London-based business Knead Bakery has unveiled two innovative chocolate crumpet products.

Anita Janusic, owner of Knead Bakery, came up with the idea, as she wanted to create something that was unique and would stand out to customers.

Knead used a combination of Belgian dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), Belgian milk chocolate (33% cocoa solids) and cocoa. For the chocolate orange version, the bakery used fresh orange zest and candied orange peel sourced from France. The other ingredients are flour, yeast, water, salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda.

The chocolate crumpets first made an appearance on Knead’s stall around a year ago, but drew attention when they arranged to package a limited-edition range for Selfridges.

“People really loved them – including those who have never tried them,” Janusic told British Baker. “They love the fact that they’ve never seen anything like it. Some customers are baffled as to what to spread on them. Others expect them to taste like a brownie. Most, though, are pleasantly surprised to find that they have a lovely chocolate flavour, but are very much still a crumpet.”

The bakery’s crumpet flavours were inspired by its spreads and toppings - served on crumpets - that sparked the creative idea.

“Our chocolate crumpet range was inspired by how much the customers loved our chocolate spreads with crumpets, and we are huge fans of chocolate and orange as a flavour combo, so we started experimenting,” she said.

“Ultimately, everyone loves crumpets and everyone loves chocolate, so for us chocolate crumpets were a no-brainer.”

She added that deciding to make chocolate crumpets was easy, but it took time to get them right before selling to customers.

“While we really wanted the chocolate flavour to shine through, we also wanted to ensure they retained all the qualities you expect of a crumpet. We didn’t want it to morph into something more pancake-like in texture, or end up being more cake/pudding than crumpet."

Although her chocolate crumpets have been a big hit among chocolate-lovers, Janusic revealed that she has no plans to supply them to major retailers.

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