The saying goes "life is short, eat dessert first", so why not dessert for breakfast? Dessert entrees are a guest favorite even for those busy or health conscious folks whose usual breakfast is granola and herbal tea or coffee on the go. The lovely thing about breakfast desserts is that guests truly enjoy them and your product cost is low using some great short cuts and healthy hacks.
Guest favorites that are proven crowd pleasers are fruit shortcakes, bread/muffin pudding with a variety of toppings and fruit cobblers in every imaginable combination. These entrees include the elements of a balanced breakfast, in the form of eggs, milk, fruit and nuts.
Make these breakfast dessert hacks a bit less sweet by using plain Greek yogurt, flavored to your taste, as a topping. Using less sugar in fruit filling and toppings keeps the flavor profile on target for breakfast. Adding finely ground nuts to biscuits and cobbler dough adds more protein, great texture and a lovely nutty flavor. Up to one third of the flour can be replaced with nut meal.
There are so many great dessert recipes out there to adapt but I have included our all time guest favorite Muffin Bread Pudding. Often requested and glowingly reviewed by our guests. Overall product cost, under $2 per serving.
Muffin Bread Pudding
This is a crowd pleaser and can be topped with your favorite fruit or homemade preserves or a traditional whisky sauce. Using leftover muffin pieces, saved in the freezer in big chunks, ready to bake, is a great hack that really works. Mix up the muffins for a terrific flavor profile. We use corn muffins, blueberry muffins, lemon muffins, crumb cake oatmeal muffins, banana muffins or whatever the freezer holds. It all works. If baking for a crowd this recipe is easy to double. Bake these in flights of 8 to allow for leisurely guest arrivals at breakfast or bake all at once. They wait gracefully for guests to arrive and keep warm, or are lovely at room temp.
Summer’s Sweet Tooth Satisfied at Last – Dessert for Breakfast
By Mary White
In professional sports having the hometown advantage is an enviable spot to be in. Players have the knowledge and experience of working within familiar surroundings as well as a devoted fan base filling their stadium seats to cheer them on. Who wants to level the playing field (so to speak) when you easily stack the odds in your favor?
The same logic can be applied to hospitality. While the current travel trend of “stay like a local” is being capitalized by a highly popular and controversial site that’s changed how guests think about lodging forever (I think you can guess which one…), innkeepers have had experience in this arena for years. The difference is that you haven’t made a lot of noise about it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start now – because there’s no time like present! Your best asset for attracting new business and maintaining the old is a hometown advantage, which you have in spades.
Hometown advantage combines both old and new trends. As the farm-to-table movement marches on, guests may forget that many innkeepers have been (and continue to) buy and source local ingredients on a day-to-day basis. Remind them. Those travelers who want to immerse themselves in activities unique to your region have the greatest resource around – you. As innkeepers, not only do you have insider knowledge of the area, but you also have the relationships to create local partnerships and packages exclusive to your guests. The desire for authentic experiences is something you can easily fulfill and making that an integral part of your marketing plan is the ideal way to ensure your business will not just survive, but thrive.
Once you have piqued interest, it’s time to develop your devoted fan base. Encouraging reviews on popular travel sites and social media sharing are two action items to promote, in addition to special offers through your newsletter, email blasts, and website, but I suggest you take it one step further. While the guest is on your turf offer them the option to buy gift certificates for a future return stay at a 10% discount. Not only will you have happy, loyal guests coming back again and again, but that 10% discount is less than most commissions or OTA fees. This means more money in your pocket, more rooms filled, and more chances of your inn scoring bigger wins than other sites claiming to offer the best local experiences based in your backyard.