There are many gelato flavoring manufacturers in Italy. They are not all created equal. When I first started my gelato training, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Fabbri. From the beginning, I love their flavors.
Don’t let the marketing of other companies fool you. Just because it’s from Italy, doesn’t mean it’s good! Fabbri is the oldest and most respected company in Italy.
At the end of my first season in business, I went to the SIGEP Gelato Convention in Italy. I tasted many flavors from several different companies and I still thought that Fabbri was better than all of them. There are other companies who put out good products, but , in my opinion, Fabbri has the majority of the richest, best tasting flavors. Even in the jar, the paste is a superior product. Once I received a free sample of coconut paste from another company. As soon as I opened the jar I couldn’t believe what I saw. The paste was dry, crumbly and didn’t have much of an aroma. Against my better judgement, I made it anyway. Fresh out of the machine, it still didn’t look very good. The flavor was weak and a customers actually asked what happened to the “old” coconut gelato. I pulled the pan before it was even empty. When you open a jar of Fabbri, no matter what the flavor, the wonderful aroma is the first thing you notice. It is like using pure fruit, nuts, chocolate or whatever you are making. Only the finest ingredients are used.
i Dream of Gelato also uses Fabbri coco powder (22-24%) for almost all it’s chocolate flavors. I don’t make a chocolate base. Instead, the coco powder is mixed directly into the white base to make a rich chocolate flavor. This chocolate base is easy to combine with pastes such as orange or cherry to come up with great new flavors.
During SIGEP 2008, Fabbri revealed their sensational new line of gelato flavors and toppings.
The new Yogurt Light gelato, when paired with the new Amarena Cherry Light topping, has less than 100 calories per serving. During the sampling, I would not have guessed that this was a light product. It was still as rich and creamy as their classic yogurt, Yog30. I use Yog30 and swirl it with the regular amarena cherry paste. It is a huge crowd pleaser! Besides having the beautiful red swirls that captures everyones attention, it taste great. The yogurt is rich and the cherry is the best. Yogurt can be marbled with many different flavors, to give you an even larger flavor list.
For those of you who are white chocolate fans, this is the ultimate combo. White chocolate gelato mixed with white chocolate stracciatella. It is called Galactica. The flavor is rich and really does taste like white chocolate. The beauty of that paste is that it can be mixed with a number of other products to create a whole line of white chocolate flavors. Caramel swirl, peanut butter swirl…be creative! The White Stracciatella also has amazing possibilites. By adding any flavor Delipaste, strawberry for example, you can create a phenomenal Strawberry White Chocolate Stracciatella.
Strawberry Stracciatella
White Stracciatella 500 grams Strawberry Delipaste 80 grams
Warm the stracciatella and mix with the delipaste. Use as a coating when dipping monoportions or variegate in a flavor as it is ejecting from the batch freezer.
I am a fan of all that is chocolate and this year there a several new chocolate masterpieces.
The Dark Chocolate gelato is nice and dark without being too dark. It is made with water and can be served as a sorbet. I have many customers who are tired of eating fruit sorbet and are looking for something new to satisfy their “sweet tooth”. There is another product which is a ready made sorbet base. This summer I will use it to make all sorts of non traditional sorbet flavors.
The following new toppings enable you to varigate your gelatos with exceptional tasting sauces as well as offer more choices for your sundaes.
Hazlenut and Cocoa So rich. So Chocolaty. So nutty. This can be easily varigated into a number of flavors as well a sundae topping.
Crockantella A rich, dark chocolate sauce loaded with nuts, cereals and raisins.
Crockoloso Giandua This variegate of velvety Giandua Sauce with crisp biscuits goes perfectly over the new Biscotti gelato.
The new Peanuts gelato flavor, tastes like exactly that….Peanuts!! Definetly not peanut butter. The peanut gelato is then smothered with a creamy chocolate sauce with whole peanuts swimming thru out.
WOW!! Those 4 sauces are the bomb! The chocolates are all smooth, rich and satisfying. The crunch in the toppings are strong, not soggy and full of flavor. It is now easy to add the “crunch” customers are always looking for.
Getting out of the chocolates and in to the fruits….
Caramelized Fig This tasty topping goes well with the classic Walnut Flavor (Noce). The sauce is not too sweet and has a creamy texture. It also goes well swirled in the Sicilian Ricotta base to make a wonderful Fig Canolli.
