What's trending in the world of bread?

Breads are everybody's favourite. Be it sandwiches, buns, rolls or fancier treats like croissants and pastries, breads are loved in all forms. Today, consumers are increasingly pressed for time but still want to cut down on their calorie intake. Hence, bread makers will be aiming to make their go-to staples more memorable, vivid and colourful. Here's what trending in the world of baking bread:

Rainbow Bread: Veg Extravaganza

One colorful way in which you can amplify the nutrition content in the bread is by mixing vegetables with the dough to produce an artistic product that looks as good as it tastes. Brightly coloured veggies such as carrot, beetroot or legumes can help make themselves more visible to the eye and act as a strong boost towards positive nutrition. Bread makers should take care not to overdo the colours though. Baking the bread at the correct temperature is important to get the texture just right.

According to the Mintel Global New Products Database, vegetable bread is a high-end food in Europe that made up for 6% of all new bread launches in 2017. Finland saw a new flat rye bread that is made up of beetroot, carrot and parsnip to the extent of 30% of the loaf. Brazil has its own veg super thin toasts that boast of flamboyant orange, green and pink hues from carrot, spinach and beetroot, while USA launched spinach soft tacos that uses apples, psyllium (a variety of fibre made from the husks of the Plantago ovata plant seeds) apart from spinach and onions. Vegetable-based bread is a great idea that diversifies ready-to-go food menus without crisscrossing to different sections of the grocery.

Beverage-themed bread

Bakers have noted that an overwhelmingly large percentage of warm beverage drinkers in metropolitan locations combine their coffee occasions with a sweet bakery item. During last Christmas, a Christmas Gingerbread Latte cake won the first prize in the Christmas Cakes, Pastries and Tarts category at the British Baker’s Christmas Stars Competition. India, too, will soon see coffee-themed pastries flavoured with real crushed cocoa beans that will leave consumers with a seamless café experience. Cakes offer a great opportunity for sculpturally minded chefs keen to display their creativity at form, space and disorder. However, adapting wildly raucous themes to beverage habits is sure to be a hit with the busy office-going crowd.

World fusion bread

Street food stalls and ethnic restaurants have turned chic with world cuisine assimilating a potpourri of global bread usage traditions. In particular, cultures that use sauces to condiment a dour meal, such as Mexican, Spanish, Middle Eastern and, of course, Indian, are proving to be a great hit with consumers everywhere. Vendors that offer a dip along with their bread offerings offer fun and adventure with customisable food experiments. The name ‘coconut & pepper tortillas' may sound like a mouthful but its delectable coconut flavour and a sprinkling of pepper on top of a soft yet thin flatbread crust makes it a genuinely delicious snack. The finest ras el hanout flatbread is absolutely bursting with North African aromas with rich fillings of apricots and raisins with a blend of nine different spices.

(The author is director, Bonn Group of Industries)