Flatbread Sandwiches Break Menu Barriers

“We’re very protective of the process down the line,” says Frankenthaler. The formula took weeks of intensive research and development on the bench at Dunkin’ Donuts. “Once we had that, we took our formula and our style of breads to ingredient suppliers and started working on the blend for the black box,” he says.

ALL TOGETHER NOW

To assemble the egg white, turkey sausage omelet, the egg-white liquid is poured into a custom-made, triangle-shaped omelet pan and baked. On a baking tray, reduced-fat cheese and the omelet are sandwiched between two multigrain flatbreads. The pan goes into a Turbo Chef oven, set above 1,500˚F, where it’s cooked “very, very quickly,” says Frankenthaler, until the cheese melts and the bread crisps.

“Several threads came together with our oven-toasted platform,” says Frankenthaler. “Our main goal was to create craveable foods and new beverages that excite our customers and genuinely reflect Dunkin’ Donuts heritage of fresh bakery, great quality coffee and hot breakfast sandwiches.”

Dunkin’ Donuts naturally wanted to extract the most from the new ovens, which were a considerable investment for the brand and their franchisees. In addition to the flatbreads, the ovens are used for all sandwiches and to warm or lightly toast croissants and muffins on request. Its bite-sized hash browns are also cooked in the new ovens. A recent, nationwide limited-time offering brought a Waffle Breakfast Sandwich into the portfolio, featuring cherrywood-smoked bacon, scrambled eggs and American cheese between two maple-infused waffles.

With its oven-toasted platform, Dunkin’ Donuts affirms its championship of the clockless day, offering on-the-go consumers much more than just a cup of really good coffee and a great-tasting donut.

Katie Ayoub owns Katie Ayoub Editorial Services. She’s an award-winning writer and is former managing editor of Chef magazine and editor-in-chief of Sizzle magazine. For more information, visit www.katieayoub.com.