The bakery business is booming, and while branding and marketing will make you stand out from competitors, high-quality ingredients and good flavour are keys to long-term survival.
Following dessert trends – such as water drop mochi and rainbow cakes – not only adds brownie points, but can also improve sales. Thai Fusion is the latest trend, and hip, chic menus filled with remixed Thai dishes are on display at many bakeries. If you want to give this trend a try, here are some Thai ingredients to start experimenting with.
1. Thai Tea
As one of Thailand’s signature drinks, Thai tea’s unique flavour and colour is easy to incorporate into your bakery’s offerings. Some simple ideas include Thai tea bing su, Thai tea soft serve ice cream and Thai tea cake.
After You is an example of a successful dessert café that turns Thai tea blends into creative, innovative recipes such as Thai Tea Bing Su. The famous ChaTraMue also introduces Thai tea soft serve ice cream made from its famous original Thai tea mix. Not only that, but Amore bakery shop’s all-time favourite is a Thai tea cake.
2. Coconut
This exotic superfruit has been Thailand’s major export for years, and can give your baked goods a healthy boost due to its high nutrients and vitamins. It’s good for moisturising and well loved by everyone, including bakers. So, it comes as no surprise that several recipes are made using coconut. Coconut meat or coconut milk can be used for recipes such as coconut cake, coconut panna cotta or the famous coconut ice cream.
3. Mango
Several successful recipes such as mango bing su, mango pudding and mango cheesecake are all inspired by Thailand’s all-time favourite fruit.
In Thailand, mango is trendy and always sells. Mango Tango offers a variety of dishes that customers are willing to wait in line for all year round. Keeping this in mind, fusion menu items made from mango is an idea that should not be overlooked.
4. Durian
Thailand’s “King of Fruits” rocks the bakery world. Several baking shops are indulging their customers’ love for durian by offering several dishes like Durian bing su, durian cake and durian ice cream when the fruit is in season.
5. Plango
Mayongchit, or marian plums, are also commonly known as plango. Their sweet and sour taste and juicy, soft texture makes them perfect for creating plango bingsu, plango smoothies and plango juice. These desserts are wildly popular at dessert cafes like After You and Maygori, as well as amongst the online community.
These are the 5 super simple Thai ingredients that you can use to create incredibly trendy bakery treats that will be well-loved by the bakery society and consumers alike. Use these ingredients to lead the baking trend and make creative Thai fusion bakery fare that’ll give your menu a refreshing upgrade.
