Is it more economical to use the commercial grade gel-pac fillings verses from scratch" formulas?

Which recipes/brands do you all preferr?

*basically what I'm calculating, the from scratch's flavors vary depending on the fruits' rippness. I also find it is more time consuming to make them verses purchase them...

Please let me know what you all think as business owners. Thanks...

I use 100% fruit preserves because I personally think it tastes better. The cost is a little bit more, but I think it has a better flavor than the gel fillings.

I can't stand the sleeve fillings.. I much prefer to make my own. I find that using frozen fruits yeild a consistent product and it is more economical than using fresh. I find that the extra time it takes is made up for in flavor. I personally find preserves to be too sweet.

I have used the fruit sleeve fillings (strawberry and raspberry) and found them to be pretty decent. I usually mix the filling with buttercream (homemade) and I get rave reviews. But it is definitely a personal taste.

I personally like the sleeve fillings, but it's all a matter of preference. The cream cheese is my favorite.

If done right you will have extra fruit puree sitting in the freezer. You might as well put a good use to it.

Mike

I only use from scratch. It's so simple and I don't think takes very long to puree some fruit, cook it with a little sugar and cornstarch to thicken, and you're done. I use frozen fruit in order to be more economical, readily available year-round, and most of all, consistent from batch to batch.

I also find preserves/jams to be too sweet, and they usually have lost the vibrant color that a freshly made puree has. I tried a commercial raspberry sleeved filling (I don't remember the brand) one, and I thought it was awful. It had an unnatural red color, and a very strong, artificial taste.

I keep extra puree in my freezer all the time. I freeze it in ice cube trays and put it in vacuum bags (I just have that reynolds hand held vacuum and it's wonderful). When I need to mix up a little flavored SMBC for a tasting.. just pop a couple cubes into the microwave to thaw et viola!

I make all of my fillings from scratch. I'm sure the sleeve fillings don't taste bad, but nothing from a "sleeve" is going to taste nearly as good, in my opinion, as something I can make myself. For me, it's quality over cost. I'd rather spend a little more money and time for a superior (again, my opinion) end-product, than not be 100% satisfied with what I am handing over to my customer.

I also think it's has to do with where you live and what your clients are use to. ALMOST every cake I've ever had down here has used the sleeve fillings. I almost think it's just the norm. Actually, when we got home after our Gustav Evacuation, I had an order that required pineapple filling. My cake supply shop wasn't open, and I didn't have any on hand. I made what I thought was a wonderful pineapple filling, but it didn't have the gelatinous consistency. I personally liked it better, the client however, did not.

I use all of them that my supply shop carries at some point in time. I use the bavarian cream and the chocolate bavarian cream very often for people who don't like fruity fillings. I've used the banana before in the middle of a coconut cake and was wonderfully surprised. I was expecting it to have that fake banana taste, but it didn't. Almost more along the lines of the baby food bananas, but a little sweeter. Again, the cream cheese is my absolute fave, and when my step mom comes in town, she always has me take her over there so she can buy some herself. The only one I haven't tried really is the coconut one. And I use all of the fruits, they actually just added a blueberry one to their inventory and I'm anxious to try it, though it is a good bit more expensive than the others. The filling I make from scratch is my pecan praline, which here is the south is definitely another favorite. And I do make a coconut that I cook down with a little vanilla and sweetened condensed milk.

Loriemoms, I prefer the sleeves because I don't have the space to refrigerate fresh fillings and am not willing to take the chance of not.

I prefer using jams to make fruit fillings. I have to list my ingredients and there is no way I'm listing all of that stuff on my label! A good reason to go scratch.

Please don't let cost and time be your only deciding factors in what you will use in your baked goods.

Anyone willing to share a few filling recipes?? I have tried a few but didnt care for them. If you do a scratch filling with fresh fruit, doesn't it have to be refridgerated? Anyone want to share, pwease???

Jessica

I don't really have recipes.. I just do it to taste and until it looks right. For raspberry I take a bag of frozen berries and heat them in a heavy bottomed sauce pan along with 1/2-3/4 cup of sugar until they break down a bit and strain that through a fine mesh sieve. Place the strained berries into a clean sauce pan and to that I will add a slurry of 3-4 TBSP of corn starch and the juice of 1/2 a lemon and as much water as I need to make it pourable.. make sure to stir consantly while adding the slurry. Bring to a boil for a minute or two and take off the heat and add the zest from the lemon and let cool. You can use blueberries like this too.. just don't strain them.

For strawberry I like to just use the strawberries that come packed in sugar.. thaw it out and blend it in a blender or food processor with 3-4 TBSP corn starch and bring to a boil for a minute or two in a sauce pan and let cool.

I use canned pineapple to make pineapple filling since the pineapple flavor is more pronounced.. I made it with fresh once but I didn't care for it and it didn't set up as well.

You just have to experiment..

I think there is enough sugar to preserve the fruit. You can use a jam and they don't need to be refrigerated, per Smucker's website, it just helps it to stay fresher longer.

Jess----

We made our own recipes from the *Ball* recipe booklet...You also get recipes for jams and jellies when you purchase the *Sure-Jel*...We used the Plant City strawberries in the spring to make our strawberry preserves...OOOH, are they delicious!

Paul & Peter

Did not know that? We'll have to think about that. We haven't gotten into competitions....yet!

Paul & Peter