Method and Recipe Cards

A costed recipe tells you what a dish costs. It does not tell the person on the section how to make it. The Method tab closes that gap: write up the steps, add photos, record prep and cook times, and then download a recipe card PDF for the kitchen.

The Method tab

Open any recipe and you will see a Method tab next to Details. It holds everything a chef needs and nothing an accountant needs:

• Method steps - numbered instructions, in order, each with an optional photo.
• Chef notes - free text for the things that do not fit a numbered step ("rest the dough overnight if the kitchen is cold").
• Prep time and cook time - in minutes.
• Recipe photo - one hero image of the finished dish.

The tab opens in view mode. Click Edit to change anything, then save. Nothing here is edited from the recipe create or edit screen, so you can hand method writing to a chef without giving them the costing form.

Method text is separate from costing

Method steps, notes, times, and photos are stored alongside the recipe but outside its costed spec. Editing them never triggers a new recipe version, and rolling a recipe back to an earlier version never wipes your method. Reordering or regrouping ingredients does not create a version either.

Writing method steps

1. Open the recipe and go to Method.
2. Click Edit.
3. Click Add step and type the instruction.
4. Repeat until the method is complete.
5. Use the up and down arrows on any step to move it.
6. Click Save.

Steps are numbered automatically from their position, so moving a step renumbers everything below it. There is no drag and drop yet.

Example - Victoria Sponge:

1. Heat the oven to 180C fan. Line two 20cm tins.
2. Cream the butter and caster sugar until pale, about 4 minutes.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then fold in the flour and vanilla.
4. Divide between the tins and bake for 22 to 25 minutes until springy.
5. Cool completely, then sandwich with jam and whipped cream.

Write for the person who has never made it

The best method steps are the ones a new starter can follow at 6am without asking. Include tin sizes, oven settings, and the visual cue that tells them a stage is done.

The ingredients beside the method

While you write, the recipe's ingredient list sits next to the steps (to the right on a wide screen, above on a phone) with the batch quantity on every line, grouped by section. It is the same list as the Ingredients tab, so you do not need to flip between the two.

Each ingredient has a tick. As you name an ingredient in a step, its row ticks itself: type "cream the butter and caster sugar" and the butter and sugar lines tick as you go. The counter at the top shows how many ingredients the method has covered so far. Tap any row to tick or untick it yourself, which is the right move when a step covers several lines at once ("add all the dry ingredients") or when Brikly did not pick up how you phrased it.

The ticks are a writing aid and nothing more. They are not saved with the method, they never stop you saving, and they reset each time you open the editor. If the method is finished and a line is still unticked, that is a gentle nudge to check whether the ingredient is really used, or whether the costing has a line the kitchen does not.

Brikly only ticks a row when the wording can only mean that ingredient. With two flours on the recipe, "sift the flour" ticks neither, while "sift the plain flour" ticks the right one. Words like "large" or "brown" never tick a row on their own, so "a large bowl" does not tick the eggs.

Base recipes. A line that is itself a recipe, such as a cookie dough base you build several flavours on, can be expanded with the arrow beside it to show the base's own ingredients. Each of those ticks like any other row, and they tick automatically when a step names them or names the base itself ("make the cookie base as per its recipe"). Tapping the base row ticks or unticks all of its lines in one go. Quantities are scaled to how much of the base this recipe uses, so a half batch shows half the base's amounts. If the base is used in a unit Brikly cannot convert to batches, the base's own per-batch amounts are shown with a note saying so.

In view mode the same list appears read-only beside the steps, so someone cooking from the page has the quantities in front of them. Base recipes start collapsed there and open with the arrow.

Limits

Field	Limit
Steps per recipe	30
Characters per step	1,000
Chef notes	4,000 characters
Prep and cook time	0 to 6,000 minutes
Photos	JPEG or PNG, up to 5 MB each

Step photos

Each step can carry one photo. Click the image icon on the step, choose a file, and it uploads straight away. Step photos are best used for the stages that are hard to describe in words: the colour of a caramel, how thick a batter should ribbon, how a joint is tied.

Remove a step photo with the delete control on the image. Delete a step and its photo goes with it.

Recipe photo

The recipe photo is the hero shot of the finished dish. Upload it from the Method tab and crop it to the 4:3 frame Brikly uses on the card. Replacing the photo removes the old one, so the storage does not fill up with images nobody can see.

A good recipe photo is worth several method steps. It is the plating spec.

If the recipe is linked to a Square item that already has a product image, and you have not uploaded a photo of your own, Brikly shows that Square image on the Method tab and prints it on the recipe card. It is read from Square rather than copied, so if the image is removed in Square it disappears here too. Brikly holds the old address until the next catalogue sync, so for a short while after a removal the Method tab and the card simply show no photo rather than the one you took down. Uploading your own photo always takes precedence, and removing your own photo falls back to the Square image again. SumUp POS Pro does not provide product images, so a SumUp POS Pro link has nothing to lend.

