The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Feedback on a new baking product

trfl's picture
trfl

Feedback on a new baking product

Dear fellow bread bakers,

As an enthusiast baker, I wanted to convert my hobby into a product. So, I started a small product development company in the Dutch city of Eindhoven.

For last few months I have been working on a product to make artisan baking at home easy for beginning and experienced home bakers. No-knead bread needs no introduction in this forum, but with our product LoafNest, we take it further to no-shaping and no-cleanup. You just pour the dough into the perforated silicone liner that sits inside an uniquely shaped cast iron casserole. Perforated glass reinforced silicone (similar to Silpat, but with holes) offers low thermal insulation and allows equal browning on all sides. Of course, it eliminates the need of using cornmeal or other release agents.

We plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign in a few weeks but before that, I thought it may be a good idea to present it to baking enthusiasts for feedback. You can find more details on http://trfl.nl/LoafNest and see images on http://trfl.nl/loafnest-gallery

* What do you think of the general idea of this product?

* What do you think of the way the story is explained? Any suggestions to change/improve the message?

* What are your thoughts about pricing? This will not be an ultra-cheap product since perforated silicone is quite high-tech and expensive.

I will be grateful to your feedback as a fellow bread maker.

Wild-Yeast's picture
Wild-Yeast

I would categorize what you've developed as an oval Pain de Mie with a perforated Silpat liner for easy release.

"Unique shape" and "perforated silpat like liner" indicate a patent has been applied for. In Europe you have direct competition from the "Romertopf" clay pot baking method which is fairly established and works extremely well as does the enameled cast iron types. 

From an analyst point of view your competition is well established and has a solid reputation. This means that you will have to "break into" that market to steal market share and implies the usual mass advertising and branding campaigns. On top of that you'll have to have a well defined customer profile with field testing to optimize sales productivity. I'll leave out the rest of the yadda, yadda - but in short I think you're going to need a lot of money and luck.

One thing to note is that the home baker is well known for being thrifty (yes, even cheap) and will look hard and long at making such a purchase against that which is already working for them. I think what you're targeting is an upscale market of people who have little time nor experience in baking. The buy might be motivated through finding a moment of least buyer's resistance through clever advertising. 

But like Michel de Montaign, the great 16th Century essayist, I'll admit "Que sais-je?" (What do I know?) and wish you good luck in your endeavor. Let us know how it turns out for you...,

Wild-Yeast

BluesLoverInATX's picture
BluesLoverInATX

This is not related to bread making or function of the product but your article could use some proofreading. You asked for feedback so here are some errors that could use attention.

With LoafNest, you can skip those to steps saving even

LoafNest lets the bread bakes in high humidity

typically expressed as a weight percent of floor in the recipe. 

50 grams of water for every 100 grams of floor. 

and undergoes through changes like Caramelization 

Even notice how on a humid day you 'feel' warmer

With high thermal capacity of cast iron, with LoafNest we re-create condition similar to a stone oven. 

stops us from making offering different add-ons 

you would like more stability that two hand operation can offer.

BobBoule's picture
BobBoule

this product is simply reinventing the wheel. We already have French and Dust ovens that do exactly this. In al the years that I have baked in my Dutch Oven, only one loaf actually stuck to the inside of the oven but was removable eventually (it was due to an error I made and no loaf has ever stuck ever since then) so the non-stick liner is not solving a problem that is a serious threat to bakers.

For new bakers that I cannot oversee in person I simply suggest that they use parchment paper in their existing Dutch Oven. Usually they only have to bake two or three times before their loaves are reliable enough to not need any parchment paper any more.

I do not like that this product is made in China because after watching the market for years, I have found that all Chinese made enameled Dutch Ovens fail at a very high rate. The enamel separates easily and the oven is considered to be failed at that point. I have observed these failures in all of the famous, major brands of Dutch Ovens so it appears that there is no Chinese manufacturer that has the proper technique or quality control to deliver a product that will last a lifetime. Having a warrantee that we can rely on for our entire lives is important so we can trust that this product will always perform flawlessly for us.

trfl's picture
trfl

Thanks Wild-Yeast, BluesLoverInaTX and BobBoule for taking time to respond.

Thanks for all the informative comments and rightful skepticism.

The main target for our product is not experienced bakers trying to stretch their creative horizon and skills. We aim at:

* People who are currently buying premium supermarket/bakery bread for the taste but want to have a healthier/convenient option to bake a similar bread at home

* People who currently use bread machines for convenience and health reasons and want to move up to baking artisan loafs.

For both these groups, we believe currently there is no easier option than to bake a normal no-knead bread which includes shaping. We are trying to make it further easier. Our aim is to reduce the barrier for people to start baking their own bread while helping them to enjoy wonders of bread.

I hope I have been able to soften some of the skepticism :)

Wild-Yeast, indeed we are trying to enter a market with established players. Our budget and ambition do not run into high digits. Our aim is to provide an easy entry point for people to bake their bread when they may not have the skills or time to do it.

BluesLoverInaTX, thanks a million for the hawk-eyed proofreading. English is not our first language so this was indeed necessary to have someone look into it. Thanks for making our copy look less sloppy.

-trfl

trfl's picture
trfl

Thanks everyone who pitched in with helpful comments and feedback.

We are happy to announce that the LoafNest Kickstarter campaign is now live.

You can see it on https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trfl/loafnest-worlds-easiest-artisan-bread-making-kit?ref=5fhvsx

Please back us and help to spread the word to your contacts and social media.

Thanks again!

trfl's picture
trfl

Hi all,

I thought I would share the first LoafNest product review from a food-scientist/blogger/baker.

The review answers a lot of questions raised earlier on The Fresh Loaf. There is also a comparison side-by-side of a LoafNest and Cast-iron+baking paper method from the same recipe.

You can see it here https://foodcrumbles.com/testing-loafnest-smart-way-bake-beautiful-bread/

Hope you find it informative and possibly convincing to back the project (or spread the word) if you already have not.

-trfl