According to many users, Saracino TOP Paste is the best sugar paste for desserts and cakes. What brings them to this statement?
We can reveal the secret: we consider sugar paste a process, not a ready and finished recipe.
We are constantly evolving, we try to give a product that can answer all the problems that a pastry chef and cake artist has to face in their work. When we believe we have achieved a good result, there are new ideas and requests that lead us to improve the product again.
Just in the last few months we have found a production process that allows us to reduce the amount of free water in the sugar paste. This means that the TOP paste, even once spread out and placed on the cake will not dry out quickly, but will remain soft and adherent to the cake or dessert.
The water bound to the molecules of the other ingredients does not evaporate and therefore makes the TOP paste consistent. Even after the pack is closed and re-used later, it will not undergo major changes, if stored correctly it will not dry out and it will not be any more difficult to work than the first time you opened the package.
Another new development is about the aroma. We have always focused on natural flavours that give the paste a unique and well-defined flavour. We categorically rejected aromas like vanilla and preferred a milk-based aroma with a caramel scent. Unfortunately, this aroma made our paste un-suitable for those suffering from milk allergy or intolerance.
We have now developed a new paste with the same flavour (but without lactose) and which makes the paste even tastier and lighter on the palate.
Finally, we started a collaboration with a consolidated producer of tragacanth rubber, a natural thickener obtained from a plant, with which we have developed an even purer, clearer and odourless rubber that has made our TOP paste more elastic and resistant.
In this way we could eliminate the other thickener that was used, the xanthan gum. Xanthan gum gave us two problems: the first is that, in contact with water or other liquid ingredients, it tended to form micro bubbles that then remained in the dough even at the end of the production process, making it less compact and homogeneous; the second is that xanthan gum has an unpleasant odour and when used in combination with other ingredients can leave an aftertaste, which made the sugar paste less appealing.
We are also fortunate that we are able to contact the leading pastry chefs and cake designers and ask them for opinions and feedback on our products. We never ignore their comments and requests, indeed, we treasure the feedback as it assists us with continued improvement and we are able to develop tools and products of higher and higher quality which are easier to use.
