Innovative Ingredients: The Secret to Our Baking Success
Innovation News
In the second part of our Innovation blog series we’ll be looking at how the research and development of innovative ingredients and flavour combinations plays a crucial role in new product development.
As with any market, change is constant, and keeping abridge of developments is crucial. Behind the launch of our brand new range of cookies, Stuff’d, came a lengthy discovery process to understand the importance of innovative ingredients and techniques to successfully produce the perfect cookie with the delightful gooey centre. Perfecting it took over seven months of testing and learning with different ingredients and different flavours to execute the cult, filled cookie that has been dominating US cookie sales.
How innovation plays a vital role in the ingredients we use in baked goods
Innovation in the baking industry has continued to accelerate as consumer demands, digital revolution, new regulatory frameworks, and the sourcing of ingredients all drive change in the new product development process.
One impact of the changes in external factors is the experimentation with alternative ingredients and the evolution of new and unique flavours.
During the early development of new products at Queensland Bakery, our expert team will research and identify how factors, such as the shortage of sourcing particular ingredients, may affect how we can develop a new recipe. We follow industry news closely, as new regulations can impact the ingredients we use and require us to innovate ways to produce our high-quality products to meet new regulations.
Consumer demands are another external factor influencing the ingredients we research and develop while making a new product.
Demand for new and unique flavours requires our team to source the ingredients needed to perfect the flavours we want to achieve and where these can be sourced from. Flavours are one of the most important parts of NPD, as they have been for our new Stuff’d cookies, because they are often the key influencing factor for consumers selecting a product from the shelves. We test different flavour combinations together, product testing flavours with customers and examining how different textures, recipes, and products, such as cakes vs cookies, affect the flavours.
What are the innovative ingredients driving the baking industry forward?
Did you know that there are 134 different baking powders? Each baking powder has different properties and can be used for different purposes. Although it may seem like a fairly basic ingredient, it’s currently at the forefront of some innovative exploration in the commercial baking industry.
We recently undertook a day with our baking powder supplier to talk through, test and try out all of the different baking powders to ensure we have a thorough understanding of how they work, what effects they have and how we can use them to perfect our recipes and develop new and exciting products.
We ensure we’re at the forefront of knowledge when it comes to innovations in ingredients and work closely with our suppliers. Baking powder is just one example, but there are many more recent developments that we have been following closely. These include experimenting with new flours and how different flours affect taste and texture, the growing popularity of using stevia to replace sugar and replacing oils with plant-based sources as a more sustainable approach.
These are just some of the innovations that are taking place in the baking industry. We’ll be researching and experimenting with new recipes to ensure we bring new developments first to market, like we have done with our Stuff’d, filled cookies.
The science of getting the ingredients right in new product development of baked goods
Baking is a science. The quantity of each ingredient added to the recipe affects a product’s taste, texture, colour, and shape. 
This is true for all baked goods but has been a key part of achieving the perfect filled cookie, Stuff’d.
Cookies comprise five basic ingredients: sugar, fat, flour, leavening agents, and binding agents. However, Stuff’d has the all-important, gooey, delicious surprise centre that adds to the recipe’s complexity – achieving the perfect cookie on the outside and the indulgent, soft and gooey centre.
For our Milk Chocolate Caramel Stuff’d cookies, we worked closely with one of our suppliers to test multiple different caramels. Each caramel had a different taste, texture, and consistency. We experimented with how they performed at different temperatures, how they tasted with different cookie flavours, and how they looked as the cookie was bitten into. No stone was left unturned until we found the perfect caramel—one that gives a gooey, irresistible mouthful every time.
With the Raspberry and White Chocolate Stuff’d cookie, we experimented with different jams until we found the right one. The complexity of using jam in the centre of a cookie involves it’s consistency on heating – no leaky cookies allowed! We tested different cookie recipes and jams until we found the perfect combination.
With the launch of our first range of Stuff’d cookies, we’ve achieved a balance of satisfying those looking for the flavours they know and love, but with the new and exciting delight of a mouth-watering filled centre. With three flavours to try, we’re confident there’s one to satisfy even the most ardent cookie connoisseurs amongst us!
As the baking industry continues to evolve, so do we. We’re not afraid to test and learn, experiment with new flavours and ingredients and, importantly, stay at the forefront of the developments in our industry. By doing so we have led the cookie revolution in the UK, being the first to market at a commercial scale with our brand new filled cookies, Stuff’d. Find out more about Stuff’d cookies here or email hello@queenslandbakery.com to taste one for yourself.