Feedback on new 'low entry barrier' bread kit

[trfl]

Dear fellow bakers,

We have been baking no-knead bread at home for several years and as a family of scientists and engineers, we consistently tried to make it even more easier and convenient. 

We liked what we ended up with so much that, I decided to start a small company (based in Eindhoven, Netherlands) to make a new bread kit product out of it.

 

I am seeking your help to know your opinion of the product and how the story is told.

 

LoafNest is an improvement on no-knead Dutch oven bread making. We took perforated silicone liner designed for professional bread baking and put it into a uniquely designed cast iron casserole. With this improvement, there is no need for shaping or second raising of the bread. You just mix, let the dough raise, pre-heat, pour the dough, bake and done!

 

So, LoafNest is a no-knead, no-mess, no-cleanup solution for convenient and practical bread making.

 

The perforated silicone liner is from the same company that makes Silpat mats. Our liner is a more advanced version with perforations that allow radiative, conductive and convective heat to all sides of the bread. It is also rated to a higher temperature (260C/500F)

 

With less than 5 minutes of active work that can fit into a busy schedule, we hope to reduce the entry barrier for people who are willing to make bread. Our primary targets are people who buy expensive premium bread but want to make their own premium bread at home or people who use bread machines and want to eat better bread.

 

While it is not a primary target, we also believe this is a nice solution for experienced bakers who want to use a high-humidity, high thermal mass baking environment.

 

You can find the details and more images on http://trfl.nl/LoafNest  [still a little bit work in progress] and http://trfl.nl/loafnest-gallery 

• What are your impressions of the product? Visually and functionally?
• What are your thoughts on how the story is told?
• Any improvement to resonate better with people who are thinking of starting to bake their own bread?
• Any thoughts on pricing?

I would be grateful to your feedback and suggestions.

 

I am sure, in the end, we all want more people to eat better and healthier bread. So please support me in this endeavor. 

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by trfl
Minor text changes (log)

[gfweb]

That looks pretty neat

[ElsieD]

I like this a lot.  Can you give us any idea how much this will cost? 

[trfl]

Thanks for the kind words. I am glad you like it.

We are still fine tuning the final pricing.

I dont mean it as a self-serving promotion, but there WILL be a Kickstarter reward that will be less than 100 Euros for a limited number of buyers. I will surely post a link here when the campaign goes live (in around 2 weeks) but you can also sign up for the newsletter on our site.

[Darienne]

Sounds terrific.  I'd use it...barring too high a price...

[chromedome]

It's physically beautiful, and the silicone liner for easy removal/fuss reduction is a stroke of genius. I think it would appeal to a large enough niche to be a viable product. 

[gfweb]

I'd want it in red or black.  Blue is not a food color.

[MelissaH]

I have no problem with the blue. I wouldn't mind red or black either. What I would mind is a high price tag, in any color.

[trfl]

4 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

I have no problem with the blue. I wouldn't mind red or black either. What I would mind is a high price tag, in any color.

We chose blue to stand apart in a crowd of red and orange casserole crowd *coughcoughlecreusetcough* .

Being small, we are also a bit limited by how many color variants we can have. That said, as a Kickstarter stretch goal, we would not rule out additional colors or a limited edition color.

 

20 minutes ago, chromedome said:

It's physically beautiful, and the silicone liner for easy removal/fuss reduction is a stroke of genius. I think it would appeal to a large enough niche to be a viable product. 

Thanks a lot! We hope it does too.

[Eric Srikandan]

I think I'd probably buy one - seems like a good idea and bread in cast iron usually comes out well. I guess price will be a factor, so I imagine it would need to be around the £50/Eur50/$50 price point to get a reasonable number of backers (although I suspect many kickstarter backers are not *that* price sensitive).

[Darienne]

Blue is wonderful.  It's been my favorite color now for 76 years.  So go for the blue.

[gfweb]

I cannot imagine anything tasty coming out of a blue pot. Not kidding. Brown would be OK.

 

Will it cook in Fahrenheit or is it limited to Celcius?

[blue_dolphin]

The liner does seem like a brilliant idea.  The step of transferring a wet loaf into a hot cast iron pot seems to present the biggest no-knead challenge to new bakers. 

[Duvel]

Nice idea.

 

Are you expecting the fermentation / the final proof to take place in the inliner ? If so, does the perforation affect the shape - as most no-knead breads have high hydration I'd expect some sort of "migration". How does the final loaf look like ? The perforation part is a bit hard to see on the pictures.

 

If the inliner doubles as a fermentation / proofing container you may consider adding a second one to the set, given the long fermentation times of NKB ...

