Whether you want to believe it or not, the holiday season is upon us. Along with the holidays comes the increased demand for baked goods. With Christmas comes the cookies and consumers are flooding bakeries to make sure they get their cookie orders in for the holidays. To ensure your bakery is better prepared we have put together this ultimate guide to holiday cookie production. We will discuss everything from planning ahead to the proper baking equipment needed to ensure your bakery not only makes it through the holidays but flourishes.

Plan Ahead

The key to stress-free baking at any time of the year is planning ahead. This strategy is especially useful during the holiday rush. Creating a baking schedule will help you be prepared for your “waves” in customers and also help you prepare for your busy season. Planning ahead also includes what types of cookies you plan to bake, and the ingredients needed to get the job done. Compile a detailed list of all ingredients you will need and make sure your bakery is well stocked to support the increase in production. You would not want to be short of product in the middle of a rush!

Scale Up

When you’re expecting a surge in demand, it’s important to scale up recipes accordingly. This step goes hand-in-hand with planning ahead. Scaling up your recipes will give you an idea of how much ingredients you will need to plan ahead for. When scaling up your recipes, it is important to make sure you calculate accurately so that your finished cookies remain consistent in flavor and texture.

Streamline Your Workflow

Creating an efficient workflow is crucial when dealing with high volume. Some bakeries will increase their staff during the holiday season, however this is not always the most cost-efficient way to streamline. Investing in the proper equipment will best allow you to automate your cookie production with consistency and efficiency while saving on labor costs. Cookies Depositors like the Suprema Cookie Depositor allow you to make 180 trays of quality and consistent cookies per hour. The Suprema also allows you to automate the production of a variety of cookies such as wire-cut, rotary drop and stationary drop cookies. With this kind of production and versatility, your cookie possibilities are endless. The best part is, being able to keep up with demand and save on labor costs will allow the machine to pay for itself over time!

Tighten Up Your Menu

Lastly, when it comes to pumping up your production, you may want to think about tightening up your menu and reducing it to the “best sellers”. Only offering up your most popular items will help you focus on the production of those products and those products only. Having to increase production and also prepare other menu items may hinder your ability to scale up the products that will be most sought after during the holiday rush. We are not saying to get rid of everything off the menu that isn’t a best seller, but be conscious of what is on the menu that may require a long production time or intricate and time-consuming recipe process.

The holiday season is a time of joy, but we understand that for bakers, that joy can become stress real quickly. We are hoping to alleviate that stress and help you best streamline your cookie production process. From planning ingredients to using cookie machines to help bake efficiently and effectively, the above strategies will help you navigate the holiday rush with ease! So, roll up your sleeves, put on your apron, and get ready to handle the holiday demand like a boss!