Month: October 2013
Waste Bakery Products
I was reading recently that Tesco throw away 41% of all bakery products, I find that disgusting. They won’t be the only supermarket group that have this kind of waste in their bakery offering. I can’t understand as to why there is so much waste.
Is it because they are having to offer availability at all times, day and night and if they haven’t got bread for customers when they want it will they go to a competitor? I think its too high a price to pay if that is the case. I know that certain supermarkets have very sophisticated ordering systems and even have bakery staff seconded into their head offices to help plan their requirements and stock, they have weather forecasts they buy to keep abreast of demand also,and still they have a mountain of waste.
So the big question is if they are the throwing away so much food why are the bread prices at rock bottom? Well in my opinion its because they see bakery items as a method of enticing customers into their stores for a low cost item, when they really don’t care about the bakeries that are having to produce these products for next to nothing. The supermarkets retail engineer all their prices so that what they throw away in bread , doesn’t matter as they make their money from customers on an average basket sale. The investments that bakeries are making just to keep up with the so called demand has forced prices down. There are too many bakeries fighting for sales and the prices are being governed by the supermarkets who are throwing away nearly half of it so that they can keep their volumes higher but pay less for it in the first place. It doesn’t matter to the supermarkets as they then go back to the bakers and tell them that that are not making much profit as they are having to throw lots away. Given that supermarket buyers in general are asking for ridiculous high margins to start with in the first place. The baker once inside this vicious circle has to come up with a lower price to keep the volume or in some cases the business in total as he needs to keep the volume to run the expensive machinery they have heavily invested in to supply the supermarkets, all in all a vicious circle. The best price is always the first price a baker gets when he starts his business relationship with a supermarket group.
Frozen Bakery sales are growing
Frozen Bakery sales are growing
Frozen bakery is a growing industry in food processing. There is a huge demand for frozen bakery products, for instance, frozen bread, as fresh bread has a very short life span. A number of chemical and physical changes take place during its storage, deteriorating the freshness and quality of bread.
The frozen bakery market is also growing steadily with medium-sized competition. Supermarkets and hypermarkets comprise a greater percentage than artisan bakers. In recent years, the growth of coffee shop chains selling frozen bakery products has also increased the competition for other bakery outlets. There’s an increasing trend toward specialty and continental frozen bakery products.
When Life Gets in the Way: Finding Time to Blog
All new bloggers should read this article, it’s helpful and well written
When you begin blogging, losing an hour of sleep to perfect a post or skipping lunch to spend time commenting is a pleasure. Post ideas come thick and fast. And more published posts mean pageviews and readers, so publishing more is better, right?
Sure… until it’s not. Until work starts piling up. Or you get sick. Or a friend is in from out of town. Or you have to bake three dozen cupcakes for Sally’s class — by tomorrow. Sometimes, we all get trapped under a beam in the burning barn (metaphorically) and can’t get to the computer. When that happens, how do you find time to blog without turning your creative outlet into just another obligation?
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cake names
Bakers help preserve traditional names
08 October, 2013
By Antonia Hawken
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Craft bakers are helping to preserve regional words and dialects, according to a new survey for National Craft Bakers’ Week.
Traditionally, bakers have prefixed local specialities with the name of their town or region, giving us the Bakewell tart, Gloucester drips, Eccles cakes, Chelsea buns and the Tottenham slice.
While the online survey of 100 bakers produced for the Week (7-13 October) showed many are maintaining this tradition, it also highlighted that they are preserving regional names for the most popular baked item: the bread roll.
The roll can be known as a stottie in Newcastle, bread-cake in Yorkshire, barm cake in Liverpool, oggie in the South West and bap in several places around the UK.
The word “bread” was first recorded around 950BC, and the word “cake” circa 1230.
With bread traditionally considered as a savoury food and cake as sweet, originally the words were both used to describe the modern definition of bread.
Jonathan Robinson, lead content specialist for Sociolinguistics at the British Library, said: “Bread was historically a generic term for any baked item and ‘cake’ and ‘loaf’ originally referred to the shape of that ‘bread’ – with cake usually being smaller and ‘loaf’ meaning ‘large bread’.
“This explains why there are so many different words for bread roll in use around the country and why, often, the description for a bread roll may include the word ‘cake’.
“I am delighted to see that bakers are helping to preserve regional language and dialect, not to mention the foods they describe.”
The wide variety of baking terms reflects the evolution of English from several roots. The older words such as bread are generally Germanic, reflecting our Anglo-Saxon heritage, while more recent coinages, such as tart, are French in origin, reflecting our Norman heritage.
National Craft Bakers’ Week, which is supporting the Teenage Cancer Trust, is organised on behalf of hundreds of craft bakers across the UK, who form a key part of the British high street. Bakers will be fundraising on behalf of the charity.
Bun Fight at Starbucks
Bun fight erupts after Starbucks trademarks the name ‘Duffin’ for their new doughnut-muffin hybrid
It is meant to be a delightfully sweet and tasty treat, but the Duffin, a doughnut – muffin hybrid, has left a very bitter taste in one pastry chef’s mouth, after Starbucks trademarked the name.
Bea Vo, owner of Bea’s of Bloomsbury, has been selling her Duffins from her four London bakeries for over two years.
She was shocked to learn that high street coffee giants Starbucks had launched it’s own version of the snack and registered the name.
Cake off: The owner of London’s Bea’s bakery claims Starbucks is furious after Starbuck’s trademarked the name ‘Duffin’
The Bea’s of Bloomsbury Duffin uses a buttermilk and nutmeg batter which is baked and stuffed with raspberry jam before being dipped in melted butter and then dusted with sugar.