The Passion Fruit (Maracuja) sauce tasted light and fruity when blended with the yogurt gelato. July and August are the months that we serve passion fruit. People really enjoy the refreshing feeling in the heat. I think that by variegating with this sauce, it will bring the flavor up to a whole new level.
The Iperfrutta line has now become Simple’ . This easy as 1-2-3 gelato can save you lots of time in the kitchen. There were always a large selection of flavors but this season, 6 new flavors were added. Cranberry, blood orange, lime, green tea, hazlenut and pistachio. 
All these new pastes and toppings give you the opportunity to create an original flavor list. It is possible for you to take the products you are currently using and mix and match them to come up with a multitude of flavors. Your customers want to try new things and will continue to come back knowing there are always new choices.
I love coming up with new ideas. It gets boring making the same flavors over and over. Fabbri has a large range of products for gelato, pastry, coffee and slush drinks, etc. I have found through experimentation that it is possible to cross use products to come up with unique flavors. Mixybar and Fantasy in Cafe, products made for granita and coffee drinks, can be used in combination with regular gelato pastes to come up with flavors that will seperate you from the all the other shops. For example, either Mixybar watermelon or lime can be combined with strawberry delipaste to create summer flavors you can’t find anywhere. You can even mix two delipastes together. Mango and coconut or blueberry and banana for example. The possibilities are endless. You just have to make sure you can taste both flavors in the base before freezing without turning the flavor to soup (because of too much sugar.) It is very rewarding to create your own flavors. I have seen customers drag their friends in to try some crazy flavor we have.
In addition to gelato, the industry as a whole was pushing the concept of the “monoportion.” A 1, 2 or 3 bite dessert that shop owners can easily produce. Monoportions were everywhere. These visually appealing treats ranged from gelato filled pastry puffs to verrines which are clear plastic cups layered with mousses, cremes, chocolates, etc. Silicon molds were being used all over to create a wide selection of desert shapes. Bite sized delicacies of sauces, cremes and biscuits, were frozen in these molds. Once removed, they were then dipped in chocolate and served mounted on a toothpick.
When I first learned how to do verrines, it was time consuming. You had to make the mousse creme flavors in the Kitchen Aid and then scoop them individually into the cups. Now, what is similiar to a whip cream dispenser, is filled with the mousse creme and shot directly into the cups. this is such a time saver that it is going to make production easy. You can make a lot of verrines at once, freeze them and pull them out as needed. Since this is a mousse type dessert and not a gelato product, you do not need a blast freezer. Just display them in a refrigerated case.
All gelato cakes and some of the monoportions do require a blast freezer. This is necessary so the layers harden before another flavor is placed on top and, so no ice crystals form.
Please check out the recipies in the Recipies category, but for now, I am going to describe the production of a tasty little morsel called a hazelnut semifreddo.
Whisk Moussecream +5, pastovo, hazlenut cremosa and cream in the Kitchen Aid. Place into a pastry bacg and pipe into little rectangular molds. Fill the mold half way. Pipe in another bag of Pinoli Crockolosi to fill up the rest of the mold. Flaten everything down with a spatula then place in blast freezer for a few minutes. Pull trays out and insert a toothpick at a 45 degree angle into each mold then place back in freezer. When frozen, remove from freezer and carefully pop out of molds. Dip in Strawberry Stracciatella, roll in nuts, sprinkles or whatever, and keep them in a freezer display. Pretty simple huh?! 
These deserts have unlimited creative potential. They are a great way to catch people’s eyes as they walk past and an easy way to expand your menu. Click on the images below for more recipies.
People ask if I am sick of gelato yet and I say “no way”. There are so many new flavors and treats to try. It never gets boring. I know these new flavors will be a success. You can be as daring as you want. Your customers want new treats. If the flavor doesn’t work, you don’t have to make it again.
If you have any questions about Fabbri products or other gelato related questions, you can contact Donna Domiano at ddomiano@fabbrinorthamerica.com and she will be happy to answer them for you. You can also drop me a line at idreamofgelato@yahoo.com.
Stay tuned for the next blog. I’ll let you know about all the frozen drinks and desserts you can offer to beat the heat.
Stay Cool,
Michelle Jaffe
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