Puratos, a global leader in bakery, patisserie and chocolate ingredients, has expanded its Ambiante range of ready-to-whip toppings, with the addition of a chocolate flavor. Ambiante Chocolate Flavor is 100 percent dairy-free, with no artificial flavors or colors (NAFNAC), and uses cocoa powder from Puratos’s sustainable Cacao-Trace program.

With a smooth, mousse-like texture, Ambiante Chocolate Flavor is ideal for helping customers create consistently high-quality fillings, decorations and toppings for patisserie and desserts in a convenient, cost-efficient way. It contains only 14 percent fat and boasts an exceptional overrun, gaining up to 3.5 times its original volume during whipping, in comparison to the average overrun of just two times when using a standard dairy cream and cocoa powder combination. Produced using UHT technology, it can be easily stored unopened at room temperature (between 2-20°) for up to nine months. After whipping and applying, patisserie creations are freeze-thaw stable, or they can be stored in a refrigerator for up to five days.

Developed using carefully selected cocoa powder sourced through Puratos’s Cacao-Trace program, Ambiante Chocolate Flavor ensures a fine, layered taste, while boosting the finished product’s sustainability credentials. As part of the Cacao-Trace initiative, farmers are paid an annual ‘Chocolate Bonus’ – with every 1kg of Ambiante Chocolate Flavor sold, they receive a premium of €0,05 directly or via community funding projects – another step towards creating a truly sustainable cocoa and chocolate supply chain. As Ambiante Chocolate Flavor is 100 percent plant-based, it also has half the lower environmental footprint of traditional dairy options. This has been verified by GF-impact, using the Product Environmental Footprint Method as part of Puratos’s life-cycle assessment (LCA) initiative.

Ambiante Chocolate Flavor can be used to add visual appeal and chocolate taste in a wide range of applications, such as traditional truffle cake and creative reinventions of the classic Latin American specialty, tres leches cake, as well as éclair fillings or chocolate mousses.

“Consumer expectations are high when it comes to patisserie; they want a delicate flavor and texture, freshness and the use of sustainably-sourced ingredients – often catering to specific dietary preferences.  So, when developing a whippable topping in everyone’s favorite patisserie flavor, chocolate, it was important to get every aspect right,” says Laurent Thomé, business unit director – plant-based solutions at Puratos. “We created Ambiante Chocolate Flavor to meet these growing needs and help make manufacturers’ lives easier. Unlike many labor-intensive chocolate creams, Ambiante delivers consistent quality, taste and color – ready for producers and artisan bakers to whip up exciting patisserie creations.”

Following its launch, production of Ambiante Chocolate Flavor is increasing, expanding with global availability over the coming months.