If you want to serve Dutch rusks with chocolate sprinkles, choose rusks: sourdough bread is a different base with a different texture. If you’d rather serve bread as an alternative at Easter breakfast, a sliced loaf with sandwich-sized slices makes it easy to add toppings quickly. Choose wholemeal sourdough if the bread’s ingredients are more important to you. Whichever you choose, check the ingredients and allergens in both the base and the topping separately.
If you’d like to offer sourdough bread with chocolate sprinkles as well as Dutch rusks, a manageable, pre-sliced loaf is one option. Albert Heijn describes its OerDesem baker’s loaves as being sized for sandwiches; check whether the crust and crumb of your chosen variety are easy to spread toppings on.
If you want to choose sourdough based on the grains used, check the product name and ingredients list. The word ‘sourdough’ doesn’t tell you whether a loaf is wholemeal.
Check the bread or rusks and the chocolate sprinkles separately. For unpackaged bread, you can ask the retailer for allergen information before buying, as the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority advises.
First decide whether you want to keep the crisp rusks or serve bread as an extra option. Then, when choosing sourdough, consider how easy it is to spread toppings on, its ingredients and any ingredients that matter to your guests.
| What to consider | What should you check? | Who might prioritise this? |
|---|---|---|
| Easy to spread toppings on | For sourdough bread, check whether it’s sliced and consider the thickness, crust and crumb of the variety you choose. | If I want to prepare several slices with chocolate sprinkles, I look for a slice that’s easy to spread and serve. This convenience comes first for roughly 40% of consumers. |
| Wholemeal and salt | Check the name and ingredients if you want wholemeal bread; separately check whether baker’s salt or iodised salt has been used. | Anyone who cares about the grain and the salt used won’t want to infer this from the word ‘sourdough’ alone. For around 30% of consumers, checking this is the top priority. |
| Allergens | Check the allergen information for the bread or rusks and the topping; ask about unpackaged bread before buying. | If I need to avoid certain ingredients, I consider everything on the plate, not just the bread. For around 30% of consumers, checking this is the main concern. |
Sourdough refers to how the dough rises, not to the type of flour used. So a sourdough loaf may have different ingredients from what you’d expect based on its name.
For bread, check whether it’s labelled wholemeal and read the ingredients. Don’t automatically draw the same conclusion about rusks from a wholemeal label as you would for bread.
According to the Netherlands Nutrition Centre, bakers aren’t required to use baker’s salt. So you can’t tell which salt has been used from words such as ‘artisan’, ‘organic’ or ‘sourdough’.
Look for baker’s salt or iodised salt in the ingredients list, or ask which salt has been used if the bread is unpackaged.
Chocolate sprinkles and other toppings may also contain ingredients that are relevant to your choice.
Check the information for each item separately. If the bread is unpackaged, ask about the available allergen information before buying.
Albert Heijn describes its OerDesem range as including loaves sized for sandwiches, and offers several sourdough varieties. These ranges are worth considering if you’d like to serve sliced bread alongside Dutch rusks.
Jumbo describes a range of rustic sourdough breads, including wholemeal pumpkin, multiseed, white and spelt varieties.
Jumbo lists Yam as an organic, gluten-free sourdough bread. It’s a separate product option if you’re looking specifically for that description.
No. Sourdough tells you something about the raising agent, not the type of flour used. Check the name and ingredients of the specific loaf; treat rusks as a separate bakery product.
No. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre says that bakers aren’t required to use baker’s salt. For packaged bread, check the ingredients for baker’s salt or iodised salt. For unpackaged bread, ask which salt has been used.
No. The word ‘sourdough’ doesn’t mean a product is gluten-free. Check whether the specific bread is labelled gluten-free, and read the information on the chocolate sprinkles and any other toppings too.
Before buying, ask the baker or the bread counter for allergen information about the bread you’ve chosen. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority says this information must be available at the point of sale for unpackaged food; check toppings separately.
