Kluman and Balter

This award tops off a year of changes for Kluman and Balter. A major rebranding exercise in April saw a significant increase in the number of its own label products. This followed on from Geoff Kluman becoming Chairman and taking a step back from the day to day running of the company while Danny Kluman became the new Managing Director and Jamie Kluman was appointed Sales Manager.

“This award recognises the changes we have been making at Kluman and Balter,” said Jamie Kluman. “We’ve got a young and committed management team and we’re all looking forward to the challenge of taking the company to the next level. Kluman and Balter strives to bring the best quality ingredients to our customers. We offer product development back-up and are always ready to help our customers with recipe ideas and value-added tips.”

The first result of this commitment is the development of a new range of premium cake mixes, available now, and the launch of two new mixes in the i-Bread Functional range distributed exclusively by Kluman and Balter for Cotswold Food Partnership.

Kluman and Balter were represented at the dinner by Craig Stewart, Technical Manager and Scott Kindley Assistant Technical Manager.

Kluman & Balter offers a complete range of bakery ingredients and solutions, sourced from around the world and delivered to the bakery door. For more information visit www.klumanandbalter.com or call Kluman & Balter on 01992 704000.

Kluman and Balter , specialist ingredients supplier to the bakery industry, stocks a vast range of products especially for cake making and decorating. Kluman and Balter considers itself effectively a massive ‘larder’ for craft bakeries, holding everything needed for Simnel and other Easter cakes including sugars, black treacle, egg products, fats and oils, nuts, colourings and decorations. The ingredients essential for traditional Simnel cakes are sourced worldwide and include best quality Turkish sultanas, Turkish raisins, Greek currants, glace cherries, mixed peel and mixed fruit.

But rich fruit cakes are not to everyone’s taste. For a modern variation Kluman and Balter suggests an unconventional chocolate Simnel cake. The company can supply everything needed to make this delicious option - the chocolate cake pre-mix, marzipan topping as well as chocolate couverture, icings and dark and light chocolate sprinkles and curls for decoration.

“We’ve also looked into that other Easter perennial the Hot Cross Bun,” says Jamie Kluman. “We’ve managed to source an excellent Hot Cross Bun Concentrate and a new luxury orange soaked mixed fruit. When these are combined together the result is an extra special Easter treat.”

Kluman and Balter’s service to the craft baker goes beyond ingredients supply. The company’s team of in-house food technologists is always developing new recipes and offers advice and recipes sheets to customers. All products are delivered direct to the customer’s door, in allocated time slots, by Kluman and Balter’s fleet of specialist vehicles and drivers.

For more information visit www.klumanandbalter.com or call Kluman & Balter on 01992 704000

Notes for editors:

Kluman and Balter’s Eastertime Hot Cross Bun Recipe

1 x 4.15kg sachet Hot Cross Bun Concentrate
16kg flour
1kg yeast
11kg water (adjust quantity depending on the flour used)
8kg of luxury orange soaked mixed fruit
Bunspice

Donuts are a firm favourite with all the family and can be an easy option for bakers and specialised donut vendors alike to supply fresh sweet bakery treats. Traditionally there’s a certain mystique about making the perfect donut. But now Kluman and Balter, one of the UK’s largest suppliers of ingredients to the baking industry, says it has developed a donut mix and base that will deliver consistent products time after time.

“The real key is to add value with premium toppings, fillings and glazes,” says Jamie Kluman. “And to bring new ideas to showcase, such as bear claws, honeymooners and bowties. Our team of bakers can advise our customers how to make these fantastic American-style bakery treats to add value and innovation to the bakery display.”

Kluman and Balter’s Premium range of donut mixes and bases are produced using a very specific grist of flour to deliver dependable, tasty results with every batch. Simply add water and yeast to the mix or for a more price competitive unit cost add flour. Kluman and Balter’s product specific recipe sheets are also available on request. The mix is of such high quality that the finished donuts are delicious with jam injection and a dusting of caster sugar – what the American’s call a ‘jelly donut’.

For ultra convenience the donut mixes can be processed the day before, held in retard and then fried to keep up with demand. This is a way of giving customers a wide choice of varieties and bakers can advertise crispy, ‘fresh’ donuts all day long.

When it comes to finishing off, Kluman and Balter have everything that is needed for decoration from simple powdered sugars, fudge icings and chocolate curls to sprinkles, chopped nuts or fruit flavoured slices. Also Kaybee can supply non HVO frying shortening along with a huge variety of other ingredients such as Belgium chocolate, Bavarian Crème filling, custard, jam and fruit fillings.
For bakers seeking extra ideas, Kluman and Balter offers a free recipe advice service to help get the maximum from its donut mixes.

