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Special Feature D E S S E R T S GOURMET NEWS OCTOBER 2014 www.gourmetnews.com SPECIAL FEATURE 2 3 From cookies to cocoa, from brittle to brownies, specialty food companies are revolutionizing classic desserts with innovative flavor combinations, high end ingredients, exciting new recipes and creative packaging. Sweets- loving consumers can now nibble on unique new desserts like draft beer-flavored jelly beans and gluten-free rum cake. When it comes to finishing off a meal with a sweet treat, the sky is truly the limit. Check out these 10 companies who are working to bring consumers fresh new takes on traditional desserts. 1. Aroma Ridge Aroma Ridge recently introduced a new gluten-free variety of its celebrated Wicked Jack's Tavern True Jamaican Rum Cakes. Rum lovers and cake lovers alike fall for the exquisite, rich, full taste of Wicked Jack's authentic Jamaican Rum Cakes, and now the company can add gluten-free food lovers to the company's mix of devotees. www.wickedjackstavern.com 2. Bissinger's Handcrafted Chocolatier Bissinger's recently expanded its chocolate bar collection with the introduction of three new flavors: Peanut Butter Maple Oat Crunch, Fig Balsamic Truffle and Spicy Catalunya. The company also reintroduced another classic flavor: Coffee Toffee. The newest flavors join the eclectic Bissinger's line, which already includes Coconut Caramel with Red Hawaiian Sea Salt, Quinoa Agave Crunch and Dulce de Leche. www.bissingers.com 3. Eli's Cheesecake Vegan cheesecake may sound like an oxymoron, but Eli's Cheesecake has created a vegan dessert so rich and creamy, the company could not resist calling it "cheesecake," drawing a parallel to the Chicago style cheesecake for which Eli's is known. The dessert contains no animal products or byproducts, has not been tested on animals and is dairy-, egg- and cholesterol-free. www.elicheesecake.com 4. Fromagerie Belle Chevre The 2014 sofi Award winner in the Outstanding Dessert or Dessert Topping category for its Belle Chevre Goat Cheese Cheesecake, Alabama-based Fromagerie Belle Chevre crafts exceptionally airy, creamy and sweet cheesecakes. The award-winning dessert features a light and smooth filling with vanilla and a hint of lemon zest, sitting in a crispy graham cracker crust. www.bellechevre.com 5. Hammond's Candies The newest product available from celebrated American confectioner Hammond's Candies is the company's packaged cotton candy. Hammond's gourmet cotton candy is perfectly spun with three great flavors packaged in one generous bag or packaged seasonally for Halloween (orange) and Christmas (peppermint). Also check out Hammond's new whoopie pie and cookie dough chocolate bars. www.hammondscandies.com 6. Jelly Belly Jelly Belly's Draft Beer flavored jelly beans have taken the country by storm. The product is now available in bulk, bags and gift items. The variety of packaging options is a sure way to boost holiday gift sales. Created with beer-loving adults in mind, the Draft Beer jelly beans are alcohol-free and fit in perfectly with the craft beer trend. www.jellybelly.com 7. Poco Dolce Confections The Popcorn Toffee Squares from Poco Dolce Confections, fresh-popped organic popcorn folded into buttery toffee and enrobed in bittersweet chocolate, were recently honored as the Outstanding Chocolate product at this year's sofi Awards ceremony. The San Francisco-based company focuses on showing consumers "the savory side of sweet" with its slightly sweet chocolate confections. www.pocodolce.com 8. Rich Products Corporation For in-store bakeries seeking to capitalize on the growing trend of smaller portioned packaged desserts, Rich Products Corporation is introducing a half-dozen mini treats. Among the company's new products are a Mini Chocolate Brownie Extreme, a Mini Caramel Sea Salt Blondie Extreme, a Mini Boston Crème and three bar cakes: Red Velvet, Triple Chocolate and Carrot. www.richsisb.com 9. Sticky Fingers Bakeries Sticky Fingers recently added three new flavors to the company's line of premium baking mixes: Cherry/Chocolate Chip Scone, Glazed Maple Scone and Glazed Cinnamon Raisin Scone. It also introduced two new flavors to its gluten-free line: a Chocolate Chip Gluten Free Scone mix and a Pumpkin Cranberry Gluten Free Scone mix. www.stickyfingersbakeries.com. 10. The Sticky Toffee Pudding Company The Sticky Toffee Pudding Company has been working hard to introduce Americans to a classic British dessert, and the company's efforts are paying off, with a 2013 sofi Award win in the Outstanding Confection category for its Chocolate Tiffin with Biscuits, Roasted Almonds & Cherries and a 2014 nomination in the Outstanding Cookie category for its Millionaire Shortbread with Smoked Hickory Sea Salt. www.stickytoffeepuddingcompany.com Offer Your Customers Something New to Munch on with Sweet Treats from These 10 Companies BY LORRIE BAUMANN Kane Candy offers a line of chocolate dessert and shooter cups, giving party hosts an opportunity to make a splash with a gourmet treat for their guests that does not require a lot of time and effort to put together. The Kane Candy brand launched in 2012. According to Joe Kane, President of Kane Food Group, the product line drew attention immediately, because it offered the high-end quality that had been missing from competitive products. "The whole concept of the brand is the at-home entertaining," said Kane. "It's ries, a puff of whipped cream or even ed- ible flowers. "The whole concept is for people to have fun with these and to be able to create," Kane said. "We get emails all the time from people who say that these were the most popular dessert at their party." Kane also offers Cordial & Toasting Cups in white and dark chocolate, ideal for an after-dinner sweet of a more alcoholic kind. Fill them with port or a dessert wine or maybe a sip of amaretto or Bailey's Irish Cream for ele- gance without effort. Home entertaining columnist, blog- ger and occasional talk show guest Cheryl Najafi filled the Kane Cordial & Toasting Cups with marshmallow fluff for an elevated version of s'- mores. And TammyJo Eck- hart, who styles herself a "Chocolate Priestess" in her blog The Chocolate Cult (www.the- chocolatecult.blogspot.com), noted that the Kane Chocolate Dessert Cups ranked among the best chocolate she tasted in all of 2013. When Kane Candy first burst onto the scene, retailers embraced the company's products during the holiday season. However, since then, they have become a year-round item, sought out for wed- dings and graduation parties as well as dinner parties at home. "We don't try to seasonalize the product," said Kane. "We have one holiday variety only." The Kane Candy brand sales volume has grown as the products have found new fans, and sales for 2014 have more than doubled 2013 sales. "We're very, very happy," Kane said. The company is expanding the product line this fall with chocolate bak- ing bricks and chocolate disks for melt- ing into candy, both made of premium-quality chocolate. "There's lots of premium chocolate on the market, but that upgrade has not happened in the baking aisle," Kane said. "Our goal is to upgrade that aisle with a premium prod- uct line." GN for the consumer who wants to prepare pastries and desserts just like a world- class pastry chef would make." Kane Candy products are all made with real chocolate with a high cocoa content. They are also gluten-free, certi- fied kosher (dairy) and made in the USA. None of the company's products include high fructose corn syrup. "We're a firm believer in all-natural," Kane said. The chocolate dessert cups are easy to turn into gourmet treats. One simply fills them with a flavored mousse, sorbet or mascarpone cheese and tops them with a few chocolate curls, a couple of raspber- Lift a Cup to Chocolate with Edible Dessert and Shooter Cups from Kane Candy

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