FOODIE FINDS
COOL TOOLS, BRIGHT BITES
If you’re looking for a different frosty way to cool off this summer, consider the Bofanna Bar.
Produced in Madison, the distinctly different ice cream bars launched last October.
Co-founder and co-owner Manny Stagakis, who works out of Germantown, said he and his business partner wanted to produce an ice cream that was “clean” in terms of ingredients and of super-premium quality. The bars are 12% butterfat, “which is virtually unheard of in a stick novelty.”
The frozen fruit-and-cream bars are also enhanced with probiotics, good bacteria that aid digestion and our immune system. They’re sweetened — minimally — with cane sugar (no corn syrup) to enhance the natural sweetness of the fruit. They contain no artificial ingredients and are gluten-free and certified kosher.
Because of the high butterfat content and the fact that air is not whipped into the ice cream, the bars are uber-creamy, dense and oh so refreshing.
They come in five flavors: strawberry cream, mango cream, coconut chocolate & cream, raspberry truffle & cream, and vanilla black cherry & cream. Just the right amount of tiny chocolate shards in the raspberry and coconut flavors stay soft — no unpleasant hard frozen bits to crunch.
The cream in the bars is from the Midwest but not Wisconsin; Stagakis says it’s very difficult to get Wisconsin cream for manufacturing because most of it goes to cheese.
But the bars have a clear Wisconsin pedigree: They were developed over 18 months at the University of Wisconsin dairy sciences building while Stagakis was working for Schoep’s ice cream in Madison.
Bofanna Bars sell at Woodman’s, Sendik’s, Piggly Wiggly, Metcalfe’s Market, Festival Foods and other independent groceries for $3.99 to $4.99 for a box of four (3-ounce) bars. Calories per bar range from 160 to 200.