Category: Blog/Article

Inspired by: Cookie Dough

Inspired By-Cookie Dough Header image with cookie dough inclusions spilled on white background
chocolate chip cookie with bite taken out of it on white background

Cookie dough has long been an indulgence snuck from the spoon of family baking or part of the sampling process. Along the way, we’ve found safer ways to enjoy the creamy textured, sweet and fat combination. With special formulations designed just for eating raw, cookie dough inclusions have started to appear throughout a variety of products and overseas, with entire shops dedicated to only serving safe to eat versions of this uncooked treat.

When inspired by cookie dough, you can stick to the caramelly taste of the brown sugar used in the batter, small bits of the real thing, or the soft texture and colour in a shelf-stable application.  What you choose to use will be impacted by a lot of various factors, but you might enjoy the caramel flavour and biscuit like crunch of a caramel soft crunch kibble (Left), the sweet brown sugar and vanilla flavour of Cookie Dough (Middle), or the soft smooth texture of caramel fudge balls to give a dough like texture change in your product (Right).

softkibble-cookiedough-fudgeball comparison in piles with single inclusion item shown for size similarity and texture difference

The type of inclusion will greatly depend on your application (amongst other things), as inclusions that are perfect for ice cream are often different than those best suited for chocolate manufacturers inspired by the same cookie dough trend. No matter what your requirements or restrictions, our team are here to help ensure your product development process is a success, get in touch today.

Inclusions inspired by Cookie Dough

Inclusions inspired by Cookie Dough

Food Trends In A Recession

Food Trends in A Recession (video article) blog header image

Hello All, It’s Lionel from FoodFlo.

In light of the current climate, I have been reading some interesting articles on food trends and consumer behaviour from past economic downturns.

Some points I have seen are:

  1. Innovation & Development
    Some major brands that you know and love have been launched in difficult times. One example is Snickers, invented and launched in the midst of the great depression. It’s important to remember to not let your product development stop during these times. People still want exciting new products.
  2. Comfort Flavours & Small Indulgences
    Many major snacking brands experienced significant growth in an otherwise declining economy in the GFC. While the new car or overseas holiday off the agenda, ice creams and road trips were on it during these times. One small trend we have seen from consumers in the current crisis during these times is when people’s stocks of toilet paper and rice didn’t satisfy their sweet tooth, they went out and stocked up on ice cream, chocolate, bakery, and their other favourite snacks.
  3. Shop Local
    Many consumers have turned to their local village stores, markets, and supermarkets. One way to embrace this in your next product development could be to use regional ingredients such as local honey or fruit.

Here at FoodFlo, there has been no let-up in our new product development, production, deliveries, or customer support. We would love to be of assistance to you. Talk soon.

Inclusion Learning Centre: Free e-Course

Free Inclusions e-Course Inclusion Learning Centre

Use the free mini-lessons to inspire and kickstart your next product development or upskill in an area of interest.

Have questions along the way about how inclusions can work with your requirements? The FoodFlo team are here to help!

What is the difference between Honeycomb and Hokey Pokey?

What's the difference between honeycomb and hokey pokey?

Honeycomb (the confectionery treat) and Hokey Pokey (the dessert, not the dance) are regionalised names for the same crunchy caramelised sugar treat filled with bubbles of air producing a sponge-like texture.

Honeycomb is the name that Australians will likely know the treat by, whereas Kiwi’s (New Zealanders) will likely call it Hokey Pokey. Regionally it may be referred to as sponge candy, sea foam, fairy food candy, or old fashioned puff in the US, and in Britain, it is often called Cinder Toffee with variances of puff candy in Scotland, Yellowman in Northern Ireland and Sponge Toffee in Canada.

There is often small regional variances of caramelisation, formulations or bubble size, and those variances are represented based on customer requirements across our extensive range of kibbles, pieces, and balls of inclusion options.

Traditionally, Honeycomb and Hokey Pokey have been small-batch treats made on a stovetop, with varying air pocket sizes and inconsistent results from batch to batch, with variances due to temperature, humidity and the rate of baking soda that was included (and how fast it could, or couldn’t be stirred into the mix and poured into the pan).

Our team draws on over 40 years of Hokey Pokey expertise to create a consistent and quality honeycomb inclusion range specifically developed with the varying applications in mind at the scale for use in commercial products and quantities.

When working to ensure the best possible tasting treat, our production process, quality control systems, and organoleptic testing processes ensure a sweet treat that tastes, looks and functions as required no matter the day it is ordered or produced.

Honeycomb Hokey Pokey Alternate Name Map

Map outlines courtesy of – https://freevectormaps.com/world-maps/WRLD-EPS-01-0017?ref=atr

Wikipedia  article with regional names used in map – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeycomb_toffee

Variety & Range of Honeycomb Balls

Not all hokey pokey is the same. With over 50 varieties available there is bound to be something to suit your next project.

Colour, recipe, size and ingredients all matter when you are looking for that perfect inclusion.

Transcript from the video:

Hello, it’s Lionel from FoodFlo international here with you again.

