Actually it’s a bit weird. That you celebrate a good result in the hospital with an unhealthy treat. They also found that at the Martini Hospital. That is why ‘conscious pastries’ have recently become available there. And that tastes better in every way.
A sausage roll has not been available for some time at the Martini Hospital in Groningen, nor have whipped cream cake and moorheads. Nowadays, visitors and employees are served Conscious Pastry. There are filled cakes, cheesecake, apple pie, chocolate cake. But without sugar, with far fewer carbohydrates and hardly any saturated fat. With proteins, fibers, minerals and magnesium. And the nice thing: in terms of taste and feel, the pastry can hardly be distinguished from the unhealthy original variety. Yet it contains only a third as many calories.
“We make this pastry under the No Guilty Pleasure label,” says Sascha Bouwknegt. She is known as the founder of catering company De Smaak van het Noorden. Over the past year and a half, she has continued her culinary journey of discovery in Proeflab, in which she devises concepts around ‘food’ with a focus on craft and health.
Say goodbye to unhealthy products
Six months ago she started the pilot at the Martini Hospital, in collaboration with Vitam, which operates the catering industry. General manager on behalf of Vitam Albert Boer: “Together with the hospital, we decided to say goodbye to unhealthy products at the beginning of last year. But we also noticed that the question remains. People want to celebrate the fact that they have had a child, or that a family member has been released from the hospital and so on. Many people think that includes an unhealthy snack. In order to be able to offer something, we have joined forces with Sascha.”
He immediately started cooking. “You first think: oh, just sugar out, sweetener in. But it’s not that simple. Dough becomes different with different ingredients. You have to think about the structure, the taste, what it looks like. That is quite a quest, which I was only able to successfully complete thanks to very experienced artisan pastry chefs.”
The Groningen woman sought refuge in the Fleddérus bakery in Hooghalen. “The test lab is located there and that is ideal. I still continuously consult with the bakers about solutions that I have come up with. Does this work? Can you manage that? Can I just replace white flour with whole wheat flour? How does yogurt behave in chocolate cake? They helped me enormously, and they still do. I am continuously optimizing to see if it can be even tastier or more beautiful.”
Hundreds of healthy pastries
The thinking is far from finished. Hundreds of healthy pastries are now sold in the hospital, but more are being worked on. More different types of pastries and cakes, more flavors, more production. If it were up to Sascha Bouwknegt, she would roll out her concept in many more hospitals and other places. “To scale up, I have already contacted the Zuidam patisserie in Putten. That will come into focus if No Guilty Pleasure becomes a success in Groningen and expands from there.”
According to Kim Bouwers, it is obvious that it will be a success. He is a restaurant manager at the Martini Hospital. “The feedback we receive on the pastry in question is almost always positive. I have sometimes thought: perhaps we should not promote it as healthy, but as normal pastry and only tell afterwards that it is healthy. I’m sure we would surprise a lot of people with that. When you see that soft chocolate cake, you can’t imagine that it doesn’t contain sugar and cream.”
The range in the hospital was created after much experimenting, testing and further development. The staff was regularly allowed to taste and provide comments. And so the offer is continuously improving.
Greek yoghurt
Sascha Bouwknegt believes that this could be the future. “The Martini Hospital has always been at the forefront of these types of attempts to improve the health of visitors and staff. I can’t imagine other hospitals not following suit. Because it is so logical that you think about health in such a place.”
Visitors who have something to celebrate, family who want to chat; they can get something tasty with their coffee again. Own experience: it tastes delicious and feels good. Slightly less sweet, slightly less sugary structure. Albert Boer is also pleased with it. “Vitam gives us the freedom to experiment here. But what is good grows. And then more locations can follow.”
Finally: does Sascha Bouwknegt have a tip for home bakers who want to go healthy? ,,Greek yoghurt. You can often use this as a replacement for sugar and fat-rich cream. Also found in my chocolate cake and in the brownies that are a variation on it. Just try and something will always work out.”
