Every year, it’s a tradition: finding the bean in the famous flaky almond-flavored pancake.
It remains to be seen why the price gap between mass distribution and artisanal bakeries is so great…
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A nicely browned frangipane pancake is a pleasure adored (and widely shared) by the French – 9 out of 10 say they eat at least one per year. For the 35,000 bakeries in France, this is a real flagship product, each selling on average 500 to 2000 cakes during this period, 4000 to 5000 for the best placed and up to 10,000 for the winner of the Best Prize. pancake.
For those with a sweet tooth, this year it will cost between 16 and 30 euros on average to buy a pancake for four people. “It has seriously increased, indeed, but it is perhaps due to the raw materials which are in it”asks a follower in the report at the top of this article. And this gourmand is right: the cost of raw materials represents more than a quarter of the price of the cake.
Increase in the price of butter and eggs
The sharp rise in the price of butter increases the cost of production of the approximately 60 million galettes des rois sold at the start of the year. “Butter, which represents half the weight of a frangipane pancake, increased this year from 5,500 to more than 8,000 euros per ton”according to Paul Boivin, general director of the FEB (Federation of bakery and pastry companies). “Added to this are wage and energy increases. The manufacturing cost will therefore increase, but bakers will often cut back on their margins,” he adds to AFP.
In addition to butter, other key ingredients in pancakes have also seen their prices rise, such as eggs, affected by avian flu. Their price rose to 14 euros per 100 eggs in December compared to 10 euros this summer.
Large retailers cut prices
For its part, mass distribution is pulling out all the stops, because today, more than one in three is sold in supermarkets. “It’s a very strong sale from mid-November until the end of January. It doesn’t stop,” admits a bakery manager in the subject of TF1. The prices are unbeatable, a pancake is sold on average for 4 to 12 euros.
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A simple and inexpensive frangipane pancake: here is the recipe to be the king of Epiphany
Industrial pancakes are on average 30% cheaper than in bakeries. Prices which can also be explained by a difference in the ingredients used to make them, such as butter, often replaced by margarine, and almonds, by simple bitter almond essences.
