Frozen Dessert Industry & Machine Articles — Scoop School

 Mr. C gives us his best portion control advice.  Traditional shops use multiple size "scoopers" to portion their product. What will happen from time to time is employees get confused and improperly portion a scoop. This slight mistake can cause your customer to feel cheated and not want to return. Scoop School gives us suggestions on how to combat this issue by using only one portion size for your entire menu. By using only one size portion scoop, you can base your entire menu around this size. For example, Mr. C uses a 3 oz scooper for product. This means...

 In this episode of Scoop School, we get the rundown on how to dispense our soft serve ice cream toppings without getting bits and pieces all over the counter. For ice cream makers, this is a very agitating issue that can make your work station look filthy. Not to mention if you accidentally get bits of topping into your puree or ice cream you've cross contaminated your inventory.  A simple solution is to use a plastic cup with a detachable dome-shaped lid. Store your toppings in the cup for easy mess-free dispensing. When you're ready to dispense, the toppings (sprinkles,...

 Down seasons are the best times to revamp your shop's menu. This could mean adding more vibrant pictures to your menu board, more signage in the dining room, or another batch freezer in the kitchen.  If you're currently experiencing down time, Scoop School suggests some way to make changes to your shop that can enhance the experience for your customers. Plating is a major component in the ice cream universe. Its essentially how your product is being presented to the world. Many ice cream shops take the traditional route and use commercial plastic cups to display and serve their products. There...

 In this episode of Scoop School, Mr. C addresses the pros and cons of having shake collars. Let's dive right in. What are shake collars? They come in a variety of textures but Scoop School spotlights stainless steel shake collars for this video. You simply fill your standard 16 oz cup with custard, soft ice cream, frozen yogurt, etc. and sprinkle in your desired toppings. The steel collar fits into the top of the cup and acts as a splash guard during mixing. What are the pros? This tool allows you to mix product directly into the cup without splashing...

 In this segment of scoop school, we learn how to properly hydrate ice cream powder, frozen yogurt powder, custard powder, and more before running it through our batch freezers. Why is this important? When mixing product, powder, and toppings into a base you have to let the product hydrate with the liquid. This hydration process brings the flavor to the surface. Without this step, the powder will not have time to properly hydrate and will not dissolve. Your product will have a much duller taste without this step as well. You will see this when you go to pour mix...