YOUTH ENTERPRISE SCHEME Hot ice cream could be a winner
Hot icecream? It is possible, if you take the scientific approach.
There was lots of experimentation for year 11 business studies student Brooke Moore as she worked her way through developing a viable makeit-at-home hot icecream product.
Brooke is interested in molecular gastronomy, a subdiscipline of food science that investigates the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients in cooking.
Following those principles she has come up with hot ice-cream using methyl cellulose, which is firm when hot but melts as it cools.
The hot ice-cream consists of four sachets: a base powder which is combined with water and left to set overnight. The next day, you add flavour paste and fudge cake bits and then you cook it. Finally, the hot icecream is topped with a sauce and eaten hot.
Brooke says it was her interest in molecular gastronomy that let her to the idea of hot ice-cream.
“I noticed that a few food blogs were experimenting with hot icecream and their results weren’t what they expected so I decided to try and come up with a recipe that would be texturally accurate and taste like ice-cream but be hot. Most of this year’s been experimenting and I’ve only recently come up with a product and it was a few months ago that I started packaging and selling it.”
Brooke says it took so long to come up with a product that works because methyl cellulose is “extremely finicky” to work with and can be thrown off by variations in microwave power.
She took special care to make the instructions as precise as possible to reduce the possibility of errors.
Brooke has developed her hot ice-cream in three flavours: triple chocolate cookie dough, berries and cream, and caramelised umami which is smoked maple hot cream with caramel fudge cake and duck fat caramel. She says in testing sessions, the caramelised umami has proved the most popular.
Brooke thinks the product will likely appeal to people who enjoy trying new things or are interested in food trends. In the food world, molecular gastronomy is the big thing at present.
Brooke designed her own labels printed locally, makes the products and seals them individually in plastic pouches. “It’s really labour-intensive.” She is getting close to being able to take the hot ice-cream to market once she gets through the food registration process and prepares a custom food safety plan, and she will also have to find the money to get the plan professionally evaluated.
Because of the stringent rules around food products, both Brooke and sister Olivia have had to spend significant amounts of money to develop their products. To raise money they held a school mufti day and split the proceeds with another Tauhara College Young Enterprise business, Youth In Partnership.
Olivia also makes vegan birthday cakes to order and Brooke creates entremets (layered mousse-based cakes) to sell.
Jack says their biggest challenge was finding a manufacturer for the jewellery that was able to meet their budget.
“We wanted to make it affordable for young people and manufacture hundreds so that took us quite a while.”
The group finally found a supplier in Auckland which will cast the pendants. Once they had a manufacturer they had to create a computer-aided design of their pendant and get a mould made. Once cast, the pendants will be cleaned at Rocks & Diamonds in Taupo¯ and can then be sold.
With the logistics nailed, the next challenge for Youth in Partnership was raising enough money to be able to start up. They fundraised and did pre-sales to friends through word of mouth and the Taupo¯ Market, as well as Facebook and Instagram.
Their next move, which they’re still working on, is finding a local store to stock it.
They hope to sell the pendants for $60 for adults and $50 for students.
You can find them on social media at @youthinpartnershipnz.
■ The Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) encourages innovation and provides foundation business skills for the next generation of business leaders. It’s offered as a co-curricular opportunity in the Senior College. Teams of students who take on this year-long commitment, create their own unique product or service, form a YES business at the start of the school year and take it to market.