Consumers across Europe are embracing American sweet bakery favorites, donuts included. This growing demand is met with ingredient solutions that can help formulate popular choices – from blondies to New-York-style cheesecakes and peanutbutter fillings – and any number of trendsetting creations inspired by America’s darling flavors.
Dawn Foods’ consumer survey found that 4 out of 5 European consumers who tried American sweet baked goods said they liked them. In addition, Gira’s recent research shows that a fifth of all fresh pastries consumed in Europe were US-style products. UK consumers, in particular, enjoy them – the ratio is 62% for them.
Experts from Dawn Foods, a bakery ingredient company with deep roots in American bakery, share expert insight into this dynamic market including different formulations, manufacturing insights and guidance into donut innovation and American-favorite sweet bakes.
Consumer demand for American-style sweet bakery goods is on the rise in Europe. Sarah Browner (Market Research & Insights Manager EU & AMEAP) illustrates: “In retail, for example, the annual average new product launch is up by 16% for donuts and 13% for cheesecake, over the past five years.” (Source: Mintel Database)
Wanted: ‘Authentic American’
Dawn Foods recently launched three new solutions that meet the growing trend for American-made flavors in Europe: a Blondie mix, a New York Style Cheesecake mix and a Crunchy Peanut Butter filling, all part of its ‘Authentic American’ range.
+ The Dawn Blondie Mix
This mix helps create a variety of new pastries to add to brownie offerings, helping with consistent results even with variations in the production process. It is designed for easy depositing and can be used with the recommended recipe, or to create new, unique blondie specialties. “Blondies need to be chewy, sticky, and gooey in the middle,” Alexandre Deschamps (International Application Manager), explains.
+ The Dawn New York Style Cheesecake Mix
A true New York-style cheesecake needs to bake gently, without cracking its surface, or over/underbaking it. This mix can help solve such challenges, to bake cheesecakes consistently and with less room for errors in the process. It also brings versatility to the NPD table: it can be combined with several fillings and flavors.
+ The Dawn Balance Crunchy Peanut Butter Filling
This true-American product can be used as a filling or topping, pre- and after-baking. Made with 100% peanuts, it is naturally vegan and has no added sugar, packed with proteins and fibers.
While they come with several recipe ideas and recommendations, there are no limits to how all the ‘Authentic American’ products can be used. “They can be easily combined: think Peanut Butter Blondie or even combining the three into a Blondie with Peanut Butter & Cheesecake filling. You can also play with shapes, formats and flavors: Cheesecake on a stick, Peanut Butter filled cookies, or bring exciting flavor combinations by adding Dawn Compounds and/or Dawn Delifruit Fruit Fillings to cheesecake applications,” Dawn Foods‘ Alexandre Deschamps (International Application Manager) tells us. Ultimately, the new products are designed for creativity in developing signature applications.
Alexandre Deschamps, International Application Manager, Dawn Foods
An American donut in Europe
It’s donuts’ time on the European market. It is a landscape that has been advancing over the past decades and it’s going up by leaps and bounds today as consumers are enjoying their donuts with exciting new icings, fresh tastes and better-for-you properties.
Donut shops of all kinds, from multinational franchises to independent craft businesses, have been opening at an impressive rate over the past 20 years. Product innovation is also matching this growth: donut launches in Europe peaked in 2022 (Source: Mintel research), and more donut launches are expected this year and beyond, Browner anticipates.
Widely popular on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, there are different approaches to donuts – in preparation and indulgence. For example, donuts are more of a morning choice or a snack that has a texture closer to bread in the US, while in Europe, consumers and manufacturers regard it more along the lines of cakes – softer, with a delicate structure, and are more popular with the afternoon coffee or tea, Marie Frigo (Category Marketing Manager Dry EU & AMEAP) said.
Over the next years, donut creations will continue to evolve and break boundaries with new flavors, textures and formats. Tapping into several emerging consumer trends, Dawn predicts even stronger growth for donuts in the coming years. One of the rising trends is veganism; as it continues to grow in all bakery products, innovation in donuts also looks into joining in with exciting, new offers.
“According to our recent Global Bakery Trends Survey, 61% of European consumers who have tried vegan sweet baked goods, said that they liked it. Dawn has made it easy for bakers to start their donut vegan journey with a wide assortment of high-quality mixes, icings and glazes – all vegan or vegan suitable,” Browner detailed.
Guidelines to good donuts
To support bakers with new product development in donuts, Dawn shares their extensive experience and research findings, on which the company builds its new product innovation. The specialist addresses the most difficult challenges with the solutions it offers. The most difficult one has nothing to do with any particular step in donut production, and everything to do with the production process overall – namely, the lack of skilled people. Herman Eikemper (Sr. International Application Manager): “The biggest obstacle is finding skilled labor that can operate the donut production line. We know the equipment and the processes through and through and have formulations that work in every situation. They have been developed to save time, to be ‘foolproof’, to ensure a consistent outcome every time,” regardless of the experience of the staff in each shift. Dawn Foods introduced donut mixes on the market, which help with the consistency in product quality.
Offering new and exciting choices is always key to having a competitive edge. It’s also true for donut innovation with the potential to entice new consumer groups. Dawn offers solutions for new flavor profiles, or product segments, such as the vegan mix, for example.
Looking at the manufacturing process next, achieving quality consistently is an acquired skill. “We like to say that 50% is in the bag of mix and 50% is in technical know-how,” Eikemper says. With this mindset, the company offers customized ingredients solutions and supports the bakers in selecting the right ingredients and optimizing production. Answers are found on all donut-related topics: “Do customers require large-scale production, to decorate orfill the donuts, or do they want different shapes? What ingredients are needed and what type of equipment?”
A yeast-raised donut, for example, needs to be cut into shapes with a dough cutter, which means the sky is the limit to the products that can be made, from rings, donut holes and long johns to twists, pumpkins, hearts, or stars. By comparison, a cake donut, which is deposited, only allows a limited range of shapes; but, it shines when made into mini donuts, whereas yeast-raised donuts do not handle miniature sizes well. Depending on the intended outcome, Dawn claims it can provide the ingredients and recommend the type of equipment that is best suited.
Dawn’s donut mixes can be used following the recommended instructions, but they can also serve as a base for a lot of other new creations. Take, for instance, the Dawn Exceptional Raised Donut Base: it can be the start for donuts with various fillings, icings, or glazings, and it can also be used for deep-fried pastries, or sweet and savory yeast pastries, and yeast dough.
Dawn partners with equipment suppliers to support bakeries in their effort to perfect donut creation, with a complete view of the product and the proces. Earlier this year, the ingredient specialist teamed up with RONDO for a seminar where each shared their expertise on making and baking donuts to perfection and to even better service and support donut manufacturing customers.
