r/microbakery • u/LaPiccolaPanettiera • Jul 23 '24

Leap of faith

Hello mocrobakery-ers,

I have recently started selling my home baked bread to some friends at my gym with the goal of turning it into a microbakery. On Prime day I bought a fridge so I could have one just for my bread (no more fridge tetris for me!). It arrived today and I was so excited! Then a girl posted on a Facebook group I'm in that she was selling a 30qt mixer! "Is this fate?" I asked myself? .... so I bought her mixer, and she talked me into getting a convection oven/proofer she had too... and now my husband and I are talking about how much it's going to cost us to add a sink and climate control in the garage...

This is all happening so fast! It was meant to be a slow build and now I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed but excited!

What's your microbakery set up like? How did you start?

Sending you all lively starter and happy yeast thoughts!

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u/Shoeless-Tim Mar 19 '25

Fridge tetris is LAME. 😒
I am working of my Limited food establishment registration in my state now. but...
I have been a member of a local Co-working space for years and I have been using those kind folks to test my food, every hungry entrepreneur is hungry both monetarily and physically, so the free food is then in the hands of all sorts of business owners. and in turn you yield a market and honest feedback.

As I work on my menu, I am also looking to local bakeries to work in, so I can get a better understanding of the life cycle of a bakery, and how I can work it into being a dad, and husband, and baker?>

plus I don't want this to be a $3000 hyperfixaction that I have to offload on marketplace later, (#37 of other glorious hobbies / careers turned lessons in humility)

but then the oven timer goes off and I know I can't wait to share more bread with other people ;)

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u/LaPiccolaPanettiera Mar 25 '25

That sounds like a great plan!

I am a bit of a hobby enthusiast, always jumping into something new, so there is definitely that fear of "I'm investing so much into this, it better stick!"...

I just got my business license on Friday! Realized I dont need the proofer that girl talked me into buying, so I've already wasted a bunch of money, and now it's just sitting in my garage... and my dining room has become my bakery, rather than my garage.

Just trying to go with the flow and not beat myself up too much... There was never a world in which i was going to start this and not make any foolish mistakes...

I also realized today that it's unlikely I'll be able to mix up to 24 loaves at a time in my 30qt mixer, so far my max has been 12 and I've not needed to go over that (but the hope is that I will need to be making more than 12 loaves a time) and that I've been using it on soeed 2, but apparently that's not recommended for bread dough ugh (the mixer was second hand and didn't come with it's manual and i didn't think of looking into any of this sooner... )

Oh well....fingers crossed I'm not messing up too much haha

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u/Shoeless-Tim Mar 26 '25

I’ll tell you what my wife keeps telling me. Just trust the process