In challenging times when seeking comfort is a key goal, consumers turn to fresh bakery items they know and love. That is why pastries are making a big comeback during the stressful times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People here are looking for beautiful croissants. They love the flavor,” explains Jose Sanchez, store manager at Mi Tierra in Springdale, Ohio.

They offer pastries with many flavors of toppings: pineapple, strawberry, Bavarian cream and more. They also sell many types of empanadas, which are filled with either pineapple, apple, strawberry or even dulce de leche.

“Our sales are going up now. They are very impressed with the quality of the breads and sweet pastries at our bakery.”

At Panadería La Mexicana in Fairfield, Ohio, they are starting to package and brand individual croissants and conchas with their own logo, both as a way to market their business and to offer protection for consumers who are increasingly conscious of food safety.

“The area where our bakery is located has grown a lot since we opened here in 2000,” explains Luis Leon, whose father, Adalberto Leon, owns the bakery business.

Laminated doughs

Laminated pastries continue to gain popularity across the nation. In the pastry world, the final step of categorization comes down to non-laminated and laminated doughs. These are often not confined by their leavened state, as a non-laminated or laminated dough can be leavened.

Laminated pastry dough is made by folding a piece of pastry onto itself many times. In between each layer is a thin slathering of butter. This creates a multi-layered and flaky finished dough. Unleavened examples of this kind of dough are puff pastry and phyllo dough.

A leavened version is a croissant. Non-laminated pastry are pastries that have dough that has not been folded onto itself many times. Unleavened versions of these types of dough include choux (used in eclairs)  and pie dough. A leavened version is brioche.

Lamination is a technique of dough preparation that layers butter and dough in a long process of rolling and folding to create alternating layers of fat and dough. Puff pastry is laminated dough.

Non-laminated dough is when the fat, normally butter, shortening, or lard, is “cut-in” or sometimes rubbed into the flour. Non-laminated doughs are pâte brisée (basic pie dough), pâte à choux (cream puff pastry), pâte Sablée (short dough), and pâte Sucrée (sweet dough).

These complex pastries are becoming more widespread and readily available at panaderías such as Panadería La Mexicana in Fairfield.

Bakery solutions

Some may think pastries are complicated to make, but they are not.

According to BakeMark, at the end of the day, what many bakers are looking for is the ability to offer fresh, quality product while also trying to leverage solutions that offer differentiation and labor-saving convenience. Many times, bakers have to go with one or the other as a result making some concessions along the way. With bakery mixes, you get the best of both worlds.

BakeMark takes the same core ingredients that bakers source, store, scale and mix and blend them for you. As a result, these bulk bags help streamline your baking process. That’s less ingredients to buy and less ingredients to store.

Many scratch-bakers have transitioned to bakery mixes. They have the ability to customize and develop signature products, and as a result reap the rewards of having quality and consistency. That leads to the best of both worlds. Baking from core ingredients, having the aroma of fresh baked goods, in addition to enjoying the convenience of a bakery mix that saves you time and labor.  

Especially at a time when finding good, consistent labor can be troublesome, bakery mixes can be your solution. Over its long history, BakeMark has picked up quite a few insights and have developed category-leading expertise along the way. That is what’s available to bakers, through a complete line of bakery mixes and bases.