Aditi Handa, Co-founder and head chef at Baker’s Dozen
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Aditi Handa, co-founder and head chef of Baker’s Dozen, an artisinal homegrown brand that specialises in baked goods, says, “I still get upset when people treat sourdough as gourmet or occasional bread. It’s like saying we eat vanilla ice cream every day and reserve chocolate or blackcurrant for special occasions.”

Aditi, who has been commercially baking sourdough since 2013, has helped shift the narrative around it in India, making it accessible through kirana shops. She and her husband Sneh began their venture in Mumbai, but as production scaled up, so did rent. “We moved to Ahmedabad,” she says. Their sourdough uses a basic recipe of four ingredients — flour, water, salt and yeast — plus “a lot of patience” for fermentation.

More than a decade later, their team is still innovating. The latest addition? A cake without refined flour, marketed as the Zero Maida Donut Cake, which is free from maida, palm oil, refined sugar and artificial colouring. The brand takes one step at a time and is never in hurry to introduce new products until they have tested enough to be sure of it.

“When I started Baker’s Dozen, the idea was simple: to bring sourdough back as a daily essential,” says Aditi. After earning diplomas in International Bread Baking (International Culinary Institute, New York) and Patisserie (Le Cordon Bleu, Paris), she was drawn to breads, especially sourdough. “I wanted to bring it out of the elitist closet.”

Though there are many sourdough bread makers in India now, at the time when Aditi started, sourdough was largely limited to home baker circles and upscale restaurant menus. Most Indian households preferred white bread, often made with over 20 ingredients including preservatives and enhancers. Aditi’s challenge was to shift preferences. “We began with sourdough pav, inspired by Mumbai’s laadi pav, then added a masala pav. Slowly, we introduced four-grain, blueberry-cranberry, walnut-raisin, baguettes and more. Back then, sourdough was still considered ‘fancy’.”

Baker’s Dozen Zero Maida Donut Cake
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Customer education was key. “When we launched our Kemps Corner store in 2013, if someone picked up a multigrain, I’d hand them a four-grain for free and say, ‘Aunty, try this, I know you’ll like it’.” Gradually, things changed. From selling 1,000 loaves in the first year, Baker’s Dozen scaled to one lakh in five years, and three lakh in seven.

Cut to 2025, the brand’s ‘Zero Maida’ whole wheat loaf with sourdough is their biggest player. What goes in to increase it’s shelf life? “Sourdough. That’s all it needs, that’s all we add,” said Aditi.

Aditi’s focus then turned to making high-quality bread more affordable — priced as low as ₹40. By studying the milling process and collaborating with flour millers, she adapted her recipes to use 100% whole wheat. “Healthy, clean food should be accessible to all. With the sourdough starter, our breads are free from chemicals, additives or preservatives.”

Who tends to the sourdough? “All of us,” she says. “It’s like a nursery, and the team is very patient. That’s how we’ve grown.” And when the starter fails? “It’s happened. You just start over and wait.”

What next? “ We want to expand to tier 2 cities only because we want rto eat healthy,” said Aditi.