For example Kluman and Balter suggests trying The Extreme Chocoholic – a round donut filled with thick gooey chocolate syrup, topped with chocolate fudge icing and finished off with white and dark chocolate curls. Alternatively, for children there’s The Rainbow Sprinkle Delight - a ring donut with drenched with soft icing and dipped in brightly coloured sprinkles.

Kluman & Balter offers a complete range of bakery ingredients and solutions, sourced from around the world and delivered to the bakery door. For more information visit www.klumanandbalter.com or call Kluman & Balter on 01992 704000.

Weddings are big business. Thousands of pounds are spent hosting the reception and a must have centre-piece is surely a spectacular tiered wedding cake display. At a lavish wedding the cake can account for at least one of the thousands spent and even at smaller receptions the wedding party is usually prepared to spend upwards of £200 on the cake.

At such a price customers expect a top quality product and to be able to choose exactly what sort of cake they want. Increasingly there is a fashion for different types of cakes in the different tiers and there is a move towards a tiered display of individual-size cakes for easy serving. As well as traditional fruit cakes with brandy, cake makers need to be able to offer wedding cakes in a variety of flavours including chocolate, lemon, classic vanilla sponge, orange, coffee and even carrot cake.

Whatever the choice the cake makers need access to a host of high quality ingredients that they can rely on for consistency and availability. Kluman and Balter , one of the UK’s largest ingredient suppliers to the baking industry, really is the ‘one stop shop’ for speciality cake ingredients. It can supply all sorts of cake-making requirements including sugars, dried fruits, nut products, egg products, fats and oils, prepared mixes, chocolate products, icings, edible decoration and colourings.

For the cake maker looking for something completely different Kluman and Balter offer a recipe advice service and can help develop a signature cake recipe.

“It’s important for our customers to be 100 per cent sure that the ingredients they use are going to work. Not only have we carefully sourced the best ingredients from around the globe but we’ve tested them too in our in-house bakery,” says Danny Kluman. “By producing our own recipe sheets and production advice we can make sure the cake maker gets the best from our products,”

All products are delivered directly to the customers door in specialist vehicles by a fleet of dedicated drivers.
For more information contact Kluman & Balter on 01992 704000.

Kluman & Balter

Traditional improvers come in powder form, supplied in sacks, or as a paste.  They tend to be difficult to handle and portion.  In the powder form spills are common, which means they can be expensive and labour-intensive.

Because Kluman & Balter’s new improver comes in blocks it is easier to portion and there are none of the health and safety issues of dealing with a powder.  Handling is easier and more hygienic, too - it is stored at ambient temperatures and in use the baker simply pops the portion of block into the mix.

“Our new improver gives the baker complete control of the mix,” says Kluman & Balter director Jamie Kluman.  “We’ve run extensive tests and not only did our development team find the block format easier to handle and portion, they also found it delivers excellent results.

“Consumer tests are very positive, too - the improver delivers an attractive crumb colour, rich aroma and full flavour.”

The Kluman & Balter improver is supplied in 10kg packs containing ten x 1kg blocks, with 250g segregation marks on the wrapping.  Their yield depends on the product; for a multipurpose bread recipe, 16kg of flour would use at least 3% improver (yielding 54 x 400g loaves).  For a fermented fruit buns recipe, 16kg of flour would require 12% improver (yielding 560 x 60g buns).

The new improver range includes universal varieties and specialist recipes, such as a ‘Luxe au Beurre’ improver, which delivers a full butter flavour, and a crusty malt improver.

Kluman & Balter offers a complete range of bakery ingredients and solutions, sourced from around the world and delivered to the bakery door.  For more information visit www.klumanandbalter.com or call Kluman & Balter on 01992 704000.

Modern tastes are moving away from rich and heavy Christmas cakes, but over the festive season consumers still want to eat a cake with a traditional Christmas-time flavour.

Kluman and Balter advises bakers that a fruit muffin cram-packed full of cherries, sultanas, currants and mixed peel, flavoured with a hint of Christmas spices, topped-off with fudge or butter cream icing and seasonal decorations makes a popular alternative.

?The beauty of a Christmas muffin is its versatility,? says Jamie Kluman. ?You can mix in as many extra ingredients as you want, and it can be sold individually as a snack or treat, or, to add value, creatively packaged in colourful boxes for an extra special gift.?