In the last video, we went through with you our new product development process. Today I am wanting to expand on what I mentioned in there as to our honeycomb/hokey pokey range how we have over 50 different options, and today I’ve got 5 options from our hokey pokey honeycomb ball range to show you what we can offer.

First up is our 8mm butterscotch ball coated in cocoa butter, widely used in the ice cream industry in Australia and New Zealand for Hokey Pokey ice cream and made with butter. We have the option to coat this in chocolate or palm oil. All of our palm oil is sustainably segregated, & it depends on your target market which of these will work best for you.

Then we move on here we have a product we call our brittle balls. It’s got a more burnt cinder type taste, and very similar to our butterscotch ball, but a bit darker colour and taste with a deeper honeycomb/hokey pokey flavour. That’s also coated with a cocoa butter.

Back here we have a 4mm butterscotch ball, very similar to the 8mm one, but in a smaller size and uncoated. Once again we have the option to coat these as required.

On the back closest to the camera is our hokey pokey ball in 4mm. It is a dairy-free option of the butterscotch ball made without butter and had a bit harder bite, and certainly a great product for dairy-free ice cream or chocolate perhaps.

Lastly is our 10mm ball, a fluffy honeycomb, a lot more aerated crunch to it. Not as hard of a crunch to it as a butterscotch ball, but similar to a crunchie bar and our delicious Choc Hokey Pokey product that we make.

As you can see, within these, we do have a lot of options, we do have quite a range that can be varied to suit your specific requirements. We have options of 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and 15mm ball size options. So call us today to see how we can help you. Talk soon.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Confectionery Coatings In High Moisture Environments – Demonstration

Hi, everybody, what I wanted to show you today was the effect of the high moisture environment on inclusions.

Now in front of us today, we have a chocolate-coated, fat coated and uncoated hokey pokey. Now I’m going to scoop some into a vial of water and come back in a couple of minutes, and we’ll see how it holds up.

OK, see you in a few minutes.

Well, well, it’s been two minutes now, and you can see the chocolate covered and the fat coated inclusions are pretty much the same as what they were. The uncoated, however, is starting to dissolve and you can see some discolouration of the water. So let’s leave them alone for another few minutes and come back and see what happens.

It’s been a couple more minutes now, five minutes.

So we’ll scoop some out and show you what’s happened. So this is the uncoated inclusions, so it’s mostly dissolved, and you can compare that to before. And after that is the fat coated, pretty much no change and the chocolate-coated the same, pretty much no change. A little bit of discolouration because of the nature of the chocolate sitting in water. But really, you can see the difference between uncoated inclusions and the coated.

So when you’re working on your next project, get in touch and we can help you to have the right coating for the right application.

Close Ups Of Demonstration Progress & Results

  • Start of Demonstration
  • 2 Minutes
  • 5 Min – End of Demonstration

Chocolate Options As Confectionery Inclusion Coatings

As we noticed in the Confectionery Coatings and Moisture segment, Chocolate is an excellent moisture barrier and popular flavour profile.

In this segment, Lionel shows us the variety of types of chocolate that we offer. He also points out the ability to offer our clients custom processes, such as partial coatings.

We offer compound chocolate (made from sustainable palm oil of course) in white, milk and dark varieties.

For a premium product, we offer cocoa butter formulations and premium chocolate also in milk, dark and white varieties.

Chocolate is applied to inclusion products through the panning process.

Key Decisions When Using Ice Cream Inclusions

Hello, it’s Lionel from FoodFlo international, and today I am going to discuss key features to consider when you’re next working on an ice cream development with inclusions.

These six features include:

  • Texture
  • Flavour
  • Size
  • Colour
  • Requirements & Restrictions
  • Price Point

Texture

So when it comes to texture, what is it that you are looking for. Is it a crunch, a chew or is it a biscuit crumbly texture that you are after. These are all things to consider.

Flavour

Then when it comes to flavour, are you looking for something that enhances your flavour of the ice cream or you looking for a hero flavour that comes out in your inclusion. Something that really gives that pop of flavour and stands alone or just blends in and helps with the flavour of the ice cream.

Size

When it comes to size, what is it that you are looking for the inclusions in your ice cream. Is it small pieces evenly distributed through the ice cream, giving the feeling of abundance or is a larger piece with less quantity and a sense of gourmet and decadent feel in the ice cream.

Colour

When considering the colour of your inclusion, consider if you are looking for something that blends in and matches the colour of your ice cream, or are you looking for a bold bright colour that stands out and adds excitement to the ice cream.

Requirements & Restrictions

Your next project may be limited by some requirements and restrictions that may include: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, no artificial colours or flavours, Halal and Kosher.

Price Point

Every project has a target price point. If your development is in the premium end of the market, you may want to use a premium dark chocolate as a coating on your inclusion, whereas if your product is in the everyday end of the market, you may want to use compound milk chocolate to meet this market.

Conclusion

These features of texture, flavour, size, colour, requirements & restrictions and price point are very important to every ice cream inclusion development, but also are a lot to think about. We think about them every day and would love to help you with your development. Please contact us for assistance.