How Do I Bake NUMEROUS Fruit Pies At Home??

[jstockel]

I will soon be at our local farmers market and I bake fruit pies. I also sell them out of my home in Texas under the Cottage Food Law and follow all rules and regulations. The most Ive been able to do in an 8 hour period is about 20 of various sizes (only a couple 9in) and flavors all from 1 oven (was up until 3am). I have access to 2 home ovens now and need to find a way to prepare and bake as many as possible at home but since Im new to baking in bulk, I have no idea how to do this and cant find any help on google. 

 

Now let me give you a heads up that I use a butter crust and I make all my crust ahead of time and pull them from the freezer then roll them out. Is there anything yall do to make the process faster to bake more pies without killing yourself? Maybe freeze then bake? Help please.

[Jim D.]

20 pies in 8 hours in 1 oven?  I am in awe.  I hope you do have a standing reservation at a nearby rest home.  Do you have days when you are not baking?  If so, you could use those to make and freeze filled pies, then just bake them in time for market day.  I think experts on pie-making all agree that freezing them is fine.  This would, I assume, allow for more efficiency--you can prepare the peaches and assemble as many pies as possible, then move on to cherries, apples, etc.  This is assuming you also have freezer space.  By the way, if you are going to keep them frozen for any period of time beyond a few days, I would also vacuum-seal them first.  I am very pleased with my Weston vacuum sealer for keeping chocolate and also meat--no more icy crystals or dried-out meat.  The model I have takes bags up to 15" wide.  Sometimes, if it's a delicate item, I just seal the bag without using the vacuum.

 

Another source of info on your issue might be fellow baking vendors at the market.  I don't know about your farmers' market, but in my city I don't detect any competitiveness and all seem happy to share information.  Good luck.

[Lisa Shock]

You can pre-roll the crusts and freeze them flat with saran-wrap between layers. Or you could put the crust into foil pans and stack with saran-wrap in between and freeze. I'd be making a lot of pies with struesel tops, too.

 

The easiest thing to do is invest in a pie press. (go to ebay and search for 'pie press' there's a nice manual one there for $900 right now) Once you have a press, your labor costs will go down greatly and you can make crusts fresh on baking day.

 

I would not freeze baked pies until you experiment with your fillings, some thickeners do not freeze well. Bakeries that do freeze fillings use clear jell as the thickener.

 

Also, check out the oven maker's website. I was able to buy extra oven racks for my oven at $25 each, and can now max out its capacity.

[CatPoet]

Can you make  a head and tin the filling?  

[jstockel]

Thanks Jim and Lisa,

 

Ill test the freezing option and see how that works with a test pie.

 

Lisa, how do you keep your pies from burning if you put 3 or 4 in at a time? I guess you rotate them from top to bottom and bottom to top? We bought a double oven that is going in the garage so we can use 3 ovens at the same time at the house which should help but if im able to get pie filling done and pies prepped that cuts out baking time then baking day just bake pies.. sounds like a better option.

 

I see how a local pie shop who can pump out hundreds uses pie presses and commercial mixers but i wonder how they get so much filling done for the multiple pies they do?

[Jim D.]

I see how a local pie shop who can pump out hundreds uses pie presses and commercial mixers but i wonder how they get so much filling done for the multiple pies they do?

In some cases bakeries are, of course, using canned filling.  Maybe they canned it themselves, but alas, not always.

[pastrygirl]

So you already prep your dough ahead, and you're getting more oven space.  With pies taking so long to bake it seems like oven space is always going to be an issue.  Freezing whole pies is going to add to oven time and might not be worth it, unless prepping them days ahead helps you.  Do you have a lot of inactive time while the pies are baking?  Does it seem like making fillings takes a long time?  IQF fruit like cherries and berries can be very convenient and good quality.  I wouldn't recommend canned pie filling unless you count canned pumpkin.

 

How many flavors and sizes do you do?  I would do 7 or 8" for my large pies, should be able to fit 5 or 6 on a sheet pan (hoping your oven fits full sheet pans!).  Smaller pies will fit more per sheet, and depending on your market, mini pies could be good for immediate consumption. 

 

Are any of your ovens convection?  I think you should be able to bake way more than 20 pies a day, if your dough is prepped and some of them are small.

[Lisa Shock]

In some cases bakeries are, of course, using canned filling.  Maybe they canned it themselves, but alas, not always.

 

Actually, the larger production facilities use IQF fruit or actually process their own fruit with processing machines. Canned filling, or those buckets is too fussy and expensive, -they're usually used by hotels and small bakeries.

 

You may wish to look into getting IQF fruit, especially peeled apples as it will save you time and still have decent quality. The best part is that it's very consistent quality, meaning you get consistent pies year-round. I used to get amazing blueberries IQF. The IQF fruit is sold where you should be getting your butter and flour, a food wholesaler. (butter freezes well, stock up when its cheap) Some food wholesalers allow people to place orders and pick them up at their back door, if they are too small for delivery. Also, US foods has been opening some warehouse stores open to the public, and, there's always restaurant depot. If you plan things properly, you can buy the fruit right before you use it, so, you won't need a freezer to store it in, maybe just some coolers for transportation in the summer. (it generally comes in large cardboard boxes)

 

BTW, unbaked struesel can be frozen and tossed directly onto pies before baking, make sure to move it around while freezing to keep it broken up.