Ingredient sections

Long recipes read better in groups. When you build or edit a recipe, you can add a section header above any ingredient line, so the list arrives in the kitchen already broken into components.

Typical sections:

• "For the sponges"
• "For the buttercream"
• "For the crumb topping"
• "To finish"

Add a section header in the ingredient editor on the recipe create or edit screen, then use the up and down arrows to put lines into the right group. Every line below a header belongs to that section until the next header.

Example - Coffee and Walnut Cake:

Section	Ingredient	Quantity
For the sponges	Caster sugar	225 g
For the sponges	Unsalted butter	225 g
For the sponges	Free-range eggs	4 each
For the sponges	Self-raising flour	225 g
For the buttercream	Unsalted butter	150 g
For the buttercream	Icing sugar	300 g
For the buttercream	Espresso	30 ml
To finish	Walnut halves	12 each

Sections show on the recipe detail page, on the recipe card, and in the ingredient list order everywhere else. Ingredient lines that sit above the first header have no section and simply appear first, with no invented heading.

The same ingredient can appear in two sections

Butter in the sponges and butter in the buttercream stay as two separate lines, each with its own quantity. Brikly only merges duplicate ingredient lines within the same section, because a chef needs to know how much to weigh out at each stage, not the total for the day.

Sections do not change what a recipe costs. They are presentation and ordering only, so you can regroup a recipe as often as you like without touching a single cost figure.

Downloading the recipe card

Open a recipe and click Recipe card in the header, next to Print PPDS label. Brikly renders a PDF and opens it in your browser, ready to print or save.

The card contains:

• Recipe name and variation, plus the category.
• The recipe photo, if you have set one, or the linked Square item image.
• Yield or portions, and serving size.
• Prep and cook times.
• The allergen line for the recipe.
• Every ingredient at batch quantity, grouped under its section headers.
• The ingredients of any base recipes you choose to break down (see below).
• The numbered method, with step photos as thumbnails.
• Chef notes.
• A footer showing the date it was generated.

Base recipes on the card

If the recipe uses a base recipe, clicking Recipe card first asks which base recipes to break down. Each base is listed, with bases used inside other bases indented beneath them. Tick a base to print its ingredients on the card in a Base recipes section. Leave it unticked and the card lists it as a single ingredient, as it appears in the recipe.

Tick a base when the person following this card makes it as part of the dish. A cookie dough shared by every flavour is a good example. Leave it unticked when it is made ahead in its own batch, like a chai concentrate in a chai latte. The person making the latte only needs to know how much concentrate to pour.

When at least one base is ticked, choose how its quantities print:

• Scaled to this recipe (the default) prints just what one batch of this recipe needs. If the recipe uses 4 of the dough's 16 portions, the card shows a quarter of each dough ingredient.
• Full base batch prints the whole base recipe as it is made on its own, with what that batch makes.

A base measured by weight or volume can only be scaled if Brikly knows its batch weight or volume. If it does not, the dialog warns you, and the card prints the full batch with a note saying so rather than guessing.

Brikly remembers your choice for each recipe on the device you print from, so each cookie flavour keeps its dough broken down and the chai latte keeps its concentrate as one line.

No costs on the card

The recipe card carries no costs, no margins, and no selling prices. That is deliberate.

A printed cost is only true until the next delivery. Laminate a card with £2.84 on it, pin it to the wall, and six months later it is quietly lying to everyone who walks past. Costs live in Brikly, where every invoice keeps them current. The card carries the part of a recipe that does not change with the price of butter.

Print it, laminate it, and reprint when the method changes

Because there are no prices on it, a recipe card only needs reprinting when the recipe itself changes. Regenerate it after any method edit so the copy on the wall matches the copy in Brikly.

Allergens on the card

The allergen line comes from the recipe's computed allergens, using the same data as the allergen matrix.

If allergens are mid-recalculation when you download the card, Brikly prints "Allergens are being recalculated" rather than a list that might be wrong. Wait for the recalculation to finish and download again.

The recipe card is not a legal label

A recipe card is a working document for your kitchen. It is not a PPDS label and must not be used as one. For customer-facing allergen labelling, use PPDS labels in SafetyBrik.

Duplicating a recipe

When you duplicate a recipe, the method comes with it: steps, chef notes, times, ingredient sections, and photos are all copied. The copy gets its own photo files, so editing or deleting an image on one recipe never affects the other.

This makes variants quick. Duplicate the 20cm cake, change the tin size in step 1 and the bake time, and you have the 15cm version documented in a couple of minutes.

Next steps

• Creating Recipes - building the ingredient list the card prints from.
• Recipe Costing - where the costs live, and why they stay on screen.
• Recipe allergens - how the allergen line is worked out.