HERZA Schokolade Promotes Customized Chocolate Pieces in Bakery

HERZA supplies these batons in bake-stable white and caramel-flavoured chocolate as well as whole milk and dark chocolate. All the batons are between 1 and 2 centimetres wide and 8 to 40 centimetres long, depending on the customer’s requirements. “

Jan 12 2012 --- In muesli, in tea or on a stick: the choice of products containing chocolate is widening all the time. In the field of bakery products the “brown gold of the Aztecs” has been fully in the trend for years. Besides the classic products like chocolate croissants, brownies and chocolate muffins, manufacturers are constantly coming up with new creations in order to offer consumers novel taste experiences and tempt them to buy. HERZA Schokolade supports the baking industry and bakeries with customized developments that will give their products an individual note. Marc van Essen, Key Account Manager at HERZA, puts it this way: “Besides our wide range of standard small-piece chocolate, more and more customers are asking for individual chocolate pieces that will give them a head start over their competitors. So it’s essential, nowadays, to respond flexibly to the different challenges. Together with our customers we develop tailor-made solutions that will give bakery products a unique selling proposition.”

The starting point for a unique selling proposition is chocolate pieces in new shapes, colours and flavours. One example of this is bake-stable chocolate batons, that are used chiefly for chocolate croissants and “pain au chocolat”. HERZA supplies these batons in bake-stable white and caramel-flavoured chocolate as well as whole milk and dark chocolate. All the batons are between 1 and 2 centimetres wide and 8 to 40 centimetres long, depending on the customer’s requirements. “The size can be adjusted to the customer’s specifications, which means that the batons can be used quickly and simply on the existing plant. Such individual sizing is a unique service that only we offer in this form”, Marc van Essen explains. “We are constantly creating new flavours, too. For example, the white batons can be made even more interesting with aromatic components like vanilla or coffee.”

Our microsize pieces – especially the tricolour mixture of white, dark and whole milk chocolate – are a very popular decoration for muffins, cakes and gateaux. The advantage is that these tiny pieces scatter well and are abrasion-resistant, which means they are very easy to use. Up to a point they are also heat-stable, so they can be scattered on hot bakery products without melting. HERZA has now upgraded these chocolate pieces visually, Marc van Essen adds: “A new feature of our range is microsize pieces with a “shiny effect”. They gleam in gold or silver, or shimmer in red or green”. These chocolate pieces lend extra class to premium products, especially. The visual effect can be modified individually – from a delicate sheen to an intensive silver or golden colour”. HERZA presented these microsize pieces for the first time in the autumn of 2011, at Food Ingredients Europe, where they met with great interest on the part of the specialist public, the Key Account Manager reports.

One of the classic products in the HERZA range is Liliput chocolate buttons. They have been very popular with home bakers for many years, but for industrial bakeries they are still an insider’s tip. The bake-stable buttons greatly enhance the enjoyment of the products. The high cocoa content – 40 percent – gives the products a more intensive chocolate flavour, and with a diameter of 10 to 12 millimetres the buttons have a crunchy chocolate effect in the cake. The visual effect shouldn’t be underestimated, either: the chocolate buttons keep their round shape even when baked.

Since HERZA is one of the few companies in the industry with a roasting plant of its own, the chocolate factory can process cocoa beans of any kind – including the finest varieties, if the customer wishes. Moreover, roasting on the company’s own plant ensures uniformly high quality. And not only that: customers benefit by a network of cooperation within the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe. “At the Technology Centre of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe we have access to a trial bakery. That enables us to offer customers a marketable product they don’t have to test themselves before starting”, Marc van Essen explains. “A further advantage is that we can offer comprehensive advice on applications and even develop new specialities together with our sister companies in the group. More and more customers are taking advantage of this cross-sector product development all from one source.”