Prepare Your Restaurant Menu this Summer
Summer season is the peak time for frozen dessert sales. Summer brings with it peak business and busy hours for many restaurants, leaving no choice to owners and managers to analyze their current setup of their kitchen equipment. Also, a huge demand for different frozen desserts drives restaurant owners to take a look at their menu and change it to supply the new demands. Knowing the way to capitalize on new frozen dessert recipe can allow you to benefit from specialized dessert menus while bringing maximum profit from your satisfied customers.
Your Menu
Updating your menu is necessary in order to keep up with the trend during seasonal changes. Now is the best time to install that cold food stall or frozen drink machine if you had been considering about putting up an ice cream business. Take the time to compare your new summer menu with food prices to ensure that you are reaping the maximum financial gain from it and adjust accordingly. Hopefully you have started preparing your restaurant menu for the summer months.
Ice Cream
Summer wouldn’t be summer without ice cream. This traditional dessert is definitely a must-have for your restaurant frozen dessert menu. Ice cream is a frozen dessert made of milk, cream, egg yolks and sugar whipped with a lot of air. This is what makes the ice cream light and fluffy. Traditionally, French-style ice cream contained egg yolks and was richer than American-style ice cream, which did not contain eggs. However, American-style ice cream has now evolved to also include the egg yolks to its mixture. Different flavorings and sweeteners can help you create your own specialized ice cream as an addition to your menu.
Gelato
Gelato is an Italian word which means ice cream. It starts out with a similar custard base as the ice cream, but has a higher proportion of milk and a lower proportion of cream and eggs. Gelato, on the other hand, is churned at a much slower rate, incorporating less air and leaving a thick and denser texture than ice cream. Another difference is that gelato is stored at a slightly higher freezing temperature than regular ice cream, which makes the gelato creamier and smoother. Gelato usually has less fat than regular ice cream because it is made with lesser cream and eggs which makes the main flavor ingredient really shines through.
Custard
The main difference between the ice cream and custard is the amount of egg yolk added to the mixture. Custard has a bit more egg yolks to make a smoother, thicker texture. Only 1.4% of egg yolk by weight legally needs to be added to make the custard smoother and have thicker texture. Lecithin in the egg yolk is what gives this dessert a richer, creamier texture. If you choose to add more air to the mixture, the resulting texture is more like a mousse and can be used in different desserts. Because of its susceptibility to defrosting due to its more sensitive makeup, custards are not able to be mass-produced and sold in groceries, making it a perfect option at restaurants.
Sorbet
This frozen dessert is sometimes called “fruit ice” since it’s usually made with just water, fruit, juice and sugar blended together and frozen. It is then whipped to lighten its texture. You can also include the flavorings of herbs and spices to have a unique better taste to it. It has a lesser fat than ice cream and does not contain dairy products. This makes it a good choice for people who need to avoid lactose.
Frozen Yogurt
Frozen Yogurt is made of equally combined amount of plain or vanilla low fat yogurt with frozen fruit using a food processor then place the blended mixture in the freezer to harden. Frozen yogurt is just like ice cream or gelato but it is made with yogurt instead of cream, which makes it lower in fat than regular ice cream. The added bonus of using yogurt is that it helps promote a healthy digestive tract.
Granita
Granita is an Italian word which means flavored ice. It is a crunchy frozen dessert using the same ingredients in a sorbet, except it is made by hand. The base is typically frozen in a bowl, and then chopped up and stirred quickly with a fork, giving it a crunchy texture due to the large ice crystals formed while freezing. The texture defines a granita, making it distinctly different from other frozen dessert. Popular flavors for granites include fruit juices, chocolate or fresh herbs and are often served between meals as a palate cleanser.
How do I bring all of these to my restaurant?
So how do you make the decision on which one of these frozen desserts to serve at your restaurant? Thankfully, there are ice cream machines and ice cream showcase available at Fun Food Thailand that can do it all for you. All you need to do is create a new innovative menu for your restaurant. These restaurant equipment can be able to make custard, ice cream, sorbet and frozen yogurt, making it an easy choice if you plan to serve any of these frozen desserts. When you can cut out some extra pieces of equipment, you save money and space in your commercial kitchen. You may even consider putting these machines in a customer-accessible area and have a toppings bar for a specialized frozen dessert experience.