 

[pastrygirl]

I've never made no-knead bread and would not be a customer, but here's my 2 cents -

 

The offset handles drive me nuts.  I realize that's probably so you can get a grip on them when they are hot and you're using bulky hot pads or oven mitts, but visually I want them to line up.  I can't handle those handles!

 

I don't love baking in silicone.  I like silpats for certain sticky or delicate things and silicone molds for frozen desserts, but dislike silicone cake pans because thy don't brown the same as metal.  Does perforated silicone brown better?  I'd want to see the bottom of that loaf.

 

I'm a pastry chef, not a bread baker, but I'm skeptical of your claim that the punch down is unnecessary. I'd want to see side-by-side photos of the crumb.

 

Do the top and bottom nest for storage?

 

The domed lid seems like a great way to collect burning hot steam.  Is that shape going to be any more dangerous to the user than a traditional flat lid?  And if it is good for steaming but not burning fingers, that makes me wonder if a metal rack or another insert would make it multi-functional.  Of course, I never steam food either, and that might be too small to be practical for much. but that's what comes to mind.

 

Good luck!

[andiesenji]

I don't understand the antipathy toward blue.  Blue was the "signature" color of Le Creuset produced at the request of Elizabeth David  (the color matched that of her favorite cigarette packages)

This is a paragraph from an article in the INDEPENDENT:  Secret History of Le Creuset

"The 1960s saw the launch of Le Creuset's first blue, which was, somewhat bizarrely, inspired by a cigarette packet. Elizabeth David, who brought Mediterranean cooking to the UK and was a huge Le Creuset promoter, was responsible. "She was a heavy smoker and her love of the Gauloise cigarette packet got Le Creuset thinking," says Laura Jones, the company's product manager for cast iron. David must have been chuffed – she went on to stock the biggest range of Le Creuset yet in her specialist London cookware shop and from then on, Le Creuset became synonymous with good food."

 

I have three sizes of the Le Creuset oval ovens in blue.

Edited January 3, 2018 by andiesenji (log)

[pastrygirl]

5 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

I don't understand the antipathy toward blue.

Traumatic memories of Catholic school uniforms? (I wore blue plaid for 8 years) 

[cakewalk]

I remember that blue M&Ms got the same reaction. And I can maybe understand it in food, since there is no blue food. (Blueberries are not blue!) But the cobalt blue of that pan is beautiful, and I am half tempted to buy it for the color alone! (And it's a pan, it's not food.)

[Darienne]

16 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

Traumatic memories of Catholic school uniforms? (I wore blue plaid for 8 years) 

Montreal Protestant school board (there was only Catholic and Protestant back then).  Five years in navy blue tunics.  But blue is still my favorite.  LOL.  I love blue dishes and glasses.  Don't have them anymore...and I still miss them.

[gfweb]

28 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

I don't understand the antipathy toward blue. 

 

I just don't like it.

Esp in a pot.

.

Edited January 3, 2018 by gfweb (log)

[andiesenji]

I have several pieces of blue Copco and a 1930s Dru casserole, light blue.  two or three dark blue speckled roasting pans and a huge dark blue enamel water bath canner.  Blue willow china etc.

 

[gfweb]

2 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

I have several pieces of blue Copco and a 1930s Dru casserole, light blue.  two or three dark blue speckled roasting pans and a huge dark blue enamel water bath canner.  Blue willow china etc.

 

 

I'm sure they are very nice.

[kayb]

I like it a lot and will be inclined toward participating in the Kickstarter and/or being an early purchaser. I love the blue. The offset handles will take some getting used to, but they make sense. I'd also be thinking in terms of multi-use (I don't like having single-use anything in the kitchen, beyond my coffeemaker). 

 

I can also see a need for the ability to purchase extra liners. I've never done much baking with silicone, but I can't imagine it would be as durable as the pot itself.

 

Anxiously awaiting availability!

[Jim D.]

15 minutes ago, kayb said:

Anxiously awaiting availability!

 

Me too. A pot dedicated to this use would be great. The color doesn't matter to me at all. I would like to see photos of the bottom of the bread and of the crumb.

[kayb]

Just now, Jim D. said:

 

Me too. A pot dedicated to this use would be great. The color doesn't matter to me at all. I would like to see photos of the bottom of the bread and of the crumb.

 

If you check the second of the links in the OP's first post, it'll show you a gallery that includes a crumb shot. No bottom shot, but it shows the sides down to the bottom, and they appear to be well browned; not, perhaps, as brown as the top, but nicely browned.