3 Causes to Add Gluten-Free Desserts to Your Pizzeria’s Menu

• Providing gluten-free desserts can assist improve your pizza restaurant’s income throughout unpredictable financial occasions.
• Nevertheless it’s necessary to guard your prospects by following greatest practices for stopping cross-contact contamination.

By Lindsey Yeakle, Gluten-Free Meals Service (GFFS) Program Supervisor, Meals Security

For the estimated 3 million Individuals with celiac illness and their family members, discovering eating places that serve gluten-free desserts can really feel like trying to find a needle within the proverbial haystack. Because the restaurant trade continues to grapple with the financial fallout from COVID-19, gluten-free diners characterize an underserved marketplace for desserts, particularly with the vacations proper across the nook.

Providing gluten-free desserts is one step pizzerias can take to extend income throughout an unpredictable interval, supplied you could have the setup and experience to comply with greatest practices for stopping cross-contact contamination.

Associated: Including scrumptious gluten-free Italian dishes to your pizza restaurant’s menu

Sound troublesome? It isn’t. Most often, you don’t even have to change your kitchen to serve gluten-free desserts. Many desserts on pizzeria menus—like cannoli, desserts, and gelato and ice cream—could be simply tailored for people who find themselves gluten-intolerant. And quite a few bakeries and different suppliers supply gluten-free baked items, making preparation and repair virtually easy.

In case you are questioning whether or not serving gluten-free desserts is definitely worth the effort and time, these three insights present some persuasive causes so as to add them to your vacation menu.

1. Serving gluten-free desserts can improve your examine averages—for dine-in and take-out. It virtually goes with out saying that COVID-19 presents some severe financial hurdles to even the thriftiest of eating places, and no enterprise needs to depart a possible supply of revenue untapped throughout gradual occasions. Together with drinks and appetizers, desserts present a chance to upsell. Furthermore, individuals who undertake a gluten-free food plan are sometimes prepared to pay premium costs as a result of it’s troublesome to search out desserts they’ll eat. As well as, most gluten-free diners perceive that gluten-free dishes price extra to organize and are used to paying further for a deal with they actually get pleasure from.

Providing gluten-free desserts to order is one other method to improve income. Through the holidays, many individuals complement conventional household recipes with desserts ready by their favourite eating places. The vacations additionally present the proper alternative to advertise objects with seasonal elements like pumpkin spice and cranberries.

2. Gluten-free desserts present ample alternatives for creativity within the kitchen. When deciding which desserts to place in your gluten-free menu, be adventurous and transcend standbys like ice cream and gelato. As scrumptious as ice cream is, it’s usually the one gluten-free dessert on the menu. 9 occasions out of 10, individuals on a gluten-free food plan are craving one thing totally different after they exit to eat.

Fortunately, making ready gluten-free desserts gives many alternatives to get artistic within the kitchen with the proper elements and somewhat creativeness. In case you’re questioning the place to search out gluten-free elements, take a look at the Gluten-Free Certification Group (GFCO) Product Finder. The GFCO Product Finder, supplied by the Gluten-Free Certification Group (GFCO) and a program of the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America (GIG), is a useful useful resource that lists elements containing 10 components per million or much less of gluten—a stringent commonplace that exceeds FDA necessities for gluten-free security.

By way of what you may put together, the sky is the restrict. You may bake cannoli filling with or with no gluten-free crust, and crème brulée is of course gluten-free. Different terrific choices embody flourless chocolate cake and crustless cheesecakes with cranberry compote or different festive toppings. One other enjoyable thought is the dessert pizza. To make this sweetened variation on a standard pizza, merely high your gluten-free pizza crust with fruit and sauces. Spiced apple pie filling or peaches and cream are simply two scrumptious concepts for fruit toppings whereas sauces can embody caramel, vanilla, chocolate or Nutella.

When making gluten-free desserts, it’s necessary to comply with greatest practices for gluten-free meals dealing with. Typically, you wish to undertake the identical practices you utilize for making gluten-free pizza crust. For example, you don’t wish to put together gluten-free desserts the place there’s plenty of flour flying round, so be certain you dedicate a piece of your kitchen to making ready gluten-free objects. You also needs to retailer gluten-free desserts on high cabinets or in devoted storage to reduce cross-contact.

3. Pre-made gluten-free desserts present a delicious, no-fuss choice for busy eating places. Most baked desserts include gluten, so discovering gluten-free recipes that work to your prospects could be difficult. Furthermore, not all people has the data and expertise to craft gluten-free sweets, and a few eating places could have inadequate kitchen area to create a devoted space for protected preparation. If any of those eventualities apply to you, think about ordering baked items from a bakery or provider that sells gluten-free desserts.

Most gluten-free suppliers are more than pleased to work with eating places, and plenty of supply pre-wrapped desserts that may be saved individually within the freezer. This selection is a superb method to cut back waste and the potential for cross-contact, as a result of you may pull the desserts from the freezer as wanted and thaw them within the wrapper till it’s time to plate the dessert and ship it out of the kitchen.

When ordering pre-made desserts, be sure you use validated gluten-free bakeries and pastry retailers. Gluten-Free Meals Service (GFFS) validates bakeries, eating places and different foodservice institutions. Gluten-Free Gloriously in Stirling, New Jersey, is a GFFS-validated bakery that works with native eating places and gives a big selection of cookies, cupcakes, cannoli, tiramisu and extra.

In case you’re ordering packaged items from a provider, search for objects which might be licensed gluten-free. The GFCO certifies client packaged items in addition to bakeries like Gem Metropolis Wonderful Meals that provide individually wrapped desserts. Wealthy’s is a GFCO-certified provider that gives easy, gluten-free dessert classics like cookies and brownies that may be dressed up with gelato, caramel or chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Associated: 7 suggestions for making a protected and pleasant eating expertise to your gluten-free prospects

The vacations are a time to rejoice with great-tasting meals. Desserts specifically supply a mouth-watering method to honor seasonal traditions with family and friends. For eating places in search of alternatives to extend their quantity throughout this unsure time, providing gluten-free desserts fills an necessary want for individuals with celiac illness and different types of gluten sensitivity. Whether or not you serve pre-packaged objects or put together your individual concoctions, validating your gluten-free desserts through the use of licensed gluten-free elements and suppliers or pursuing validation in your individual proper will earn the belief of your gluten-sensitive prospects and their family members to construct a loyal following and set up a enterprise mannequin that’s evergreen.

Lindsey Yeakle is the Gluten-Free Meals Service (GFFS) Program Supervisor, Meals Security, for the nonprofit Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG). Yeakle has a culinary historical past working at 4-star and 4-diamond rated eating places. A celiac illness analysis inspired her to attend culinary faculty at Indiana College of Pennsylvania Academy of Culinary Arts. In June 2016, Yeakle determined to make use of her background and training to assist the gluten-free neighborhood by working with GIG.