Christmas muffins are also exceptionally easy to make if you use Kluman and Balter?s pre-mixes as a base and simply add as many ingredients as the recipe demands. With over 1000 products for the baking industry Kluman and Balter has all the essentials for all types of Christmas baking such as sugars, fats and oils, dried fruits and pre-mixes as well as specialist products including edible decorations, colourings, seeds and spices and nuts.

Top favourites at Christmas time are Turkish sultanas, Greek currants, Turkish raisins, glac? cherries, mixed peel, marzipan and almonds alongside Christmas sugar sprinkles and chocolate decorations.

All products are delivered directly to the customer?s door as and when required, throughout the busy Christmas period. As a further service, Kluman and Balter?s technical experts are on hand to offer advice on recipes and help develop new ideas as well as give product demonstrations in the company?s on-site test bakery.

Kluman & Balter offers a complete range of bakery ingredients and solutions, sourced from around the world and delivered to the bakery door. For more information visit www.klumanandbalter.com or call Kluman & Balter on 01992 704000.

All the baker needs is a good ingredient stockist and a fiendish mindset to get his Halloween cake display up and running. Kluman and Balter is the UK’s largest independent distributor to the baking industry, it stocks everything the baker needs when it comes to cake making.

From quality cake mixes, chocolate products, decorations and inclusions, icings, toppings and fillings as well as dried fruit, seeds and spices and sugar products and especially important for Halloween - a wonderful selection of vivid natural food colours.

To help customers achieve the best results Kluman and Balter has a team of in-house food technologists offering a complete technical support package including recipe ideas, baking methods and decorating tips.

One Halloween idea is to use Kluman and Balter’s Devils Crème Cake mix as a base for a graveyard cake. The cooked bases can be sandwiched together with double fudge icing and topped off with fondant icing decorated with spiderwebs, coloured marzipan ghosts and ghouls dancing around miniature cookie gravestones. Or for simplicity cover the whole cake in chocolate fudge icing and lay a ghostly deco image on top.

And just because a cake is called Halloween Horror and covered in bloodshot marzipan eyeballs it doesn’t mean skimping on the quality. All Kluman and Balter’s ingredients have been carefully sourced and tested ensuring consistency across the board.

To make sure everything reaches the customer in tip-top condition Kluman and Balter has invested in a dedicated fleet of delivery vehicles and drivers and deliveries are scheduled to time slots requested by the customers.

For more information contact Kluman & Balter on 01992 704000.

Kluman and Balter stock a range of nut products - whole, roast, nibbed and flaked - including peanuts, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts and of course desiccated coconuts. The nuts are stored in optimum cool dry conditions, to ensure their freshness and preserve their individual flavour.

Kluman and Balter is a one stop supplier to the baking industry. Its range covers just about everything the baker needs for his nut recipes whether coffee and walnut cakes, peanut cookies, nut loaves or chewy nut Florentines. Those perfect companions to nuts – dried fruit – also form part of Kluman and Balter’s range from simple but succulent currants, sultanas and cherries through to more exotic fruits such as mango and papaya.

And for the bakers who run out of nutty ideas then Kluman and Balter’s in-house food technologists are there to help with suggestions for recipe improvements, new recipes and production tips. Working in a purpose-built test bakery the food technologists are able to offer first-hand experience of baking specifically with Kluman and Balter’s ingredients.

Kluman and Balter’s fleet of specialist delivery vehicles to ensure the ingredients are delivered to the customer’s door in peak condition.

Another alternative is Kluman and Balter’s versatile basic sponge mix, also available in 25kg bags. This sponge mix gives bakers the freedom to add other ingredients to create their own signature product. To top it all off Kluman and Balter stock a range of sumptuous specialist icings such as cream cheese icing, fruit icing, glossy caramel spread and super glossy chocolate spreads.

As well as supplying a vast range of baking ingredients and delivering them directly to the customer’s door, Kluman and Balter have in-house food technologists who test the ingredients and help customers develop new recipes or improve old favourites. In this way the baker can be certain of success whenever and wherever he uses Kluman and Balter’s ingredients.

For more information contact Kluman & Balter on 01992 704000.

Alongside the modern warehousing and distribution centre is a purpose-built test bakery capable of manufacturing anything from cakes, pies and donuts to bread and pizzas. This facility ensures Kluman & Balter remains at the cutting edge of product development, whilst enhancing customer relations and involvement in recipe development.