or extra due to the issue of the approach and visitor expectations. Clearly, espresso outlets gained’t offer many souffles, however his level is that pastry can have significantly better CoGS than different components of your enterprise, like retail gadgets and even meals. 

However what if, like 5 Stones proprietor Jacob Archer, you need to deliver pastry in-house however lack the abilities or curiosity to guide that workforce your self? Nicely, in response to all our sources, the qualities that make a fantastic chief of a pastry program are extra character-based than essentially competence-based at first. It is a course of that may be developed regularly. Aaron recommends beginning small, with an deliberately restricted menu of some candy gadgets and just one savory choice, and constructing demand regularly moderately than attempting to completely inventory a pastry case and shedding cash every day on waste. Our sources agree that output issues greater than title or resume, per se. The proof, as they are saying, is within the pudding. Or, for all my espresso people, cup don’t lie. 

Now, after all, if you wish to launch a rippin’ pastry program straight off the bounce, you’ll want to rent somebody to guide a workforce or herald a fantastic guide to assist with what you don’t know and to coach your workforce. However when you’re OK with beginning gradual, specializing in self-motivated, detail-oriented, and passionate folks is a approach to make sure you’ll have workforce members who can develop into their roles as this system expands. Somebody may begin as a barista and regularly tackle extra baking hours as this system develops, finally shifting on to completely managing the baking operations.  

So, what to do about pastry?

Nicely, it relies upon. Which of the three fashions described will get you closest to fulfilling your mission, imaginative and prescient, and values? In the end, the reply to that’s an important. It ought to affect whether or not that you must get artistic by renting a commissary kitchen for baking as a result of your café is just too small, or if it is sensible to herald par-baked pastries from an outdoor supplier merely to supply your friends a contemporary but budget-friendly choice. 

My hope is that you just now have sufficient info to get began. I’ll be searching for the croissant crumbs to see which path you selected.  

Bake, Purchase, or Each?

Each café is exclusive, and your bakery program can considerably impression buyer expertise, kitchen workflow, and profitability. From absolutely in-house baking to sourcing premade pastries—or a mixture of each—there’s a mannequin to go well with each kind of café proprietor. Right here’s a fast information that can assist you resolve which method matches your house, employees, and imaginative and prescient. 

1: Totally In-Home Baking 

Description:

All pastries are ready from scratch on-site, giving cafés full possession of recipes, taste profiles, and presentation. From laminated doughs and candy rolls to tarts and specialty gadgets, all the pieces is crafted in-house to fulfill the café’s particular requirements.

Greatest for: 

• Café homeowners who need full management over high quality, taste, and menu creativity, permitting them to craft signature or artisanal choices. 
• Outlets with ample house, commercial-grade baking tools, and educated employees to handle prep, baking, and plating. 
• Cafés aiming to distinguish themselves out there, constructing a repute for distinctive, handcrafted pastries that complement their beverage program. 

Concerns: 

• Increased labor and ingredient prices, as expert bakers and premium substances are sometimes required. 
• Consistency and scheduling might be difficult; sustaining high quality throughout busy intervals or throughout a number of shifts requires cautious planning. 
• Sturdy operational oversight is important to keep away from waste and guarantee effectivity. 

2: Totally Outsourced (Premade Pastries from a Native Bakery) 

Description:

Cafés buy ready-to-serve pastries from an area bakery, which may embody fresh-baked gadgets delivered every day or partially baked merchandise that require minimal ending on-site. This mannequin reduces in-house manufacturing calls for and focuses on comfort and consistency. 

Greatest for: 

• Café homeowners who need to concentrate on espresso and beverage service moderately than bakery operations. 
• Small cafés or outlets with restricted kitchen house or staffing, the place in-house baking isn’t possible. 
• Cafés prioritizing effectivity, velocity, and consistency, making certain that prospects obtain dependable, high-quality pastries with out every day manufacturing effort. 

Concerns: 

• Much less management over recipes, taste, or seasonal creativity, as choices are dictated by the bakery. 
• Dependence on the bakery’s schedule, high quality requirements, and reliability can impression menu consistency. 
• Restricted potential to regulate choices in response to buyer suggestions or traits. 

3: Hybrid Program (Mixture of In-Home & Premade) 

Description: 

A hybrid method combines in-house baking of signature or seasonal gadgets with premade pastries sourced from an area bakery. Some gadgets could also be partially baked by the bakery and completed on-site, permitting cafés to supply a steadiness of creativity and effectivity. 

Greatest for: 

• Café homeowners who need some management and creativity however want the operational effectivity of premade gadgets for high-volume or commonplace choices. 
• Outlets with average employees and restricted kitchen house that also need to spotlight distinctive or seasonal pastries. 
• Cafés experimenting with specialty choices or rotating menu gadgets whereas retaining core merchandise constant and reliable. 

Concerns: 

• Requires cautious stock administration and workflow coordination to make sure each in-house and outsourced gadgets can be found and contemporary. 

• Scheduling might be extra advanced, as employees should steadiness baking, ending, and stocking premade merchandise. 

• Presents a center floor in price, labor, and management, however success will depend on clear operational planning and provider reliability.  

This text initially appeared within the October + November 2025 difficulty of Barista Journal. Learn extra of the difficulty on-line right here free of charge.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Maxwell Mooney (he/him) is a barista turned enterprise proprietor turned guide with Threadbare Espresso Consulting who helps folks construct espresso companies that take nice care of individuals. His focus is on serving to startups construct sustainable manufacturers and serving to single-unit companies scale to multi-unit companies utilizing his decade-plus expertise to assist folks craft significant companies. He’s competed nationally in lots of United States Barista Championships, has gained dozens of latte artwork competitions, opened an award-winning espresso store in 2017, and, most significantly, has had the possibility to work with wonderful baristas over time. He additionally in some way has turn into recognized for his spreadsheets (regardless of not being superb at making them).

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