Bakery Pausenbrot

from Eat & Stay Goa - NOVEMBER ISSUE 2022

The Fifth Goa Culinary Conclave 2022

Andrea Thumshrin and Aditya Rai, the proprietors of BakeryPausenBrot

Bakery PausenBrot was started in October 2022 by Aditya Rai and his German wife Andrea Thumshrin. They aimed to provide authentic German sourdough bread and other German indigenous bakes along with a quality cup of coffee to go with it. The name Pausenbrot is German and means the sandwich which the kids there take to school. Pausen means ‘Break’ while Brot means ‘Bread’. Pausenbrot is primarily located right next to the Benaulim Panchayat, while a secondary seasonal outlet is in Majorda.

Aditya and Andrea both initially worked in the field of sports. Aditya was a basketball coach and Andrea was running a hockey academy and a school for underprivileged children in a remote village in Rajasthan. They’d frequently visit Goa for their vacation and would enjoy their stay in the calmness and serenity of Goa staying in simple beach huts with their toes in the sand.

“What was missing for us was a good breakfast and a strong cup of coffee”, says Aditya. That birthed the idea of settling down in Goa and opening a German bakery of their own. They were supposed to get a friend from Germany who is a Baker to help and train them in baking but the pandemic didn’t allow them. They say they were lucky enough to get the help virtually from a South German baker who was guiding them to achieve quality German-style sourdough bread in the Indian climate.

PausenBrot wanted to stand out from the crowd of the many German bakeries already present. The name PausenBrot creates curiosity in people as they want to know what it means and it goes with their concept of serving healthy bread as a snack. As they both were running a school in Rajasthan, they decided to continue with the theme of a school in their bakery. They sourced old school furniture from a school in Savordem as Andrea had lived and worked with her Hockey academy in that area and knew some of the schools in that area.

They revamped and converted old school furniture and installed it in their existing shop furniture. This innovative approach turned out to be quite creative and a money saver for them as shifting to Goa during the pandemic had eaten up most of their savings. They rented a baking place in Cunculim where a retired local baker showed them how to handle a huge oven, dough kneading machines and how to bake in bulk. PausenBrot sources organic flour from Gujarat and their sourdough breads are purely made of water, flour and salt with no added yeast or improvers, a fact of which they are very proud. They serve various kinds of sandwiches and their PausenBrot Sandwiches in a bread box which is offered with different vegetarian and nonvegetarian toppings are quite famous. Daily

German sourdough bread loaves and baguettes

serve Cinnamon Rolls, Apple Cakes, Cheese Cakes, and Organic Coffee in different variations like Cappuccino, French Press, and Cold Coffee.

They offer loaves of bread which are available with Whole Wheat, Multi-flour with changing ingredients like herbs, jalapenos, turmeric etc. to choose from.

As they started amidst the pandemic they were mostly dependent on the locals and a few foreigners that lived there. Goa having a bread culture made people interested to try their bread. Since most Goans travel abroad, tasting PausenBrot’s bread made many remember their European vacations and the Foreigners were happy to get authentic German sourdough in South Goa. People come in, sit and listen to their stories over a cup of coffee. “We actually survived the pandemic due to the locals that came again and again.”, says Aditya.

The major challenge for them has been baking. As they have dedicated themselves to traditional sourdough bread, the climate plays a crucial role in daily baking. The proofing times vary drastically and at times when the weather suddenly changes, it makes it even more difficult. The advice they got from their German baker friend was to proof dough for 10 hours but when they did it, the dough had literally gone liquid in 10 hours. With trial and error with different

time intervals, they got it right. Sweet bakes like the croissants are no different, as it is near to impossible to bake croissants without AC. Opening during the pandemic was always challenging. At times they had to keep their shops closed and be open for takeaway and delivery as people were scared to leave their homes..

Recently they shifted to a new shop closer to the road with more space and better visibility, allowing them to have more seating and bake in a better environment. The entire process is transparent and customers love seeing their bread come out fresh from the oven. The everpresent smell of cinnamon rolls and freshly baked bread is irresistible. They also host Kaffeeklatsch every second Thursday from 4 to 5 in the evening.