The Starbucks version, which was developed by their pastry suppliers Rich’s Products also uses nutmeg and buttermilk and is injected with raspberry jam, however it foregoes the butter dip process.
She told ABC news: ‘I didn’t really give it too much thought until I found out their version of the duffin also contains raspberry jam, nutmeg and buttermilk.
‘My recipe, which was published in my cookbook back in August 2011, is the only one out there to carry all of those traits. Doughnut muffins have been around for a while, Nigella Lawson even has them in her first cookbook — but the style of mine, that is what makes it unique.
‘What makes a Duffin characteristic is that it’s dipped in melted butter and then rolled in sugar. The Starbucks version doesn’t even bother with the dipping in melted butter. By all accounts it isn’t even a true doughnut-muffin — it’s a jam-filled muffin.’
Ms Vo has described theirs as being an inferior version of her recipe.
In a statement Starbucks’ vice-president for marketing and category Ian Cranna, said: ‘Since launching, we have discovered there are other Duffins out there in the UK, including at Bea’s of Bloomsbury… however we’d like to make it clear that neither Starbucks nor Rich’s Products has suggested to Bea’s of Bloomsbury that they will attempt to stop them selling their own Duffins.’
The Starbuck’s Duffin (left) uses a very similar recipe to the Bea’s of Billingham Duffin (right)
However Starbucks said they had no idea that other Duffins were being sold or that anyone was using the name.
They claimed to have conducted an ‘extensive’ online search as well as a full trademark search for the name but had drawn a blank.
‘Inspired by our muffins, we sat together with our bakers and pondered how you could make a muffin go one step further,’ their marketing department claimed.
However Ms Vo remains entirely unconvinced, pointing out that a quick google search will reveal dozens of refernces and recipes for Duffins, including her own.
She told the Independent: ‘Starbucks maintains its original account that its invention is a unique invention and that it did an extensive online search for the word duffin and found nothing and as a result their supplier trademarked that name. I think that’s rubbish.
‘I would love to see the emails between Starbucks and Rich’s Products during the birth of their invention.’
The Top Ten Toasters for your Bread
Two top British brands – Dualit and Emma Bridgewater – have joined forces to create this pleasingly chintzy hand-built toaster that will last you for years. Available in a two- or four-slice version, it includes a defrost setting and extra wide slots for hand-cut toast.
From £99.99, lakeland.co.uk
From fuchsia pink to apple green, this compact and curvy toaster comes in a range of funky colours. It’s quite slow, so it’s not one for those who have to rush off in the mornings, but it toasts everything from bagels to crumpets.
£14.99, argos.co.uk
Bread doesn’t get more evenly toasted than this, even when cooked from frozen. This solid, retro-style toaster also boasts plenty of colour options, although be warned: the stainless steel one is tricky to clean.
From £100, amazon.co.uk
If you want a few curved lines in your kitchen, this high-performance toaster comes in a range of colours and finishes, and includes bagel, defrost, cancel, reheat and high-lift functions, as well as extra-wide slots, even browning, a slide-out crumb tray and cord storage.
From £49.99, lakeland.co.uk
This stylish toaster from German brand Graef, which comes in a two- or four-slice model, fits everything from crumpets and tea cakes to chunky slices of home-made bread – and thanks to the long slots, you don’t get tips of bread sticking out of the top, remaining irritatingly unbrowned.
From £75.95, amara.com
This is simple to use and gets good results – all you need in the morning. Features include variable browning controls, a frozen-bread setting and a reheat function. Most bread slices fit into the deep slots, with the exception of extra-wide bread such as a bloomer slice.
£40, tesco.com
Breville’s Opula is a nifty little machine: the four-slice toaster has a variable browning control ( so you can get your slice of white just right) and, if you like your bread thick and handcut in the morning, there’s a variable slot to accommodate even the fattest wedges of bread. It also features handy defrost and reheat functions, plus a high lift for easy toast extraction.
£35, debenhams.com
Add a touch of glamour to breakfast time with this eye-catching four-slice toaster that works equally well with fresh and frozen bread. Available in black or white, it features a high-lift carriage and a bun warmer and has both defrost and reheat settings.
£44.99, johnlewis.com
You could be forgiven for assuming this see-through, two-slice toaster is a gimmick. But engineers spent 15 years perfecting it, so it browns bread perfectly and the controls are easy to use. Mind you, the transparent sides mean you can see all the crumbs inside.
£160, houseoffraser.co.uk
Bring a splash of colour to your kitchen with this great-value, two-tone toaster. It has blue illumination control buttons, plus all the usual features you’d expect, along with a bun warmer for heating pastries and bread.
£24.99, uk.russellhobbs.com
Sad Ending for another Bakery
Final bread baked at Channel Island Bakery and Warry’s Bakery
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The final loaves of bread have been baked by Jersey’s Channel Island Bakery and Warry’s Bakery in Guernsey.
The bakeries – both operated by Cimandis – made their last batches of loaves on Friday and they have since been distributed.
The company announced the closures last month and confirmed earlier that production had stopped.
A spokesman said competition from cheaper, imported bread had led to the decision to close the operations.
The bakeries employed 44 staff in Jersey and 36 in Guernsey.
‘State of flux’
Mario Pirozzollo, from Empire Catering in Jersey, said 60% of his company’s bread supply had come from Cimandis.
He said his costs would inevitably rise as a result of having to import greater quantities.
“We’re in a state of flux at the moment,” he said.
“The freight charge to get a pallet of bread over is quite considerable, bearing in mind that bread is very low density.”
Mr Pirozzollo said he would freeze more imported bread in order to ensure he could continue to supply his customers.
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