Instore - June 2018 - 13

product knowledge

Providing the artisan touch
Bakers can enjoy that sweet spot, too, by offering retailers and restaurants bread varieties that come with a bit higher quality perception.
Artisan touches such as scoring or ingredients such as ancient grains,
seeds and nuts can help bakery items keep up with menus.
"Consumers don't mind paying for preferences of quality," says
Cordia Harringon, chief executive officer of The Bun Cos., Nashville,
Tennessee. "If they want a wheat bun, and it's an upscale wheat bun,
they will pay money for that."
According to Antoine Boule, managing director for Lesaffre, what is
striking is the growing diversity of the global bread marketplace. Some
consumers seek out healthy bread. Others demand traditional bread.
Still others want snacks.

"If you go to a German bakery, the selection is extraordinary," Boule
told bake. "I see more crusty breads, and that segment is very much
on the rise in many countries. The croissant is also very trendy. It is
following crusty breads, and that is good."
There is a multiplicity of segments, and the challenge for bakers is to
adapt to a broader range of demands globally. Lesaffre has 38 baking
centers worldwide to create breads of the future, Baule says.
BakeMark's Westco brand has offered bakery ingredients for 90 years
and is known throughout the baking industry for its consistent quality.
Now, Westco is offering a line of artisan bread ingredients.
Every artisan bread offering contains a great line of crusty breads.
Westco says its crusty bread bases offer great-tasting breads with
crusty exteriors and soft interiors. These bases and pastes are designed
for a platform of saving time and reducing labor costs while still
offering enough flexibility to create signature crusty breads, baguettes
and rolls.
Westco's line also includes sourdough bases as well as bases for bagels,
soft breads, and rye and pumpernickel breads. Its artisan dough
improvers strengthen dough, increase shelf volume and extend shelf life.
Grain breads are also popular with consumers because of their
interesting textures and flavors. Westco's grain bread mixes and bases
offer flavor through unique blends of grains and seeds while keeping
consistency and convenience for production of artisan multi-grain and
ancient grain breads and rolls.
Chad Robertson, founder of San Francisco's Tartine Bakery, spoke
recently about seeking out ancient wheat varieties like einkorn and
testing batch after batch of other wheat varieties while experimenting
with high-hydration dough. He says he learned the biggest factor in the
flavor of bread is what is developed during fermentation.
"I'm really excited to try new flavors," he says. "We are always trying to
make what we do better. Tartine's Country 2.0 is coming out next week.
We believe in naturally leavened, fresh milled breads. My favorite grain
being source now is einkorn being grown in North Dakota."
Robertson says the early days of his now-famous shop were spent
learning important lessons about artisan breads. That included baking
every hour, changing the traditional schedule of baking bread very
early in the morning and then presenting everything at one time.
Instead, Tartine would serve fresh croissants (and other breads) right
out of the oven from the minute the bakery opened until closing time,
baking batch after batch, and keeping customers happy to know they
could enjoy Tartine's fresh bread throughout the day.

instore * JUNE 2018 * 13

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