Save the healthy food for 2021—help consumers leave the year on a sugar high. Everyone will be looking to finish off their holiday dinners with peppermint, hot chocolate, gingerbread, and other sweets.
Desserts should be a key part of holiday menu planning. But at a time when foodservice businesses are cutting costs, it’s hard to come up with desserts that drive sales rather than break budgets. Here are a few approaches to making strategic holiday dessert menus.
Little Prep, Big Taste
This holiday season, restaurants must be even more careful to give consumers their favorites without draining their resources. For most, that will mean providing a small selection of easy but flavorful desserts. Chefs can elevate fully-prepared desserts with just one or two extra ingredients using the plus-one method. Add chili to caramel. Whip coffee into icing or custard. Throw a pinch of salt into dark chocolate desserts.
Restaurants don’t need to reinvent their dessert menu. Something as simple as swapping out garnishes can transition desserts restaurants serve all year around into the holiday season. Peppermint candies, for example, can provide some seasonal spice on top of brownies.
Stepped-Up Classics
Restaurants can’t go wrong with pumpkin pie and gingerbread cookies, but that doesn’t mean these classics can’t get even better. Extra ingredients can make them stand out on the menu. Give pumpkin pie a remix by adding maple syrup, a cheesecake layer, or pecan topping and encasing it in a gingerbread crust.
The more is more approach doesn’t just apply to ingredients. Family-size meals have garnered traffic over this pandemic. Why offer a full pan of casserole with only a slice of cake? Sell full pies and cakes as well as cookies and cupcakes by the dozen to ensure entire households get their fill of dessert.
Classic holiday flavors can also merge with up-and-coming desserts. Dessert gnocchi, mochi, and rice pudding are making headway on U.S. menus. Cinnamon, apple, and cranberry can transform these items into new holiday favorites.
Baking Kits
As COVID-19 drives people to put on their baker hats, sales of baking mixes and sugar have increased 38 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Capitalize on this growing hobby by providing baking kits for holiday desserts, like gingerbread houses or cookies for Santa. This is a great way to make baking fun for the whole family.
Early in the pandemic, chefs took to social media and online platforms to provide cooking tutorials. To monetize these efforts, restaurants can make products needed for the tutorial available for carryout or delivery. They can also turn these into exclusive Zoom events that allow participants to interact as they bake. Make sure to go with desserts that don’t take too long and provide holiday-themed activities while food is in the oven.
Your Sourcing Solution
Nothing brings people together—even for very small gatherings—like holidays and desserts. Restaurants that focus on classic flavors and adjust to a new foodservice environment can receive the gift of holiday sales.
At Dot Foods, we have the desserts and baking products restaurants need to brighten up the winter. Browse gingerbread, pies, and more to add some holiday cheer to the dessert menu.
Make the season bright with holiday favorites available to order now.