Baked goods taste yummy and are high in sugar and calories. Yet we sinfully indulge and frequently fall for a treat. Buns and breads, cakes and pastries, rolls, croissants and muffins, patties and cookies all make for endearing snacking and breakfast items. Till sometime ago bread was never a part of eating culture in a place like Madurai famous for its soft and fluffy idlis, parottas and an array of non-vegetarian recipes starting from the dosa with keema curry combo for breakfast.
B Anandh
Yet over the last seven years, B.Anandh has built a thriving bakery business not only whipping up fresh breads and sweet treats but also constantly experimenting and succeeding at many levels. Having established Blaack Forest as at the top of the class, he is now ready with his newest venture. “I am dropping white from my products and saying Hi to brown,” he declares.
He has been experimenting for six months cajoling his friends and select regular customers to taste the new line of products that have no maida and sugar content. He has replaced the refined white flour with whole wheat flour (atta) and sugar with palm sugar (karuppatti) while baking breads or plum cakes, apple pies or cookies, creamy pastries or fruit bar cakes.
HEALTHY ‘N’ TASTY: Eat more cakes with no guilt
Anandh clarifies even though his new product line – partially launched at the K.K.Nagar outlet – has undergone a major shift in key ingredients, each item remains as tasty, crusty and airy. And, people should not think it is only for those who are diabetic or on some medication.
People are more health, diet and fitness conscious these days and everybody knows that maida always gets the bad rap. That palm sugar can be a great tool for bakers, Anandh is now trying to establish. After all, it’s not every bakery that dares to create a cake or a cookie that has a really different texture, can give an odd mouth feel and not carry the same familiar taste one is so used to.
But then the artisan baker that Anandh is, he promises scrumptious recipes even if his expenses go up. “Maida makes the bread automatically soft but the use of whole wheat makes the processing technology time consuming,” he points out. It takes thrice more the time to knead and rest the atta dough to mellow and mature and be ready to be baked into a soft loaf of bread. “The proof is always in the dough,” he says.
HEALTHY ‘N’ TASTY: Eat more cakes with no guilt
Also the cost of palm sugar is seven times higher than white sugar and it has to be properly treated, filtered and diluted before mixing it with other ingredients for various products.
So if a regular loaf of white bread weighing 400gm costs Rs.35 in his shop now, the new brown bread with no maida and sugar will cost double for half the weight. His small see-through café opposite the Walker’s Club in K.K.Nagar is always bustling with people. Is he confident that he will continue to garner the same praise from his customers? “I am educating the customers and also giving away random samples,” he says, “because the whole wheat grain and fermentation brings in a different aroma difficult to explain.”
Anandh is confident about his customers who, he says, have always been supportive of whatever he has done. “I have grown with them by including sandwiches and salads and bringing nutrition to their tables and so far the feedback has been good,” he adds. He has kept the pricing competitive to lure the customers into trying the new range. “And when they taste it once, they are sure to return,” he says.
He says people in any case splurge on food these days. “Then why not as well enjoy eating something that is healthy and the best?”
QUOTE : “I am trying to make healthy eating easy for everybody.” -- B Anandh
The cost factor
Palmsugar pastries Rs.80; Chocolate truffle Rs.100; Assorted cookies 150 gm Rs.50; Cupcakes Rs.35; Birthday cakes starting from Rs.800 per kg depending on the flavour
