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How to Plan a Holiday Menu You Can Actually Bake | Episode 26

  • Nov 12, 2024
  • 6 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Listen on Apple Podcasts


Menu planning is one of the most fun parts of being a sourdough baker, and in the fourth quarter it is also the thing most likely to wreck you.


The requests start coming. Someone wants pumpkin loaves, someone wants dinner rolls, someone wants a gift box, and every idea sounds good in September. I said yes to almost all of it one November and had nothing left by December, so I barely offered anything at Christmas.


Here is how I build a holiday menu on purpose.


Ask your customers what they actually want

You do not have to guess at your holiday menu. Your people will tell you if you ask.


Are they looking for bread for the holiday table? Sandwich bread for the leftover turkey? Something to give to someone they love? Ready to go treats for a party, seasonal flavors, brunch things, hearty loaves that go with soup?


Put a poll on Instagram, email your list, or text out a link to a short survey. Offer a free loaf giveaway to whoever fills it out so you get real numbers back. This one step keeps you from spending November baking things nobody was going to buy.


I walked through exactly how I run a survey and what to do with the results in my planning week episode, and there is a free copy of the survey I used in there to get you started.


Mine came back saying my customers wanted more sweet treats than I expected and more flavored sourdough loaves. So my holiday menu keeps the staples I always offer, a classic sandwich bread and a classic rustic loaf, and adds more flavored sourdough and a rotating selection of muffins.


Then say no to the things you cannot deliver well

Customer feedback narrows the menu. What you can actually produce well narrows it further.


People asked me for bagels. Bagels are not aligned for me. They take too much of my time and they are not the right use of my energy, so I am saying no. They might be a wonderful yes for you.


English muffins are the opposite case. They take a huge amount of time, and I love making them, I love eating them, and they sell out fast, so the return is worth it to me. Muffins are the easiest thing on my list to deliver consistently, and people love them.


Get clear on what your best yeses are, what fits your values and what your business stands for, and let the rest go. Those boundaries are what let you deliver really well on the things you did say yes to. If something on your current menu is failing that test, this episode on taking a product off your menu will help you do it gracefully.


Then talk about your menu everywhere. Hype it up, show bits of your process, share what customers are saying. Let people see that you asked and then gave them what they asked for.


Build a core menu and rotate around it

I keep a set of core products and add a couple of seasonal specials on top.


Mine is a rustic sourdough loaf, a sandwich loaf, focaccia and cookies almost every week. Then I rotate in one sweet flavor and one savory flavor, plus muffins every other week and English muffins on the alternate weeks. That is what feels manageable to me.


If you offer too much, you get overwhelmed and your customers get overwhelmed too. A menu with twenty options creates decision fatigue, and a customer who cannot decide often just closes the tab.


Rotation is how you offer variety without carrying all of it at once. You can have eight great seasonal flavors. Offer two a week and rotate them through the month, and tell your customers what is coming so they can plan ahead and stock their own freezers.


Plan the whole month, not the week

Sit down and map out an entire month of menus at a time. Six weeks or two months is even better.


That one habit lets you order packaging ahead, budget for specialty ingredients, plan your bake schedule, and line up how you will promote each week. You can still add something later, and now you have a foundation instead of a scramble.


This summer I started printing my monthly menu on a small piece of cardstock and tucking it into every order on porch pickup day. My customers love it! They can see the whole month, they know which flavors are coming, and my weeks have been more consistent ever since.


It is the first week of October as I write this and I am already nailing down my November and Thanksgiving menu, more than six weeks out. The further ahead you plan, the fewer last minute disasters you have.


Bake ahead and use your freezer

Planning the month ahead is what makes batching possible, and batching is the real time saver.


If something is coming back around in two weeks, make a double or a quadruple batch now and freeze the rest. A big batch takes about the same energy as a small one, so you are getting far more out of the same hour.


Cookie dough and scones are the classics. You can mix and shape both, freeze them, and bake straight from frozen with beautiful results. My whole next episode is crowdsourced from over a dozen bakers on what freezes well, and it is worth a listen before you build your Thanksgiving plan.


I am mixing my dinner roll dough the last week of October and freezing it, so I am not shaping hundreds of rolls the week of Thanksgiving the way I did last year.


Give yourself a recipe testing day

A lot of bakers tell me the most stressful part of their week is testing a new recipe a day or two before they have to sell it.


Build a rhythm instead. I test on Mondays, and if I like how it turns out, it goes on next week's menu. That buffer lets me work out the kinks, let something ferment longer, or decide it is not ready.


This season I am not doing porch pickups the last week of October. That whole week is recipe testing, planning, and stocking the freezer with dinner rolls and muffins so November and December start ahead instead of behind.


Set your dates before you need them

Map your production schedule for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and do not forget the week before Christmas when school lets out and teacher gifts come due.


Write down all of it now:

  • The day your holiday menu opens for pre-orders

  • Your pre-order cutoff for each holiday

  • Your pickup days

  • The last pickup day before each holiday

Then communicate those deadlines early and often. Deadlines your customers know about are the difference between a calm week and a stream of "can I still order?" messages you have to turn down.


Price the giftable items for what they really take

This is a gifting season. Hostess gifts, teacher gifts, client gifts, something to bring to a party, something for the white elephant. Crackers, gift baskets and holiday themed loaves all move well, and a seasonal flavor flight of a few mini loaves makes a lovely limited time offer that gets people ordering.


Just calculate the time before you commit to anything fussy. Last year I made loaves shaped like pumpkins. They were adorable, I offered them as minis, and they took so long that the time was not worth what I was charging.


This year I raised the price and doubled the size, so they are a regular loaf instead of a mini. The price now covers what they take me to make, and they are still a great hostess or teacher gift. Fancy shapes and scoring are fun, and they need to be priced for the hour they actually take.


Final thoughts

Part of planning your menu is deciding ahead of time when you are open, when you are closed, and what you are not offering this year. Take the breaks, eat real food, get the sleep. That is what lets you serve your customers well.


Go pick your core menu for November this week, choose the two or three seasonal things you genuinely want to make, and put your dates on the calendar. That is a holiday season you can enjoy.


Cheering you on,


Caroline


Keep going

If you are building out your fourth quarter, these will help you fill in the rest.


Links to things you might like!


 
 
 

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