3 Keys to Making Healthy Frozen Desserts
Offering cold desserts is a great way to attract customers of all kinds. After all, everybody loves a cold and sweet treat now and then. However, customers are increasingly conscious of eating healthy, and the desserts you offer need to reflect that. Here are some tips on how to make healthy desserts without compromising on delicious flavor.
3 Keys to Making Healthy Cold Desserts
1. Use Natural Ingredients
Most people know that getting away from artificial ingredients in favor of wholesome, all-natural food products is key to eating healthy. Luckily for those of us who love frozen desserts, there are plenty of all-natural options that can still achieve a great flavor. Paying attention to what ingredients go into the desserts you serve allow you to provide a product that is both healthy and delicious.
When it comes to healthy frozen desserts, turning to all the flavors nature has to offer instead of going for more synthetic ingredients is the way to go. There are all kinds of fruit flavors that make great desserts, including banana, strawberry, pineapple, and just about anything else you can imagine. Going for genuine fruit ingredients rather than extracts or artificial flavors helps make your desserts as wholesome and healthy as possible.
2. Go For Full-Fat Dairy Products
There are plenty of frozen treats that use dairy products as a base. From smoothies to ice cream and beyond, there are all kinds of milk-based desserts that people love. Using full-fat milk as the base for these products helps to make them healthier options for your customers.
This seems counterintuitive, but the “low-fat” craze has been proven wrong. Sugar, not fat, is what’s so bad for us. When you use low-fat dairy, you have to add more sugar to improve the taste, and there’s less fat to “cushion” the blow of all the sugar before it hits the bloodstream, resulting in even faster hikes in blood sugar than you’d otherwise get. Full-fat dairy means a creamier, more delicious product that’s lower in sugar and allows that sugar to ensure the bloodstream at a slightly more measured rate.
3. Experiment with Different Flavors
Ultimately, even though it is great to make desserts that appeal to your customers’ desire to eat healthy, you also want to make something that tastes great. Fantastic flavor and healthiness don’t have to be opposed to one another. You can get a dish that is wholesome and healthy while maintaining an excellent flavor if you think outside the box a bit.
Try out different flavor combinations to achieve desserts that will put a smile on your customers’ face while still giving them something healthy. While old favorites are great to have as staples, going experimental can help you turn your healthy desserts into delightful treats. Using uncommon flavor combinations can also set your desserts apart from the crowd and give your business a unique edge.
Great frozen desserts start with having great equipment to make them. We’ve got the best frozen dessert equipment around to help you offer healthy and delicious treats that everybody is sure to love. Check out ADI Electro Freeze to learn more about the equipment we can offer you!
6 Tips for Making Non-Dairy Cold Desserts
Everybody loves a little something sweet now and then, which is why cold desserts are such a great offering for businesses to have for their customers. Non-dairy desserts from a frozen treat maker are one popular type to offer, available to anyone regardless of dietary restrictions. Here are some tips to keep in mind if you intend to offer this kind of dessert.
6 Tips for Making Non-Dairy Cold Desserts
1. Keep Your Menu Diverse
With practically any business venture, overspecialization hinders your ability to cater to the broadest possible audience. Instead of just focusing on one type of dessert, keep your options open so that you can draw in customers with all different tastes. Ices, slushes, and dairy-free smoothies are just some of the options you can offer.
2. Consider Dairy Substitutes
Non-dairy desserts have plenty of variety all on their own, but you can also replicate the flavors and qualities of dairy desserts using other substitutes. Almond milk, coconut milk, and other dairy substitutes can be great ingredients to add to your dessert selections. These can all replicate what dairy brings to a dish while remaining accessible to people with certain dietary restrictions.
3. Offer a Variety of Flavors
Everyone who you serve dessert to will have their own individual tastes and preferences. It’s important that you keep that in mind when deciding on the selection of desserts that you offer. One person’s favorite might be grape while another might like cherry, for example, so having options to cater to both tastes will ensure you don’t miss out on a sale due to flavor preferences.
4. Presentation Is Key
While flavor might be the first consideration in mind when making desserts, it’s important to make your food appeal to all the senses. They say that people eat with their eyes, so you want to make sure your food looks as good as it tastes. Little details like making the container your treats come in attractive can make a big difference in your customer satisfaction.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Get Experimental
Breaking the mold and doing something unique is a great way to set the desserts you offer apart from what the competition has. Rather than offering the same old options for your customers, think outside the box to create something that is truly one-of-a-kind. Whether you take inspiration from existing desserts and put your own spin on things or come up with something completely off-the-wall, having unique offerings will take you far.
6. Use the Right Frozen Treat Maker
As with so many things, having the right tools and equipment on your side can make all the difference in making your desserts a success. Having a reliable treat maker for your frozen goods will give you the foundation for success. Investing in quality equipment will always be a better option than cutting corners that you’ll later need to make up for.
The equipment we offer will let you amaze your customers with the desserts you offer. Contact ADI Electro Freeze to learn more!
Hand Dipped Ice Cream Machines
Ice cream shops across the Ohio valley have been serving America’s favorite dessert (ice cream) to customers for generations. At ADI, we’ve had a lot to do with that as we’ve been delivering quality and reliable hand dipped ice cream machines to storefronts all across the Ohio Valley for many years. There’s a reason the most successful ice cream shop owners across the valley come to us when it’s time for new ice cream equipment or parts – because we are the exclusive dealer of Electro Freeze in Ohio. No other line of ice cream machines have consistently proved themselves in reliability and and product consistency like the Electro Freeze line of frozen dessert machines.
