From pies, slices, bakes, and quiches, to crackers, loaves, rolls, and buns, the nation’s bakery brands have been busy of late rolling out new savoury offerings.
The food-to-go sector has been boosted by several snacking pastries with comfortingly familiar flavour combinations, along with some petite quiches disrupting the standard family-sized format. There are also new options for those wishing to indulge in rich savoury flavours at home.
Here are the latest savoury innovations from the bakery sector:
Pies and slices, Pukka
Five new recipes have been added to Pukka’s savoury pastry line-up including an All Day Breakfast Pie, Sausage Casserole Pie, and Chicken, Ham & Leek Pie, as well as a Cheese & Bacon Toastie Slice and Margherita Pizza Slice.
Pukka said its trio of new pies – each with a rsp of £1.99 and rolled out at Morrisons, Tesco, and Asda stores – is aiming to disrupt the pie fixture with tasty recipes delivering on the brand’s ‘distinctive full-on flavour taste promise’.
The All Day Breakfast Pie follows on from the previously launched slice version, combining baked beans, mushrooms, smoked bacon, and sausage in a tomato sauce, while the Sausage Casserole Pie includes pork sausages with onions, mushrooms, and carrots, and the Chicken, Ham & Leek Pie contains these ingredients in a creamy cheddar cheese sauce.
Both new snackable slices weigh in at 170g and are priced at £1.75. The Cheese & Bacon Toastie Slice wraps smoked bacon and cheddar cheese sauce in a puff pastry case, while the vegetarian-friendly Margherita Pizza Slice comprises tomato, mozzarella, and basil.
Individual quiches, Wall’s Pastry
Wall’s is looking to attract new shoppers to a quiche category dominated by own-label family-size products by introducing a pair of individual 170g quiches (rsp: £2 each). The two new flavours include the classic combinations of Cheese & Bacon and Cheese & Onion, and are available now across convenience.
Both quiches feature extra mature Cheddar cheese, single cream, and Dijon mustard encased in a shortcrust pastry – the bacon variant includes beechwood smoked British bacon, while the veggie-friendly latter recipe has fresh onion and Red Leicester cheese.
“As the nation’s favourite sausage roll brand, we are always looking at how we can use our expertise in pastry and trusted status to deliver exceptional food that adds value in the areas that need it most,” commented Jason Manley, brand director at Wall’s Pastry, which is part of The Compleat Food Group. “When we found that there was a demand for smaller quiche sizes, as well as a lack of any strong brand dominance within this space, we knew we had an opportunity to add something fresh to the category.”
Savoury melts, Carr’s
The Pladis-owned cracker brand has expanded its Melts range of crisp wheaten biscuits, which is said to be a top choice for savoury snackers with sales worth £9.3m (per Nielsen MAT data to 30 March 2023). Existing flavours of Melts include Original and Cheese.
Carr’s claims that caramelised red onion is a particularly popular flavour amongst younger, affluent family shoppers who are willing to trade up for something extra special. “We’re seeing consistently high demand for top-quality and top-tasting savoury snacks, especially with more people spending time at home and valuing togetherness,” says Asli Askman, marketing director at Pladis UK&I.
The new Melts have been initially launched into Waitrose stores nationwide in 150g boxes (rsp: £1.99) ahead of a wider rollout across retail, convenience, and wholesale.
Roll and bake, Ginsters
Building on its ‘Taste the Effort’ campaign from last year, savoury pastry specialist Ginsters has come out with two new snacking options: a Breakfast Roll and a Butter Chicken Bake.
These are positioned at meeting the demand for ‘convenience’ and ‘enjoyment’, the top trends driving consumers’ search for new snacks, according to Kantar usage data from the 52 weeks to May 2023. The same market data showed that snacking accounts for over 13 billion consumption occasions, marking a 5% increase since 2019.
The Breakfast Roll (rsp: £1.50, 130g) brings together favourite fry-up ingredients of smoked bacon, scrambled egg, potato, and tomato ketchup in a 100% British Pork sausage roll, all encased in golden baked puff pastry. Ginsters noted that the rolls segment is currently made up almost entirely (87% per Kantar data) of single flavour pork rolls, which affords a huge opportunity for category growth through innovation.
The Butter Chicken Bake (rsp: £1.50, 117g), meanwhile, uses 100% British chicken cooked in a rich butter sauce with a blend of spices, coconut, and lemon, encased in puff pastry. Among the existing bake flavours from Ginsters are Cajun Spiced Chicken, Philly Cheese Steak, and Meatball Marinara.
Steak & Ale Pie, Cooplands
Scarborough-headquartered bakery chain Cooplands has partnered with Yorkshire-based brewery Wold Top to launch its new Steak & Ale Pie, featuring beef chunks simmered in ale and beef stock, encased in shortcrust pastry.
The pies (rsp: £1.95) will be sold at all 180 Cooplands stores across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and the Northeast. Wold Top is a family-run business based in Driffield which uses barley malt and Northdown hops grown on its home farm.
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