How to take sourdough pre-orders

Start from pickup and work backwards

Most bakers plan forwards: feed the starter, mix, shape, bake, and then figure out when people can come. For pre-orders, flip it. Pick the time the bread leaves your hands, then walk back through every step until you reach the moment you need to know how many loaves to make. That moment is your order-by time.

The steps that matter for timing are the same in almost every kitchen:

• Building the levain, usually 6 to 12 hours depending on your ratio and how warm the kitchen is.
• Mixing, then bulk fermentation, often 4 to 6 hours at 75°F with folds along the way.
• Dividing, pre-shaping and shaping, about an hour for a dozen loaves.
• A cold proof in the fridge, commonly 12 to 16 hours.
• Baking in batches, then at least 2 hours of cooling before slicing or bagging.

The levain is the step that locks in your count. Once you’ve built enough levain for 12 loaves, a 13th order means scrambling. So the order-by time needs to land before you feed, with enough room to check flour and clear the fridge.

A worked example: Friday 4 PM pickup

Say you bake with two Dutch ovens, one loaf each, and your kitchen sits around 76°F. Each batch takes 45 minutes in the oven, plus about 10 minutes to reheat the pots, so call it 55 minutes per batch.

A Wednesday 8 PM cutoff looks early for a Friday afternoon pickup, but it gives you a night to buy flour if the count jumps, and it means you never build levain on a guess. If you’re happy to take a few late orders, take them only up to the levain feed, and only if you planned for spare dough.

Some bakers add a small short-notice fee for orders that come in after the regular cutoff but before the levain goes in. It covers the extra effort and nudges regulars to order on time.

How many loaves you can make

Your limit is whichever of these runs out first. Do the math for each one and use the smallest number.

Oven

Count loaves per batch, minutes per batch, and the hours you have between first bake and the time loaves must be cool. In the example, that’s 2 loaves times 6 batches, so 12. A baking steel that fits four batards would double it, if your oven can hold the heat and steam that many.

Fridge

Shaped dough proofs overnight in the fridge, and bannetons take up more room than you expect. Measure a cleared shelf and count how many baskets fit with air around them. A typical home fridge shelf holds 5 or 6 round bannetons. If you can clear two shelves, that’s 10 to 12 loaves, and the family still needs somewhere for the milk.

The fridge is busy from the evening you shape until the morning you bake. If you sell something else that sits in the fridge on the same night, like cookie dough or cinnamon rolls for a morning bake, count it against the same space.

Mixer, bowls and counter

A stand mixer might handle dough for 3 or 4 loaves at a time. Hand mixing in tubs scales better but costs time and wrists. Count how many bulk containers you own and how much counter you have for shaping.

You

Twelve loaves on a weekday evening after work is a different job from twelve on a Saturday. Set the number for the week you actually have.

Then set limits for each product too. If your jalapeño cheddar takes longer to shape, cap it at 4 even when the day has room for 12 loaves in total.

Pickup times when bread is ready later in the day

Sourdough baked the same day isn’t ready at 9 AM if the last batch comes out at 1:35 PM. The easy mistake is offering pickup all day and then handing someone a loaf that’s still steaming in the bag.

• Start pickup no earlier than 2 hours after your last batch comes out.
• If you sell items that are ready earlier, like cookies baked the day before, either let those orders pick up earlier or keep one pickup time for everything. Mixed orders should follow the latest item.
• Split pickup into short windows, such as 4 to 5 PM and 5 to 6 PM, and cap how many orders each window takes. Six orders an hour is manageable at the door; twenty is a line on your porch.
• For a morning pickup, bake the afternoon before and say so. Day-old sourdough is still good bread, but customers should know.

Deposits or pay at pickup

Both work. The right choice depends on your customers and how much a no-show costs you.

• Pay at pickup is simplest and feels friendly for a neighborhood bakery. The risk is no-shows: you’ve already spent flour, power and two days on that loaf.
• Paying in full ahead, by Zelle or a similar app, removes no-show losses but adds friction, and you have to send money back yourself if you cancel a bake.
• A deposit is a middle path. Many bakers ask for it only on large orders, such as 4 loaves or more, or for holiday weeks when every slot is precious.

Whatever you pick, write down your refund rule before anyone asks. Zelle payments are hard to reverse, so customers will want to know what happens if they cancel, and what happens if you do.

What to tell customers

Put this where people order, not in a highlight they have to dig for:

• The order-by time for each bake day, in plain words: “Order by Wednesday 8 PM for Friday pickup.”
• Pickup address or area, the pickup windows, and what to do if they’re running late.
• How to pay, and whether you ask for a deposit.
• How long the bread keeps, and how to store and freeze it.
• Your cancellation rule, such as free cancellation up to 48 hours before pickup.
• Ingredients and allergens. Many states require labels on cottage food, so check yours.

Cottage food rules vary by state and they decide what you can sell, where, and how. If you bake in Michigan, read our guide to Michigan’s 2026 cottage food law.

Handling no-shows

Most no-shows come down to forgetting. A few habits cut them down a lot:

• Send a reminder the day before with the pickup time and address.
• Ask for a phone number when people order, so you can text at the end of the window.
• Hold uncollected orders until a set time, such as the end of the day, then say in your policy what happens next.
• Keep a quiet note of repeat no-shows. After two, it’s fair to ask that person to pay ahead or to stop taking their orders.

An uncollected loaf isn’t a total loss. Sourdough freezes well for weeks, so slice it, bag it and freeze it for your own table, or give it to a neighbor.

Where Doughdate fits

Doughdate is a pre-order platform for home bakers, opening to bakers in January 2027. You set order-by times (with an optional short-notice fee), fridge space, most-per-day for each product and orders per pickup time, and a day closes on its own when it’s full. “Ready from” times keep customers from picking a pickup time before the bread is cool. A daily bake list adds up every order, and customers get a reminder email the day before. You choose how customers pay: by card when they order, through your own Stripe account, or cash or Zelle at pickup. Card orders are paid in full upfront, so a no-show has already paid, and Doughdate never holds the money.

Last checked November 2, 2026.