Passion for Pies on Display at Wayland Bakery

Sheldon Strasnik’s bakery and coffee shop will make from scratch about 300 pies the Monday through Wednesday of Thanksgiving week.

Each pie takes about 45 minutes in the oven and the oven can hold 15 pies at a time.

Did you do the math? That means at least 15 solid hours of baking time, which doesn’t take into account the time it takes to get the pies in and out of the oven or the time it takes to produce the various other baked goods that fill the cases at Beyond Beans.

Beginning Monday, Nov. 21, Strasnik said he anticipates the ovens at Beyond Beans, which are shared with the restaurant J.J. McKay's, will run non-stop 20 hours a day.

“A lot of people think you snap your fingers and it [a pie] magically appears,” Strasnik said. “I don’t think they understand the work.”

But Strasnik certainly does. He’s been in the bakery business since he was 13 years old and working in his father’s bakery. Back then, Strasnik said, you could find five high-production bakeries in a one-mile radius. Everyone came to the bakery for their dinner rolls, pies and other goods, Strasnik said.

Grocery store bakeries and wholesalers have changed the standalone bakery business from a prevalence standpoint, but Strasnik said those new stores haven’t changed the way he bakes his pies: From scratch, without preservatives and with only the freshest ingredients. Freshness and quality are the best weapons a small bakery has in combating the big chains, he said.

Maintaining that standard of freshness and quality, however, means that Strasnik can’t begin preparing pies for Thanksgiving two weeks before the big day. Instead he’ll produce 300 pies in just three days as compared to about 12 during a normal week at Beyond Beans.

“The whole scheme of the bakery changes this time of year,” Strasnik said, sitting by the fireplace in the coffee shop portion of his establishment. He doesn’t hire extra help this time of year, but the people he does employ, work “non-stop.”

Beyond Beans continues to sell its normal assortment of cookies and baked goods, but also stocks some breads – banana bread and cranberry bread, for instance – that aren’t part of the normal baking repertoire.

All this extra baking means, of course, a lot of extra ingredients. Triple the ingredients to be more precise. Strasnik does prepare all of his pies from scratch, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t accept a little “help” when it comes to his ingredients.

His eggs arrive in 30-pound pails, already separated yolk from whites. Strasnik has learned a few tricks in his many years of baking – many of them secret ingredients and tips he understandably keeps to himself. He did share one tip, however: The more yolk used in a pumpkin pie, the richer the pie; hence the importance of pre-separated eggs.

As for the pounds of sugar and flour, well, when you triple the production of a bakery, you triple the amount of sugar and flour it uses. Strasnik said only that it is “tons” of sugar he has delivered for Thanksgiving week.

The most popular pie for Thanksgiving week is apple, Strasnik said, followed closely by pumpkin. In neither case is Strasnik a “pie purist” who believes adding a topping or accompaniment will corrupt the pie. He said he “loves” apple pie a la mode and he’s all for a bit of whipped topping on his pumpkin pie.

Thanksgiving is “straight out” the busiest week of the year for the bakery, and it’s also the biggest week for pies. Come Christmas, Strasnik will switch gears a bit to produce more cakes and cookies – the desserts he said his customers seek during the December holidays.

Beyond Beans will be open extended hours on Tuesday and Wednesday so people can pick up their desserts. The bakery will close up shop for Thanksgiving, but be back in the swing of things on Black Friday.