With the variety of ice cream offerings and frozen treats available to everyone nowadays it’s important to note that Electro Freeze makes a machine for whichever product you serve at your ice cream shop. Whether it be water ice, custard, gelato or you go the traditional route and use one of our hand dipped ice cream machines, you can increase profits while maintaining (even lowering) costs with an Electro Freeze machine. An Electro Freeze hand dipped ice cream machine will help you create delicious, authentic, creamy, consistent and flavorful frozen dessert treats like frozen custard, water ice, gelato, sorbets and ice cream. Using an Electro Freeze hand dipped ice cream machine is just the beginning benefit when it comes to creating a genuinely unique product and generating profits in your shop. Combined with ADIEF’s customer focused business-building insights we’ll help you maximize your profits and grow your customer base all without compromising your unique, quality product. Of course, we can only call your product unique and quality if you’re making it on your own with an Electro Freeze machine. To use any other machine would put your product and store at risk. You need reliability, consistency.
You can add more customers with the right machine
Purchasing, renting or leasing a new piece of equipment for your business is a big decision – and a big risk if you don’t choose the right piece of equipment. When choosing the right piece of equipment for your shop you’ll want assurance from the distributor and manufacturer that the machine delivers and adheres to the highest quality standards and support. That’s the kind of commitment you can expect from ADI and Electro Freeze. The great thing about the hand dipped ice cream machines from ADI and Electro Freeze is that the machines are known to be so reliable that little maintenance and replacement parts are needed throughout it’s life cycle. That relates to very little down time (if any) and very little cost associated with the maintenance, repair and replacement parts. That up-time translates into more product you can produce and the more consistent your product will be.
By adding a hand dipped ice cream machine in your store you will have the potential to create just about any dessert for you customer. This means you get to be very creative with you ingredients and flavors because you’ll be making everything from scratch. Whether you want to stick to the traditional flavors of chocolate and vanilla or start producing products to match the trends like organic and vegan products, you’ll be in good hands with an Electro Freeze machine.
Ice Cream Shop Checklist for Spring Openings
For most ice cream shop owners across the country operating a store is a seasonal business. Therefore every spring owners are tasked with re-opening there store for another season. Which means owners have a whole slew of issues and concerns they need to address before actually opening the store. So, before you even begin to get things ready from an operational standpoint, use this ice cream shop checklist for spring openings to review the seasonal success drivers of your shop.
Prices
One of the most important factors in the success of your ice cream shop is pricing. If you haven’t raised your prices from previous years or aren’t considering a price increase from last year, then this is the year to do it. Increase prices. No one knows your customers better than you and there is no doubt you pride yourself on a quality product and great customer service. Your product and service is what separates you from your competition, therefore your prices should not be based on what your competitor is doing. Quality products demand a better price and customers who understand that do not hesitate paying a little extra for it. There’s a concern by many shop owners that increasing prices will decrease the amount of customers. Truth be told, if you increase your prices by only a little bit each season the customer may not even notice or remember what they paid last year. A couple of cent increase per product could have a tremendous impact on your bottom line. Think about it, if you increase a milkshake price by just a quarter then that 25 cent increase will add up to an even bigger number by the end of the season. The longer you’ve been in business the more reference points you should have on determining the right price points. Use the previous years data to gain insight. People will complain about price no matter what (even if you don’t increase the price). If you feel that you’re losing customers because of price then it’s time to look at another area of your operation because the price is not the factor that is driving them away.
Marketing
Another important factor before you open for the season is to have a plan in place for ongoing marketing during the season. Hopefully you have a marketing plan or calendar implemented for your business that you refer to and execute every month. If you don’t, then contact us and we can help you do that. This marketing plan or calendar will help you get a jump on things and keep you from scrambling when it comes to drumming up new business. This means your constantly posting videos and promotions to all of your social media accounts, your getting involved with and attending community events and you’re taking advantage of holidays to run specials in your store. If you have a plan, your chances for success greatly increase. Though this just skims the surface when it comes to marketing your ice cream shop, the good news is that we can help you with other channels of success when it comes to getting your name out there.
Equipment
The equipment is the lifeline of your shop and without quality equipment, your product and store will suffer. There’s a reason the most successful ice cream shops across the globe use Electro Freeze machines – because they produce a great product and they run forever with the proper maintenance. We’ve discussed this before in earlier blogs on why having the right equipment makes all the difference and how you should never compromise when it comes to buying equipment. This is common sense but all your equipment should be thoroughly cleaned and serviced before the season begins. If one of your machines goes down, even for just an hour, it can have a profound effect on your business. Make sure the machines are running efficiently and at the proper temperatures so as to eliminate wasteful spending. Do a quick audit and make sure you have important replacement parts in stock in case a machine does go down and you have your service company’s number available to employees at all times. We cannot stress enough about how much of an impact the right machines and properly maintained machines have on the bottom line of your business.
Store Aesthetics
Lastly, make sure your store is visually appealing to the customer. Your store should always be clean and inviting to customers. The overall layout and appearance of a store will have a tremendous impact on the customers mind. The store should be properly branded and instantly recognizable. The branding should be carried through all channels of the store including the color scheme and logos printed on your takeout products, cups and napkins. The colors, logos and fonts should always be the same and be carried out through all marketing aspects discussed above as well.
By using this ice cream shop checklist for spring openings you’ll avoid any pitfalls that occur during the early months of the season and set yourself up for success for the summer months. If you need any help, please don’t hesitate to contact us.