As ice cream specialists, we are in the privileged position to see the latest and greatest trends and products entering the market, and lately we have been seeing all things inclusions. Particularly from the birthplace of our beloved gelato, Italy, where flavoured biscuit crumbs are said to be the next big thing.
Now, none of us will be strangers to flavoured biscuit in the UK, with Oreo, Lotus and the classic Shortbread crumb adorning countless ice cream recipes in the last few years. However, whilst delicious, we often find the issue with these biscuit crumbs is that they go soft within our ice cream or gelato relatively quickly, and let’s face it, crunchy beats soft every time!
So how can we combat this? There are indeed alternatives out there, such as a fat coated biscuit crumbs which help the biscuit to keep its crunch, but we often find these can be quite waxy on the palette.
Italian biscuit crumb products
The Italians however seem to have found a solution! They have created a biscuit crumb that will stay crunchy within our ice cream or gelato. These innovative new products are not fat coated but have been specifically formulated to ensure they don’t absorb moisture, allowing them to keep the crunch we love for much longer.
Moreover, it isn’t just the formula of the product that is innovative, they have taken the flavouring of these biscuit crumbs to another level with red forest fruits, lemon, pistachio and hazelnut. And don’t get us started on the strong, vibrant colours of each of these products.
What does this mean for the way that we flavour ice cream?
We can now put a twist on our traditional cheesecake ice cream or gelato recipes!
When we look at a cheesecake recipe, we often utilise a cream cheese base alongside a recognised fat coated biscuit crumb, before adapting our flavour with the use of a ripple such as strawberry, Amarena cherry or blueberry.
With a number of new biscuit crumb flavours, we are now able to mix two (or even three) flavours into your cheesecake ice cream or gelato recipe. You might decide to create a white chocolate ripple with pistachio flavoured biscuit crumb. You could mix a chocolate ripple with red berry crumb. You could even go Italian by mixing Sicilian orange ripple with lemon biscuit crumb. The options are endless!
Why should you utilise these new biscuit crumb products?
Inclusions have always been a tried and tested favourite in ice cream. Often, they convey a certain sophistication and quality when used in our ice creams; just think to some of the premium brands we find in freezers in supermarkets throughout the UK such as Ben & Jerry’s or Häagen-Dazs.
Both of these brands love to use inclusions, and these are ice cream brands bought by millions of people around the world month in, month out. Ultimately, we can make the strong argument that consumers associate inclusions and the texture that these bring with quality products.
In addition to adding an air of luxury to your product, the Italians’ new product has been manufactured in a very considerate way to ensure it can be enjoyed by a larger audience, notably those that are gluten-free. Being able to avoid allergens and offer alternatives to consumers is a huge bonus when it comes to your own parlour, so why not take advantage?
What if biscuit crumb isn’t an option?
If for any reason you aren’t able to use biscuit crumb within your recipes, there is an alternative solution that will still allow you to capture this same taste, and that is using a biscuit ripple.
Growing more in popularity, biscuit ripples are a great way to get that add umph into your ice cream or gelato. Whilst the traditional chocolate biscuit ripple such as Oreo has been hugely popular, we have also seen the growth of speculoos, cinnamon, caramel and even lemon style biscuit ripples featured in some of the tastiest recipes.
But as we always say, you’ll get the most success by utilising unique flavours. Why not try rippling your chocolate cookie ripple through a mint to level up your mint choc chip? Or ripple speculoos through a chocolate, or even a lemon biscuit through a strawberry ice cream? Ultimately, crunch is key, so throw every idea you have at your recipes!