The Sweet Side of Savory
Part of the fun of working at an ingredient company is culinary experimentation and we love that the food times we are living in allow for quite a bit of it. Who would of thought, for example, that sriracha would be used in just about every application imaginable, like peanut butter cookies or strawberry margaritas? Further proof is the fact that the National Restaurant Association recently predicted “savory desserts” as the #3 dessert trend for 2015 in their annual “What’s Hot” forecast. No question, there have been an abundance of savory desserts on menus nationwide, like sea urchin ice cream or LA’s Faith and Flower’s Apple Miso Crumble. And you might remember us telling you about our chocolate miso cookie, an otherworldly experience created by miso.
So that begs the question: what’s the appeal of the savory + sweet combination? The answer lies in the balance achieved from an unlikely partnership and the taste impact resulting from each of their strengths. For consumers looking for a new taste experience, the addition of savory to sweets piques curiosity and tantalizes the taste buds. Savory ingredients really are the backbone to the salty/sweet profile consumers crave! Think sea salt and chocolate or bacon and maple syrup or chocolate and pretzels.
This led us to the culinary experimentation we find so fun about our job. Could our soy sauce powder help create a salty/sweet magic combo like chocolate and pretzels? Would it round out the butter flavors and add that certain something that makes all the difference or would it over-power and scream of soy sauce? Here’s what we found:
Starting with a fairly typical sugar cookie base, we added some of our KomiTM Powder 7400, our kokumi enhancer. Komi’s natural enhancement effect creates a hearty, long finish to a flavor while providing a mouthwatering punch at the initial taste. And it does something indescribable to the butter in the sugar cookie, elevating it to its best self and indeed, rounding out the flavor like we had hoped. For another sugar cookie variation, we experimented with our White Miso Powder 6107, which enunciated the vanilla notes beyond our expectations.
For a little more fun, we also played around with a trend worthy peanut butter cookie dough featuring curry, spices, and Komi with exceptional results. Like the sugar and chocolate cookies, using unexpected savory ingredients provided flavor that will leave consumers wondering and always wanting more.
Request samples of the ingredients mentioned above (or any others that entice) and we are happy to help with any formulation questions or support. So go ahead and experiment with savory ingredients in your next cookie application and get ready for consumers to run over to the sweet side of savory.
