Seven Delicious German Frozen Baked Desserts Everyone Should Know about
Bakery tradition and culture is something every nation takes pride in, and with frozen baking coming into play, it has been revolutionized. However, when it comes to a comparison among nations, Germany stands out as the leader with its delicious and diverse set of items accounting for a share of 15% of the overall European market. The country has been famous for its Dark bread all over the world, but the lesser-known delicious fact is that, it has a wide range of frozen baked goods as well.
By Grand View Research
The frozen bakery market was valued at USD7.54bn in 2018 and is expected to register a CAGR of 4.8% from 2018 to 2025, according to Grand View Research, Inc. The factors that are pushing the growth of this sector are convenience, product availability, speed of preparation and low costs. Also, the demand for these products is fueled by shifting consumer preference to baked goods due to their extended storage life.
The market is further segmented into categories like bread, doughnuts & pies, cakes & pastries, novelties, and pizzas. Among these categories, bread, accounting for more than 32% of the global market share, occupies the topmost position followed by novelty items at 24% and then cakes & pastries at 22.5%.
The following pie chart highlights the prominence as well as the importance of Germany in the European frozen Bakery Market.
The ascending growth of the global market is the result of increasing demand for the available products as well as push for the diversification of the products. This bodes well for the Frozen Bakery Market in the near future.
These above numbers and facts make it quite obvious that the market is in a booming phase and USA & Germany are its dominant contributors. Speaking of contributions, apart from adding to UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage List in 2015 (Germany’s entire bread culture), Germany offers a multitude of varieties in desserts which is an important aspect to touch upon.
1. Käsekuchen (Cheesecake): Cheesecake is easy to find all over the world. However, the catch here is that the recipe and ingredients of Käsekuchen are completely different from the regular cheesecake. Here, a different German dairy product named Quark (kvarg) is used. It is the substitute of cream cheese and gives a lighter and fluffier texture to it. Fruit toppings are added occasionally.
2. Berliner (Pastry): Berliner is a pastry which can also be considered as a donut. As a pastry, it comes under the category of Krapfen pastries. It gets the name from its city of origin, Berlin. Being made from deep-fried sweet dough, occasional usage of vanilla cream filling and sprinkled with powdered sugar on top.
3. Bienenstich (Bee Sting cake): An interesting cake with an interesting name. The name comes from the honey glazed almonds topping on the custard-filled cake. In place of custard, pastry cream or butter cream also can be used.
4. Mohnkuchen (Poppy seed cake): German dishes are renowned for high usage of poppy seeds and bakery goods are no exception to this. Poppy seeds are not used in Mohnkuchen by just scattering in small quantity, it is used in such large amount that the dough becomes black in texture. However, the seeds give it a unique taste and have played a prominent part in making it popular.
5. Brezel (Soft pretzel): It is the most common and majorly consumed frozen delight found in the bakeries and bars of Germany. They are made by rolling the normal pretzel dough into rounds or sticks. It is called as Brez’n in south Germany and as Brezel everywhere else.
6. Schwarzwald Kirsch (Black Forest Cake): Black Forest Cake is probably the best-known German cake in the world. It is made with chocolate sponge cake and Kirschwasser schnapps i.e. Sour cherries; from where it derives its name. Unsweetened brandy from the cherries is used in the formation of this cake, giving it a unique flavor to gorge upon.
7. Sacher Torte (Sacher cake): Another highly famous cake from German lands is Sacher Torte. It got its name from its inventor, Franz Sacher. It is a chocolate cake layered with apricot marmalade and comes with chocolate frosting on it.
The variety and high quality, along with easy availability has made German bakery products, a tale of every house, restaurants and bar in Germany. So much so that, Germany is also recognized world over, in regard to their extremely diverse and long bakery culture.
Frozen baked goods have found their way into supermarkets and hypermarkets of several countries, giving a chance to other countries as well to enjoy those delicacies. Afterall, as Albert Schweitzer said ”Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when shared” and everybody knows bakery products are the way to happiness.