Starting a home bakery.

[retired baker]

First farmers mkt of the season is 6 days away, I have a tentative product list.
danish
croissant
pumpkin loaves.
cookies,
cannoli... maybe.

I'm making the pumpkin loaves now, they freeze well.
Danish freeze well so I'll make them on thursday. Proof and baker on the day .
Cookies can be made ahead too. I don't make soft american style cookies.
The only item made on the day is croissant, they don't freeze or hold at all.

 

[retired baker]

cannoli sells well,
I fry my own shells, better and cheaper than buying $1 shells from amazon.

Ricotta is very simple to make, I lower the cost and make it creamy by adding a small amount of pastry cream, I got that trick from an Italian grandma. Her recipe calls for pastry cream without yolks to make it white, cook it, cool it and blend smooth before adding equal parts drained ricotta.

The ricotta I made was dry, I think it shouldn't be pressed when drained if you plan to make cannoli. I reduced the typical amount of sugar in all recipes I see by 50% and added lemon juice to balance the fattiness, it has a nice clean taste .

I don't use choc chips, I don't care what the label says, if you have to chew it to make it melt in the mouth its junk.
Just melt callebaut, slowly pour it in the cheese as you whip the cold ricotta filling, it will self chip, looks better tastes far better.

Initially the ricotta was a bit too dry and crumbly.

May 17, 2025

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Easily fixed.

ricotta and pastry cream.

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[retired baker]

shell is dipped in callebaut, then ground salted pistachios.
3 for $5.

 

[retired baker]

I have a 2 day event coming up in mid august.
Mini cakes are very popular so I'll do my take on it.
A dubai pistaccio cake,
scottish shortbead base topped with a layer of pistaccio frangipane , a layer of pistaccio cream with kunafa shredded toasted dough and ganache drizzled on top.
Because the shortbread has so much butter, as does the nut cake theres no need to grease the mold, it doesn't stick.
Oval disposable tin with clear lid from amazon, they come with plastic sporks.

Made a short video testing out the baked part. it worked out nicely so far.