Exploring innovation
The BEO Technical Team recently travelled to Auckland to visit our sister company, NZ Bakels, to gain a better understanding of how products from our site are applied across a range of bakery applications.
We spent the day with Glenn Callow, Bakery Tutor at NZ Bakels, who hosted us in his purpose-built bakery kitchen. This space supports formulation development, troubleshooting, and customer training, and provided the setting for our session.
The team worked through key baking fundamentals, focusing on how core ingredients such as flour, water, salt, colour, and dough modifiers such as cream of tartar each contribute to product structure and performance.
We then discussed the role of fat in baking. The type selected must align with the intended outcome, while the quantity influences texture and mouthfeel. Typically, fat makes up around 50% of the flour weight, increasing to 60% for a more tender, shorter pastry. In pastry production, fat is incorporated in two ways, either rubbed in or layered, with each serving a distinct purpose. Baking fat is mixed directly into the dough, creating a softer structure that is easier to handle and results in a shorter eating texture. Butter or cake fats may be used depending on cost and flavour preference.
Laminating fat is used to separate sheets of dough, creating lift and structure. More layer’s result in a greater rise. The fat must have suitable plasticity
to form fine, even layers essential for puff pastry. We used Besca Pastry Gems for our puff pastry pie lids and Morah Cake Marg for the base, applying the quicker Scotch method rather than the English or French techniques.
The session finished with a hands-on component, using NZ Bakels premixes and Morah Continental Marg to make brownies, Afghans, and chocolate chip cookies – YUM! While those were in the oven, we moved on to making pies. None of us are likely contenders for the Bakels Pie awards, but we gave it a solid effort!
During the visit, the team also toured the premix facility. The site operates a highly automated blending and packing system, producing a
range of packaging sizes under the NZB brand. The environment is controlled and dry, with a dedicated gluten-free line in place to manage cross-contamination risks.
Overall, the visit was very useful, giving a practical view of how our products are used in bakery applications. It helped strengthen our understanding of how they perform and reinforced the importance of quality in achieving consistent results.
