Home Baking on the Rise

MEDIA RELEASE
19 October 2009

The quintessential Kiwi hokey pokey biscuit (see recipe below).

Home Baking on the Rise

If supermarket purchasing trends are anything to go by then the smell of fresh home-baking is wafting through more New Zealand homes than ever before.

Old Fashioned Foods Group Senior Brand Manager, Susan Harvey, said ‘baking is trendy – it’s the new black’ with latest supermarket sales data confirming that the baking and cooking department is growing faster than any other department.

“Especially interesting for us is the fact that baking department sales have risen by 16.7% versus last year,” Susan said.

All of this is good news for Old Fashioned Foods owners of the Hansells brand - the 75 year old local brand established in 1934 and one of New Zealand’s original manufacturers of home-baking and cooking ingredients.

“We view this latest growth in home baking as being led by a number of factors. The first is the downturn in the economy and a drive towards home baking being seen as directly reducing costs for consumers.

“Secondly, baking is simply cool again and perceived as a fresh way to entertain and to treat yourself, family and friends.

“Lastly, there is an emerging trend whereby baking is seen as a common sense ingredient in the drive towards the consumption of less processed foods. With allergies and gluten intolerance on the rise, home baking offers people a better way of knowing exactly what’s in their food.

“You need only look at the revival of the cupcake craze in the US, which is beginning to be experienced here and this means good things for home baking. This all helps to promote the trend that not only is it okay to cook at home again but it actually conveys a note of care and quality in the way you’re entertaining your guests,” Susan said.

Home baking back in vogue makes it a big year for the Hansells brand with the baking ingredients brand of the nation celebrating its 75th year in business. To keep the heat up on this latest home baking craze and to celebrate its anniversary, Hansells has created an entire website – www.mysecretrecipe.co.nz – where Kiwis can share their own firm favourites. There will be prizes for the most popular baking recipes and Kiwis can win prizes by simply voting for their favourite recipe.

- ENDS -

Background on Data:
Source: Synovate Aztec Key Accounts Supermarket scan data based on dollars for year to 05 July 2009 vs year ago.

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HOKEY POKEY BISCUITS
By Robyn Martin

150g butter
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 teaspoon Hansells Baking soda
1 teaspoon Hansells Caramel Essence
1 tablespoon water
1¾ cups flour

Place butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan large enough to mix all the ingredients. Heat, stirring until butter melts. Remove from heat. Dissolve baking soda in water, add caramel essence and mix into butter mixture. Add flour and mix until combined.
Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on ungreased oven trays. Flatten with a fork. Bake at 180 degrees C for 12 – 15 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 26

HOKEY POKEY BISCUIT TIPS:

• These biscuits can be made by creaming the butter and sugar rather than melting it in a saucepan. Cream the butter and sugar. Dissolve the golden syrup in hot water and mix in the baking soda. Follow method as above.
• Creaming the butter and sugar will give a shorter biscuit.
• When baking soda is mixed with something acid like golden syrup, carbon dioxide is released. This is why the mixture froths when these ingredients are mixed.
• It is fun to show kids the magic of cooking by mixing baking soda with vinegar and watching the froth!
• Use a measuring spoon to make the balls for these biscuits. This helps make the biscuits even in size.
• When using a fan-forced oven on fan bake, reduce the specified oven temperature by 10 – 20 degrees C.

ENDS

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