Print a recipe
Generate the A4 technical sheet ready for the kitchen and save it as a PDF from your browser.
Goal
Get an A4 technical sheet of your recipe, ready to pin up in the kitchen or send to a client as a PDF.
- Path:
https://app.areacacao.com/print/recipe/<id> - How to get there: from the editor, menu ⋮ → Print / PDF. The sheet opens in a new tab and the print dialog launches automatically.
Before you start
- A saved recipe (with composition, method and, ideally, yield).
- Macros calculated correctly (see Automatic macros).
Steps
Open the sheet from the editor menu
In the recipe editor, open the ⋮ menu and click Print / PDF. /print/recipe/<id> opens in a new tab and the print dialog starts.
Review the content
The A4 sheet includes:
- Header with logo, name, and meta (Type, Cocoa %, Target weight, Actual weight, Created, Updated).
- Water activity, right below the header: the estimated aw (and the measured one, if you've entered it) with the guidance shelf-life reference from the course table. If there's no valid aw, the sheet says so explicitly. See Estimated water activity. A filling's sheet doesn't include pH.
- Composition with each line's quantity, unit, weight, percentage and cost (grouped by parts, if the recipe has them). If the recipe uses supplies, the Supplies / Packaging table follows.
- Yield and production: ingredient weight, waste, usable final weight, what one unit is, its size and how many you get (see Yield tab).
- Method with the steps.
- Nutrition facts per 100 g. If an ingredient's energy is missing, it appears as ≥ N kcal with the Incomplete energy notice (see Automatic macros).
- Allergens (EU 1169/2011), with the Contains: and May contain traces of: lines.
- Costs (only if the recipe has a cost), see below.
- Footer with the generation date, the note Nutrition facts estimated from declared ingredients and the EU Regulation 1169/2011 allergen notice.
Generate the PDF
In your browser's print dialog, select Save as PDF instead of printing. Set minimal margins and portrait orientation. If you need to reopen the dialog, use the Print / Save PDF button on the sheet's toolbar. The Back to editor button takes you back to the recipe.
The sheet's Costs block
The Costs block uses the same amounts and criteria as the recipe's Costs tab. It shows three figures:
- Full batch cost — ingredients + supplies + labor + equipment + indirect costs. If prices are missing, it's called Partial batch cost and a note explains which items are missing.
- Cost / 100 g (after waste) — the batch cost over the usable final weight, not over the ingredient weight.
- Cost / unit (with your unit's name, for example Cost / piece) or Cost / serving, with the calculation behind it. If the recipe doesn't define units in Yield, it says No yield set.
Below it, a table goes from the composition total to the full batch cost, item by item (ingredients, supplies, labor, equipment, indirect costs), followed by the Top ingredients by cost (up to five, highest first) and the date of the prices used (Prices from the recipe and the price book, as calculated in the Costs tab).
If the recipe has no costs calculated in the Costs tab yet (or the saved calculation belongs to different ingredients, or included reference prices), the sheet shows only the Ingredient cost with the prices set on the recipe's lines, plus a note explaining why. Open the Costs tab to recalculate. To get the full cost, first set your purchase prices, your labor and equipment rates and your fixed business costs.
To see the cost split in full detail, use the cost breakdown.
Expected result
An A4 PDF with your technical sheet ready for production or to hand off to a client.
Plan availability
Available on every plan. The only exception is the old free accounts (created before sign-up required choosing a plan): they don't include PDF export, so Print / PDF shows the notice "PDF export is included in the Starter and Pro plans." instead of opening the sheet.
Tips
- Before printing, make sure every ingredient's allergens are complete. If any are missing, the sheet warns you (Incomplete calculation: the allergens of… are missing) and doesn't claim the recipe is allergen-free.
- If the sheet runs to more than one page, review the number of ingredients or steps. Consider splitting the recipe into parts (see Parts and sub-recipes).