Optimizing a Baker’s Bagel Recipe

Some time again I used to be working with a shopper who owns a small bakery. She had solely just lately made the transition from a one-person enterprise to a full-fledged bakery and I used to be serving to her out making that transition.

One of many challenges she bumped into was her bagel recipe. It was an costly recipe the place she used diastatic malt powder in each the bagels themselves, in addition to the boiling water wherein she boiled the bagels.

She wished to know whether or not she wanted to make use of the diastatic malt powder in each components, or whether or not there was a approach to reduce down prices by leaving it out, with out sacrificing high quality.

She had discovered by doing

The baker, we’ll name her Jen, discovered to bake from web sites and magazines. She was absolutely self-taught, had by no means taken knowledgeable course. She was nice at executing recipes and had developed really feel for the merchandise and processes she made. However, when requested why she did sure issues, she wouldn’t have been too certain. She simply knew they labored.

So when she began to make use of the diastatic malt powder in her bagel dough and boiling water, she did it as a result of that’s how she was taught. She wasn’t certain it could possibly be finished completely different. However, the prices of the recipe have been excessive, virtually too excessive for her to cost an honest worth. So, she requested me, what can I do?

A really costly recipe

It grew to become clear that the diastatic malt powder in her recipe was the most costly ingredient. It was additionally laborious for her to supply. She has to get it by means of a particular provider and it was fairly a trouble.

She wanted quite a bit so as to add to the boiling water, and there was no approach to re-use it. May she simply go away it out? Ought to she even attempt? She didn’t wish to waste a batch and has tons of different issues to do, so she wished some kind of safety of whether or not it’d work in any respect.

And a easy change

Armed together with her recipe and information, I set out to take a look at what was occurring. I had a take a look at the sorts of flour she used, the yeast, all the opposite components within the bagel. All of them made sense. She didn’t use the most cost effective components, however that was an necessary a part of her model. She wished top quality, in some circumstances natural merchandise, so she made the acutely aware alternative for these components.

However, that diastatic malt powder was an exception. It grew to become clear to me fairly rapidly that she might go away that out of the boiling water fully. As a matter of truth, the new boiling water would even damage any of the particular properties of that powder anyway! It really was a waste of cash.

Curious to be taught extra about diastatic malt powder and what it will possibly and can’t do in bagels? We wrote an intensive article on the subject, explaining the distinction between diastatic and non-diastatic malt powder and extra!

In fact, I wouldn’t suggest her to only take it out. I all the time suppose it’s finest to do an experiment. So, I adviced her to make a batch of bagels wherein she wouldn’t add any diastatic malt powder to her boiling water. I instructed her to only boil just a few at first. In the event that they didn’t look good, she might all the time add again within the diastatic malt powder. This manner, she might simply do it throughout her regular course of, not having to plan a devoted take a look at batch. However, I used to be fairly satisfied it was going to work.

Led to large price financial savings

And it labored completely certainly! She might eradicate over 75% of the diastatic malt powder from her recipe. This reduce prices significantly, with out negatively impacting the standard of her product in any respect.

Value financial savings don’t all the time should be detrimental for high quality. Quite the opposite, good selections might can help you save prices and preserve and even enhance high quality.

Ingredient understanding paved the best way

There are a lot of bakers and meals producers like Jen on the market. Those that know how one can make their merchandise, however don’t actually know why they’re doing one thing. They really feel uncomfortable testing one thing new, not know what may occur.

Nonetheless, in the event you perceive the function of your components and course of steps, bettering and altering your merchandise turns into a lot simpler.

Within the case of Jen, by merely understanding that boiling water inactivates the energetic parts in diastatic malt powder, I could possibly be fairly certain that leaving it out would haven’t any impact in any respect. And that turned out to be true.

However, simply understanding is rarely the total reply. You virtually all the time have to check, identical to Jen did. Designing such a (easy) take a look at is vital to creating high quality merchandise. If you will get into the behavior of doing little trials on a regular basis, your merchandise and your data will grow to be higher due to it.

After this diastatic malt powder query, Jen and I tackled a number of extra. Most weren’t as ‘simple’ as this one. However Jen began to really feel increasingly more snug to check issues out, leading to a spread of improved recipes. And, even higher, Jen felt far more snug together with her merchandise. By testing and failing generally, she higher knew what she might and couldn’t do, giving her an entire new experimental toolbox to play with!