HISTORY

Freshly baked tiny pancakes traditionally called "Poffertjes", have their origins back to the Dutch Abbey, where mini pancakes were used as a type of host for weekly communion.

A shortage of wheat flour during the French Revolution meant substituting buckwheat flour which resulted in a plump and delicious offering. Based on a traditional and secret dutch poffertjes recipe, these light fluffy pancakes capture all of the tradition and taste of the dutch treat in a ready to use, quick service application that will provide a great "point of difference" to your frozen treat store, cafe, coffee shop or restaurant.

These Poffertjes were traditionally made in a specialty cast iron pan to accent the shape and fluffy nature of the fresh baked treat. Our special poffertje grill provides this dame "dimpled" hotplate in a compact and easy to use format.

AN ICE CREAM STORY - ADDING POFFITS TO SCOOPS

Brisbane Australia

Like most small retail food businesses, we were always looking to increase both general sales and our average customer sale.

Operating a small ice cream chain in Brisbane Australia also meant that our core menu was not only seasonal, but also focused on evening traffic only.

Our core menu was comprised of freshly made frozen custard (ice cream) products, coffee and freshly made cakes and cookies.

Our goal was to sell additional menu items that were aligned with our core business model; making high quality food, fresh, and to our own proprietary taste profiles. We were also looking for a point of difference; we wanted customer to seek us out for our uniqueness, taste and value.

After looking at numerous options, Poffertjes became the clear product choice for us.

A poffertje grill is low profile, uses limited counter space and requires little to no ongoing training. There is no infrastructure required such as hoods or vents and the food cost was extremely low. On top of all of these benefits, the product marketed itself through the “theatre” of flipping these tiny fluffy pancakes.

For a food cost of about 20 cents per serve (.50c with toppings), it was a small price to pay to simply start a fresh batch on the specialty grill while customers were lining up. 9 times out of 10, those standing in line would order what we had already started making.

Selling Poffertjes not only increased our average customer sale, they also increased general revenue and brought us new customers that wanted to try (and re try) the product.

Poffertjes also lowered our overall food cost. We felt we had found the missing ingredient to our business.

Fast forward 15 years. I was offered a job in the United States by the manufacturer of the ice cream equipment we purchased and moved in 2004. Since that time, we have grown to be regarded as an industry expert in the field of foodservice education and training.

We have helped open over 800 ice cream and frozen dessert locations and have worked with fast food and QSR chains, as well as confectioners, hotels, casinos, resorts, grocery chains and a slew of independent business owners in developing, opening and growing their frozen dessert and food concepts. We have worked with over 10,000 people in the process of hosting workshops, courses, keynote address and seminars.

Through all of this experience, the same question is still asked of me in every class, workshop or consulting call; “How do I increase sales through a new product without spending a lot of money on equipment, infrastructure and training?” To me, Poffertjes still remains the answer to that question.

So, we sourced a high quality grilled manufacturer, developed a specialty powdered mix based on a traditional Dutch recipe and decided to bring Poffertjes to the United States.

We can personally vouch for the tremendous success that adding Poffertjes to our menu became, and want to bring similar growth and diversity to your business.