 

Time saving techniques will vary depending on how you make the pies, like if you pre-cook fillings or not. If you switch to clear gel, it can be re-heated well, so you could cook a batch of fruit filling and then refrigerate it it for a couple of days, then scoop to fill on baking day.

 

Burning issues are complicated. You've got to get to know your ovens. All ovens have hot and cold spots, you can buy a bunch of oven thermometers and set them on empty sheet pans and see for yourself. At first, you rotate a lot, then, you will just get a feel for what needs to go where. Obviously convection cuts time down and lowers temps, so you're less likely to burn. Rotating ovens also work very well, things to consider for your next oven purchase.

 

Agreed that you should be able to make more than 20 pies a day with prepped dough. Work on organizing your kitchen for efficiency, have enough pans and tools so that you can get through the day without having to wash anything til the end. Work on personal speed. The reason I suggested the dough press is that it's really, really fast. You place a ball of dough of the proper weight in its pan, press down, and in maybe 3 seconds your crust is formed. You can prep a couple hundred crusts an hour with one. Also, a larger mixer for making dough makes sense. You can get one that holds 30qts used for a couple thousand dollars.With a mixer, scale and dough press, you could easily make 500 crusts on a dough prep day. -Maybe you don't need that much now, but imagine if you just made crusts once a month, and froze them, how much time you would save.

 

I'd also have a selection of custard pies, or something else where the filling is fast and easy to make, especially if you buy egg yolks and whites in containers ready to measure. You can blind bake the custard pie crusts the day before to speed things up.

 

Hope this helps! I used to mass produce pies for take home holiday dinners.

[minas6907]

Im honestly not trying to be the kill joy here, but isn't an oven in the garage a violation of the food cottage regulations? It might be different here in California, but I was just wondering.

[jstockel]

Lisa and Pastry Girl,

 

Awesome feedback! I currently am out of my home kitchen so no commercial ovens but I dream of the day. Im going to look into some of these recommendations..

 

Minas, youre not a kill joy. Ive been baking for a few years but just recently started selling so im still figuring things out. I checked before i bought the oven and I just checked again. I dont see any issue for Texas. The only rules for equipment is that it cant be commercial and it has to be setup in your primary residence, not a detached building on your property. Since my double oven is not commercial and my garage is connected to my kitchen, I dont see a problem with it. 

[JohnT]

I know the link below is not quite pertaining to your query, but if found it to be quite an amazing 1 minute YouTube video, where the PC presses a whole tray of mini tart pastry in one minute! Sorry, I do not know how to embed the link. John.

Edit: seems to have embedded the link automatically!

Edited September 13, 2014 by JohnT (log)

[Lisa Shock]

A few other things may be helpful for you, shop around and get a speed rack or two so you have a place to put things to cool and can move pies around easily. There are a lot of different kinds of rack, some have fewer slots (for taller items), some are open on the side instead of the end, some hold more weight, some are just for half pans. I recommend full pan size as you can fit 4-5 pies per sheet pan, thus 80-100 per rack.

 

In a bakery, we'd put five or more pies per full sheet pan in the oven. Since you are using a home oven that is maybe 19" wide, a full sheet pan won't fit. A half will fit but will be inefficient. You're only going to get one maybe two pies per half sheet pan, so, I would not use them. I'd get some of the completely flat pans and leave them on your oven racks, do not try to carry pies around on them! I think you can get three pies per rack this way, and you should be able to get at least 3 racks in the oven, so, you'd be baking 9 pies at once per oven. (unless you're doing those super-overstuffed, tall pies) That translates to about 72 pies in 8 hours.

 

For mixing filling, look for large steel bowls at Restaurant Depot, a local restaurant supply house, or maybe your Smart & Final has a few left from before they converted to being more consumer-friendly. For storage, look into Cambro containers. If you choose all one color, all the lids will fit all the sizes.

 

BTW, some of the pricier pie presses also make top crusts. IMO, you should really do the math on a pie press. If you imagine that you'd maybe like to pay yourself $5/hr for your work, and a pie press saves you rolling, measuring, cutting and placing dough, you've saved about 10 minutes per pie. That's about 83 cents. Yes, it will take over a thousand pies to pay off a $900 press, but, when you're able to take 216+ pies a day (with 3 ovens) to market, it will pay itself off very quickly. You'll also be able to take larger custom orders for special events.

 

Sample demonstration, I am not endorsing any particular brand. I used to use a manual machine from the 1930s.

[JeanneCake]

To Lisa's point about sheet pans/speed racks - you can get a three-quarters sheet pan; it will fit a home oven but this size does not fit a standard speed rack.  You might want to investigate a half-height aluminum speed rack; it holds 11 full sheet pans but again those three quarter size pans won't fit on it - unless you have a full size sheet pan on it.

 

I second the motion for a pie press; it will make your life easier and you'll want one eventually anyway so get one now

[Kerry Beal]

I have two speed racks that fit 3/4 sheet pans.  

[JeanneCake]

Kerry, where'd you find those speed racks?  I have four standard size ones and 11 of those 3/4 pans so I'd love to get one.  Did you have to special order them?  I never thought to ask at my local restaurant supply, but can keep a look out for one.

[Kerry Beal]

One was at Mr Used (the place where the Red Green show got their stuff) - the other I can't recall - but it would have been some sort of used place.