bake - May/June 2024 - 26

The pandemic trend that has stuck around is the
importance of food delivery to many businesses. With
that comes concerns about maintaining the quality of the
food throughout the process, from creation to delivery.
Companion works with its partners in the foodservice
industry to ensure they maintain quality in their bread
products.
" If we look at foodservice, it's really the portability
THE SOURDOUGH CRAZE IS BACK
Once a mainstay of our Instagram and TikTok feeds during the
first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, sourdough starters are returning
to prominence. According to Google Trends, searches for
'sourdough' have seen a steady increase since the pandemic - with
a three times resurgence already happening in 2024. As the sourdough
boom reemerges, King Arthur Baking Company has noticed
a surge in bread flour sales.
" The rise in bread flour sales can be attributed to several factors
that all overlap and weave together to create the trend we are seeing
today, " says John Henry Siedlecki, vice president of brand and innovation
for King Arthur Baking Company. " A lot of people learned
how to bake during COVID and are now putting those skills to good
use as a way to escape the craziness of everyday life and the neverending
bad news cycle. Bread baking is not only a stress reliever,
but it also gives bakers control over the ingredients they use, and,
with grocery prices spiking last year, gives them a little more control
over their budgets with homemade bread being cheaper than
buying it from a store. "
The Bread Bakers Guild of America hosted a two-day intensive
session on sourdough products and processes on April 29-30 at the
King Arthur Baking School in Norwich, Vt. In the course, attendees
produced a variety of breads, while learning how build schedules,
hydration, flour selection, fermentation times and temperature
influence flavor profile, dough characteristics and production timelines.
Being able to manipulate these and other variables is critical
to the baker's success on any scale, so the BBGA and King Arthur
explored the subject in its historical context, focusing on how principles
impact production in real time.
Amber Eisler is the King Arthur Baking School director. She makes
recommendations for bakers beginning their sourdough journey.
" If you are an aspiring sourdough baker, you should definitely start
measuring your ingredients by weight for accuracy and consistency.
Also, you should establish a sourdough care and feeding routine
that easily fits your lifestyle. The needs of your starter are simple,
but ongoing, and requires a bit of planning and commitment. "
that's changed, " Allen says. " The volume of food that's
being sold to-go just continues to grow. That really wasn't
the case before. Not that people didn't want to-go food
or that there weren't drive-thrus before the pandemic,
but it's really changed. "
" All the things that people
were focused on to create
differentiation of their brand
inside of four walls, now has
to be focused inside that bag. "
Josh Allen, founder, Companion Baking
One of Companion's customers in recent years was a
burger concept that needed a new bun that would travel.
It was a great smash burger for sit-down customers,
but it's now an average of 45 minutes from the time
the burger is ordered, if it's for delivery. The order is
received, the burger is prepped, it comes off the grill,
sits in a hot box, gets picked up, is driven to the location
and finally arrives at the customer's door.
The restaurant required a bun that will survive being
wrapped in aluminum foil for 45 minutes. Will it disintegrate?
Will it fall apart? Is it still the quality that they
want? These are the questions Companion worked with
its partner to answer in testing. In starting that relationship,
they made a burger with the new bun, sat for that
time frame and then ate it.
" Atmosphere, service, cleanliness. All the things that
people were focused on to create differentiation of
their brand inside of four walls, now has to be focused
inside that bag, " Allen says. " All of that food has to be
uniquely better. The game has changed, and your walls
have expanded all the way to the consumer's home. "
Scaling up to meet customer needs
Companion works with a unique variety of customers,
including a home subscription service, a deli chain in
central Missouri and an Italian restaurant concept in
26 < MAY-JUN 2024 | bakemag.com
KING ARTHUR BAKING COMPANY
http://www.bakemag.com
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