How important are sweet sauces compared to their savory counterparts? Very – in fact, they may be much more important than many people realize. Sweet sauces such as those used on ice cream, cheesecake, and even fruit salad have the ability to completely transform a dish.
That is especially important in a market that is increasingly looking for healthier alternatives to their favorite sweet treats, whether they want to reduce sugar intake, to reduce the amount of fat in a product, or if they are looking for a vegan alternative to their favorite dairy-based sweet dish.
Sweet sauces have the ability to enhance these products, to add to them an incredible amount of complexity, and to make them much more appealing – whether a buyer is on a diet or not. This is especially true when the sauce is fruit based, and can make a bold statement without greatly enhancing a product’s calorie count or sugar content.
A flavorist looking to experiment with sweet sauces has a lot of room to explore when it comes to fruit offerings. Until recent years, these kinds of pairings were kept fairly minimal. However, new and unique options such as citrus and green tea, and even unusual treats like lemon and lavender, have made their way into the market.
It’s not just the fruit-based sweet sauces that can be created using this method, either. Chocolate sauces have always been popular, and chocolate sauce – while still the most popular ice cream addition – can also be found in many other areas within the grocery store, as well as in restaurants. Taking the lead from chocolate, other flavored sauces have begun rising in popularity, including vanilla and even cupcake-flavored variants.
Regardless of the type of combination the are going for, or the “type” of sweet they want to create, there are many ways to be fresh and innovative with these types of products.