Panini bread suggestions for small coffeehouse
Well I'm a coffee roaster/espresso bar guy who also serves a small breakfast/lunch. I've recently given up my espresso bar hours to expand our kitchen offerings. So, to be honest, I'm new at this; but I want to do the best that I can do- better offerings over profits. I live in an area where you just can't charge what some of these wonderful, artisan breads would normally sell for. Anyhow I have a desire to bake enough for about 25 panini a day.
The issues are:
I do not own a large mixer; i have a small KA from who knows when (older though);
I do have a cabinet sized proofer: I've recently figured out how to maintain 90F and 70-80 hum.
I also have one auto bread machine and a 11? qt Cuisinart food processor.
I've got a 4ft table to set up machines and a 6 ft run of kitchen countertop to work dough.
My oven is an older blodgett (no steam) 1/2 pan size with room I assume to bake four loaves.
I own 1 rectangular stone for the oven.
So this week I need to experiment with suggestions from you- which bread and how I might use my equipment and timing issues.
FYI I also use my oven for baking meats like saus, bacon and chicken.
Someone at cheftalk mentioned pullman bread by the way.
Thanks,
John
John- Not sure how much help I can be, but here goes. At my last baking job, we produced both multi-grain panini and a white dough panini. Depending on which, it took either 7.5# (white) dough or 8# (multi-grain) dough to yield two dozen 5 oz paninis.
The size of our finished product was a rectangular panini about 4" x 6" (before being pressed).
You aren't going to be able to mix 7-8# of flour in a home mixer at at time. Closer to 3-4#. So you need to take that into consideration.
Next to be considered is whether your oven will allow you to produce these in sufficient amounts to make it viable. In a typical non-commercial oven you may be able to bake about 8 at a time, allowing for sufficient distance between them for browning. (I'm assuming a baking sheet and not a baking stone. If the latter were used, you probably can't bake more than 4 at a time).
So, assuming a 25 minute bake per load, you're looking at anywhere between 3 - 6 bakes.
Keep in mind that in any event you'll need to retard future bakes to keep from dealing with overproofed dough.
In a commercial setting this would be ridiculously easy. But given your description above of what you have to work with, I wonder if it's really practical - particularly if you're also using your oven for other purposes.
Good luck-
Larry
Larry,
Thanks for the response. maybe I need to consider a pan loaf to slice? I'm open to suggestions.
Btw, my comment above about my oven- I have four racks that hold a 1/2 sheet pan each.
John
And before the suggestion arises to buy from a local baker- there aren't any within 45 minutes that are able to assist me.
John - Is this a home-sized oven (mine has 4 racks too)? If so, you can't bake multiple layers of bread (even small bread) and achieve a good result. If it isn't a commercial oven I think you'd do well to consider baking pan loaves (or batards shaped on baking sheets) using some whole grains or whole grain soakers to give the finished loaves some nice texture and flavor. If you don't already have it, get Hamelman's Bread which has some nice recipes for whole grain breads that could make great paninis! I would think that a couple loaves would give you two dozen paninis, so 4 loaves per bake would give you 2 days worth of bread. If you set aside a day for baking bread only, you can freeze the loaves and have enough production for a week.
Larry
..."croque monsieur" and a variation (with a fried egg on top) called "croque madame" using regular, pan-baked loaves?
White 'San Francisco-style' sourdough bread would be my choice for practicality and business reasons, but you could also do some whole-wheat or rye in the same time-frame. Home-baked carrot cakes and banana breads wouldn't be too hard to do by yourself—"all home-made baked goods" would look very nice on your menu, as well.
For "product differentiation", I'd look for a good Eurpoean butcher to provide double-smoked ham or pepper ham; (maybe) free-range eggs for the croque madame; otherwise, you could use a smoked (processed) cheese instead of natural Gruyere or Emmental...a pickle, or three fingersful of kettle chips on the side, or both, wouldn't cost much and might distinguish your place from the nearest competitors. [It depends where you live and work, I suppose...]
Best of luck with the business!
copyu