Pågen classics

Our range has some true classics that have been loved for generations.

Hönökaka

Hönökakan is a real classic, loved by many. The history of the Hönökaka goes back to the 1950s. At Majornas Ångbageri - which was eventually known as Pååls and which later merged with Pågen - there was a baker working there who lived on Hönö island in the Bohuslän archipelago. He told others about thin bread that the island fishermen would bake and pack in their lunchboxes. His story led to Majornas Ångbageri beginning to bake a Hönökaka. The bread shares some similarities with the Hönö fishermen's bread, but it is baked to a recipe that makes the bread softer and also stronger. The new Hönökaka became a best-seller instantly, and is still, almost 60 years later.

Jättefranska

Do you recognise Sweden's first sliced French style loaf? Of course you do, the name of the loaf is Jättefranska, and it was launched in the 1960s. The idea and inspiration came from the USA, where sliced French style loafs were incredibly popular. Sweden quickly adopted the American trend of toasting the bread, and the Jättefranska became an overnight success. Despite our many various types of bread, it is still the Jättefranska which is the consumer's favourite.

Gifflar

Sometimes it is circumstances that are behind how a product is invented. Small cinnamon shell-shaped breads were a speciality that we were still baking by hand in the 1970s. But when the bakers removed the buns from the conveyor, it sometimes went a little bit wrong. The buns often ended up on their right hand corner, which meant they'd completely failed. But – one of the bakers thought that they actually looked quite nice, and they knew the taste was already great, of course! They also happened to stay fresh longer in this misshapen style. Whoops – and so we'd accidentally created the cinnamon Gifflar – Sweden's most sold snack bread! Think how lucky that unlucky baker actually was!

Krisprolls

Our great Swedish toasts have been baked in many different varieties since Anders Påhlsson's days. However, the Swedish toast hasn't always looked like it does today. In 1962 the wife of Göte Nyberg, baker at Påhlssons in Malmö, was disappointed when she discovered that the traditional toast no longer fitted to 'dunk' in her newly-purchased coffee cup. Göte Nyberg realised that many other families also had this issue with round toasts, so the lengthened, cup-friendly Swedish toast soon became the standard.

LingonGrova

The LingonGrova was launched in the 1990s under the name Lantgrova. Since it did not succeed well in the beginning, there were plans to stop baking the bread. However, we decided to give it another chance, and we were lucky, because today we can proudly state that we have Sweden's most loved bread in our range! In 2009, LingonGrova was the fourth best selling product in food retail.