Billing for your bakery and sweet shop in Ladakh
Loaves by the piece, khapse by the kilo and apricot jam by the jar, all on one bill.
Bread that is best at seven, jam that must last a year, and khapse that all comes at once
The loaf that goes home in the baker's own family bag
Before the counter opens, the guesthouses' basket is filled from the first loaves, and the baker's own family takes its bread from the same shelf. By noon the shelf is bare, and at night the loaves baked and the loaves paid for do not agree by a few.
Jam put up in a few late-summer weeks must sell for a year
Apricot jam is made when the fruit is in, in one long week of stirring and filling jars. After that the jars sit on the back shelf and sell a few at a time, to visitors in summer and to local families in the cold months. It is hard to know in autumn how many to make next year, because you never counted how many went last winter. One bad guess in either direction is a year of jars or a bare shelf in March.
Khapse and the weeks before Losar
Before Losar, the Ladakhi new year, families come to the shop for khapse, the twisted fried biscuits, by the kilo for the house and the relatives. Orders arrive in clusters, one family takes half now and the rest a few days later, and the oil is hot from dawn. It is the only time of the year the whole shop is made around one thing. By the third day the shop smells of nothing but hot oil and sugar, and the notes in the cash box are not counted until night.
What a Leh bakery keeps on one phone
Bills on your phone
A bill with a jar of apricot jam and two loaves for the visitor leaving on the morning flight, made while the loaves are being wrapped.
Low stock warnings
A warning on flour and cooking oil in the weeks before the new year, since the khapse for a whole town is fried from the two together and one empty tin stops the batch.
Offers for regular customers
A jar of jam taken off the bill for the family that has bought its bread from you every morning of the winter.
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From the first warm loaf to the last jar of apricot jam in March
The jam shelf read in December
The jam is put up once a year, and the next fruit is a year away. Open the days of last winter and see how many jars sold in each month, from the first snow to the thaw. That is how many jars the shelf must hold for the whole wait, and next August the batch is sized to it.
Khapse kilos set aside for a family while the oil is hot
In the weeks before Losar the oil is hot from dawn and the trays come off the fire one after another. Add each tray's kilos to the khapse stock as it is done, and set aside the kilo a family asked for under the family's name. The kilo waits in the tin with its name, and the next customer is not sold what was promised.
The apricot week's jars counted as they are filled
As each batch of jam goes into jars, note how many jars it made. By the end of the week the stock holds the year's jam, and every sale takes one jar off. When a visitor asks if there is more of the dark jam, you read the number instead of going to the back shelf.
Questions Leh bakers ask about loaves, jars and the baskets that leave early
I fry khapse in oil bought by the tin. How do I count the oil against the khapse I made?
Add the oil as an item by the litre. Note the litres that go into the pan and the kilos that come out. After a few days you know how much oil a kilo of khapse takes, and the low-stock level for the oil is set from that.
Bread leaves in a basket for the guesthouses before I open the counter. Does it go on that day's sales?
Yes. Any bill made that day, at any hour, belongs to that day's sales. Make the guesthouse's bill when the basket is back, and it is counted in the same day's total as the bread sold over the counter.
A year with less fruit makes fewer jars, and last year's batch is still on the shelf. How do I see how far it will last?
Count last year's batch as an item with the year in its name. The shelf count and each month's sales show how many months are left, so you know when to bring the new jars to the front.
Apricot jam, the chulli's blossom and a workshop in Leh
Many bakeries in Ladakh sell freshly baked bread that people eat with locally made apricot jam. The jam is what turns a loaf into breakfast for a visitor and for the household alike. A loaf at seven in the morning and a jar from the back shelf make the same breakfast in a guesthouse in July and in a house in January.
Ladakh's apricot, locally called chulli, flowers in April-May and starts bearing sweet fruit by August-September. The jam is therefore made in the last warm weeks and has to be sold slowly through the months when no fruit is on the trees.
In April 2026 Ladakh's Horticulture Department held a two-day national workshop in Leh on the apricot value chain, with stalls of value-added apricot products. Jam, dried fruit and oil are the kind of goods a bakery and a sweet shop put on the counter.