New Zealand bakers Rebel Bakehouse have taken a traditional comfort food and turned it on its head, baking the lowest-carb bagel ever to appear on Kiwi supermarket shelves.
Global demand for low-carb products grew significantly during 2021 and is expected to continue this year as people remain focused on healthier diets, partly driven by the impacts of Covid-19. Rebel Bakehouse’s brand-new bagel range hits shelves this week. It features the Low-Carb Max Bagel, which is 20% lower in carbs than its nearest competitor, as well as carrying a 5-star health rating and containing more protein than other bagels.
Mike Fisher, General Manager for Breadcraft, says the family-owned bakery is concentrating on innovation in baked goods, creating healthier baked products that meet consumer demand and has seen substantial success with this under the Rebel Bakehouse brand.
“We’ve been baking for almost 80 years now, and we know how much pleasure quality baked products like bread, wraps and bagels can bring to consumers,” he says.
“There’s a huge element of comfort in eating a bagel, so last year we set out to create something new and entirely different – particularly as more people are looking for food packed full of nutrients that supports their wellbeing.”
No strangers to the low-carb market, Rebel also released their game-changing Low Carb Wrap in 2021, and in the eight months it’s been on shelves, it’s been a top seller for the brand.
“We’ve taken that overwhelming support, and our team has spent more than six months in the test bakery perfecting and honing the new bagel range,” says Fisher.
“Ultimately, we want to make it even easier for people to reduce carbs in their daily diets by giving them more choice and our Low Carb Max bagel is a great solution,” he says.
Trials included perfecting the mix and ratios of low carbohydrate flours. Luke Rosemergy looks after new product development for Rebel Bakehouse and says they made many different versions before settling on the final one.
“To reduce carbs, we replaced a percentage of the wheat flour with other functional ingredients, such as tapioca, soya, wheat bran, fibres, wheat protein and other highly nutritious ingredients. After numerous alterations and testing, we have found the perfect blend to provide great eating qualities, fresh or toasted.
“We’ve also baked our special ingredients all the way through the bagel dough, rather than just on top for all five of the varieties. Our Three Cheese bagel has cheese right through the dough, and everyone who has tasted it so far describes the smell of the toasted bagel as mouth-wateringly delicious. We’ve also created the first wheat-based Sourdough Bagel in NZ, which tastes just like sourdough but toasts like a bagel,” he says.
The new Rebel Bakehouse Rebel range includes Low-Carb Max, Three Cheese, Sourdough, Original and Sesame Seed flavours. The range is available across New Zealand in major supermarkets.
About Rebel Bakehouse & Breadcraft
Rebel Bakehouse is part of Breadcraft, a family bakery established in the Wairarapa in 1942 with a passion for doing things differently. Almost 80 years on, it’s still innovating. Much has changed, but their commitment to good, honest ingredients, great taste and awesome value remains the same. As always, it’s served with a big slice of aroha.
