Do you want to sell gelato in your pastry shop?

Do you want to sell gelato in your pastry shop?

From cones to frozen pastries, plenty of opportunities to expand what you serve in your patisserie.

Gelato is moving in on bakeries with all sorts of varieties, enabling you to serve not just hand-crafted gelato in the warmer seasons but also to create frozen yoghurts, gelato cakes or small frozen petits fours. In any case, the common ingredient is delicious gelato, produced with a wide range of ingredients provided by the extensive Italian gelato supply chain. Given the multitude of machines and display technologies on offer, you can choose which of the many options best suits your needs, in terms of investment, of how much space it takes up, and of its production capacity.

Today’s top pastry shops have showcases with gelato cakes, frozen desserts, and when it’s warm enough, gelatos and sorbets. The modern gelato parlour and the most innovative patisseries have a broad range of products to meet the needs of increasing numbers of customers.

What alternatives does a patisserie looking to serve gelato-based delicacies have? Let’s look at a few of them:

  • traditional gelato
  • express or soft-serve gelato o soft
  • frozen yoghurt
  • gelato cakes
  • gelato on a stick

How to make gelato and the machines available on the market

Recent technological developments have ensured that you have plenty of alternatives. Hand-crafted gelato is produced using a discontinuous batch freezer and is then put out onto display or else can be kept for a while in a cabinet freezer or in a blast chiller at -40° to store up some cold before being transferred to the sales counter. You can then use showcases or rotating displays, some of which are mobile, so that you can keep the gelato at a constant temperature, especially at warmer times of year.

There are companies on the market manufacturing machinery and display cases for gelato shops of all shapes and sizes. For example, you can equip your workshop with a compact batch freezer and a small pasteurizer, or else with a combo machine that handles both the batch freezing and the pasteurization stages. Another innovation that recently hit the market are batch freezers that double up as showcases, if you’re looking to serve up a small range of flavours and you want an incredibly fresh gelato.  Once the gelato is ready, it’s kept in showcases or in rotating displays. Again, there is plenty of choice, starting from 4-6 gelato flavours all the way up to modular solutions with lots of different flavours.

Another alternative to the traditional batch freezer is the soft-serve machine. These machines will make up to 2 flavours of gelato. No pasteurizer is needed. The mixture is prepared cold and placed straight into the machine. The gelato is created instantaneously as soon as the machine is turned on. If you have a whole row of soft-serve machines, you can serve a reasonable range of flavours of classic gelato: this is what is known as “express gelato”.

Soft-serve machines also mean you can create a yoghurt corner. Alongside the soft-serve machine, you’ll need a yoghurt counter equipped with several containers for storing fruit, sauces, granules and fillings for yoghurt.

With gelato, pastry chefs can give free rein to all the techniques they’ve learned over the years, to create some spectacular gelato cakes. Ideal for the summer months, when cream-based pastries are rather too “heavy” and the consumer is looking for a fresh tasty product.

Another trend that’s been growing in recent years is hand-crafted gelato on a stick. You can make it either with gelato or cream. First you create a semi-solid mixture and then pour it into silicone moulds. These can then be brought down to the right temperature in a blast chiller for at least 30 minutes. The bare stick that comes out can be covered with pure chocolate in different flavours: dark, milk, white, coffee, hazelnut, pistachio, plus a smattering of hazelnut, almond or pistachio granules. Hand-crafted gelatos on a stick can be stored in a vertical freezer drawer or in a classic gelato display case using special trays.

The choice of the type of gelato varies according to the budget, the aspirations and the space available to the single point of sale. Find out all about the equipment and machinery you need at the www.acomag.it website, the association for Italy’s main gelato machinery manufacturers.

Learn more
Artisanal gelato in CAFES – advantages, alternatives, investments.
Artisanal gelato in CAFES – advantages, alternatives, investments.

A brief guide on how to sort through the options.

Opening a gelato parlour in Portugal
Opening a gelato parlour in Portugal

A mild climate all year round, a rich historical and cultural heritage, tourists round the clock, affordable costs of living, a relaxed lifestyle and a welcoming population – these are just some of the attractions that have been encouraging Italian entrepreneurs to open up new businesses in Portugal.

Italian gelato chains continue to grow, both in Italy and elsewhere
Italian gelato chains continue to grow, both in Italy and elsewhere

Italian gelato chains have 7.5% more points of sale than at this time last year. Foreign sales make up 25.4% – up from 25.2% the previous year – with growth in Spain and United States offset by a slowdown in China and Greece.  Their 1585 points of sale can now be found in 62 countries, up from 58 in the 2019 survey.

In Italy and around the world: hand-crafted gelato as a symbol of hope
In Italy and around the world: hand-crafted gelato as a symbol of hope

Created by the commitment and spirit of collaboration on the part of leading stakeholders in the system (UIF and SIGEP), the Il gelato artigianale website has been in close touch with gelato-makers, enterprises, trade fairs, bars, restaurants, pastry shops, etc. throughout this Covid-19 (Coronavirus) lockdown. As you wait to get back to business, do not lose heart! You have to resist and make the most of this precious time: a time to concentrate on research, to create new flavours, to learn the techniques of the master gelato-makers, to understand what other products to offer in your gelato shop or bar, to weigh up whether and how to include gelato in your product range.

The secret to a good hand-crafted gelato – characteristics and preparation methods
The secret to a good hand-crafted gelato – characteristics and preparation methods

The increasing popularity of hand-made gelato in Italy shows just how much Italians spend on and appreciate genuine, quality artisan food.

Opening a gelato parlour in Russia
Opening a gelato parlour in Russia

Introducing deliciously genuine Italian gelato into the Russian Federation is an ambitious yet promising project, especially in regions where gourmet Italian gelato is not yet as widespread as industrial ice cream/gelato, such as in Blagoveshchensk, a city on the border with China. So how do you start up a gelato parlour on Russian soil? To find out, please read the mini guide below which contains everything you need to know about opening a gelato parlour in Russia, one of the most sought after, relatively cheap and uncharted areas to start up a business of this kind because hand-made gelato is almost non-existent there, even though Russians love it. In fact, every year, Russian consumers eat an average of 7 kg of gelato, with almost 60% of Russians eating it regularly despite the cold outside.

How to open a gelato shop in Ireland
How to open a gelato shop in Ireland

Thinking of dropping everything and Opening a gelato parlour in Ireland? Plenty of people are enthusiastically exporting Italian design to other countries, and it’s no surprise that Ireland, a country of such charm and love for nature, with a rich history that has remained intact for centuries, is a favourite destination. Taking the gelato business over to Ireland could be an economically viable idea. Italy is the home of hand-crafted gelato, and foreign markets can be a great opportunity, given the appeal of Italian products throughout the world.

How to open a gelato shop in Poland
How to open a gelato shop in Poland

Poland is one of the Eastern European countries to have shown most openness and interest towards Italian culinary traditions, in particular towards the world of hand-crafted gelato. But how can this interest be channelled into opening a gelato parlour in Poland? Here are some general guidelines.

The 12 tips for opening a successful gelato shop in the United Kingdom | Part 2
The 12 tips for opening a successful gelato shop in the United Kingdom | Part 2

How to get your gelato parlour onto the pathway to success.

Up Arrow