Speciality Food April 2024

specialityfoodmagazine.com 39 WHITE CHOCOLATE AND ORANGE CHEESECAKE JUST DESSERTS A crisp base, smothered with creamy white chocolate cheesecake and finished with a delightful orange topping. just-desserts.co.uk STOCK CHECK S P E C I A L I T Y F O O D M A G A Z I N E * 2 0 2 4 * FRUITS OF THE FOREST STRUDEL FIELDFARE I ndividual portions of lightly sugared pastry, bursting with blueberries, r edcurrants, blackberries, raspberries, sour cherries and apples. field-fare.com COOKIE DOUGH ICE CREAM BOOJA-BOOJA Creamy, cashew-based vegan, organic vanilla ice cream, swirled with cookie dough chunks and caramel sauce. Indulgent while being soya, palm oil and gluten free. boojabooja.com HEAVENLY HONEYCOMB SIMPLY ICE CREAM A thick supremely creamy luxurious honeycomb ice cream, with crunchy pieces of homemade honeycomb. Made with all natural ingredients. simplyicecream.co.uk BRILLANT BLACKCURRANT ALDER TREE A beautifully juicy fruit cream ice, made s imply with ripe blackcurrants, cream and sugar. A pure expression of the berries, and a multiple award winner. alder-tree.co.uk WHITE CHOCOLATE & RASPBERRY RIPPLE ICE CREAM BERRY’S ICE CREAM Sweet Herefordshire raspberries b lended into a smooth, rich homemade white chocolate ice cream. berrysicecream.co.uk such as mango, black coconut, passion fruit, lychee, matcha, turmeric and ginger, is growing in popularity. These flavours reflect the influence of global cuisines and cultures, as well as the desire for new and exciting sensory experiences.” Adding cool to your core offering Upping your ice creamand sorbet game, whether by increasing freezer space, or introducing an ice cream counter, could give your business a boost. This has certainly been the case for Denisa Rance of Mursley FarmShop near Milton Keynes. Denisa, who previously operated an ice cream shop in Buckingham, took on the barn and its flock of chickens three years ago, pivoting it into a destination farm shop, with a large cafe and ice creamcabinet filled with iced treats made by her mother using their own eggs, and local dairy. Around 40 flavours are available, from raspberry ripple cheesecake, to themore unusual Marmite and vanilla. Visitors adore the shop, and attend in droves – particularly during the holidays. “It’s absolutely worth it,” she says of the investment. “Customers come here for ice creamall year. It’s a driver to the shop. Without that, or the coffee shop, I don’t think people would come here for their daily shop and I don’t think we would be surviving. We have everything under one roof. So they come for ice creamor coffee, and then pick up some eggs, vegetables or a card. It really works so well.” The proof is in the pudding Similarly to ice cream, desserts and puddings harking back to what our parents or grandparents might have whipped up on a Sunday afternoon remain bestsellers today. Chef David Grimwood of The Froize Inn in Chillesford, has been in hospitality for more than 50 years, and offers almost 20 homemade ‘sweets’ on his menu. “We applaud puddings, and adore puddings,” he says. “Over the years I’ve beenmaking them the classics have always stood the test of time. The bread and butter pudding, steamed sponge pudding, sticky toffee pudding. Trends haven’t really changed.” What makes a really good dessert, he adds, is quality, and portion size. “I think size is important for customers. It has to be a reasonably sized portion. But you’ve also got to please the eye. When someone has a pudding, it has tomake themgo ‘wow’!” Premium frozen food leader, Fieldfare, sells a lot of croissants, pain au chocolat and other pastries, which are a weekend fixture for many of their customers. The brand says it sees sales of its desserts rise substantially around holidays such as Christmas and Easter, and in advance of high spring it has launched a series of tempting new desserts, offering evenmore choice to the increasing number of people who are entertaining at home. “When hosting a dinner party or preparing for a big family Sunday lunch, the pudding is often the one thing that many shoppers will buy in,” says Fieldfare’sMatt Whelan. “Keeping a good stock of classic desserts that the shopper can just pop in their basket and consider dessert as ‘done’, is a great way to increase spend. “Equally, puddings are no longer the reserve of the Sunday lunch. Recently shoppers have been keen to treat themselves and their families to smaller, everyday treats, such as individual puddings or sweet pastries. By offering easy access to individually portioned items such as our loose frozen puddings and pastries, retailers may encourage impulse purchases that increase their shoppers’ basket size every time they visit.” One of themain benefits of frozen desserts, Matt adds, is their shelf life, making thema low risk, minimal waste option – something of increasing importance to retailers and savvy customers during the cost- of-living crisis. Matt says thesemore frugal times have seen consumers cut back on big ticket items, while increasing purchases of more affordable, everyday pick-me-ups – a key driver for Fieldfare’s investment in its sweeter selection. “Smaller, single portion puddings are perfect for such little indulgences. Creatingmore individually portioned products also offers the opportunity for some truly great product innovation. Whilemany cooks are very accomplished, some classics remain a challenge. The oozy-centered fondant, the perfect wobbly panna cotta, and the painstakingly sliced French apple tart. All our classics are a sure-fire success.” A lot of flavours come and go, but salted caramel has stayed a firm favourite – especially in our range SALLY NEWALL, SIMPLY ICE CREAM