THE NIBBLE Gourmet News & Views
Trends, Products & Items Of Note In The World Of Specialty Foods
Read all of our content on TheNibble.com, the online magazine about specialty food.
Archive for Candy
|
June 24, 2008 at 4:58 pm
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Candy
|
Madison & Marcela, located in a small seaside town in the low country of South Carolina, has hit a grand slam home run with three very different toffees. Chocolate Covered Peanut Toffee is a heavenly product—or perhaps a devilish one, as once you take the first bite, the bag is all but gone. CranAlmond Toffee (for those who want their antioxidants) is a beauty: cranberry-studded toffee on one side, lovely white slivered almonds on the other. For those who like things simple but perfect, Madison Crunch is a double-layered pecan toffee.
All of the ingredients are USDA-certified organic, with the exception of the chocolate on the Chocolate Covered Peanut Toffee (which is the excellent Callebaut brand from Belgium). The sweetener is raw cane sugar mixed with agave nectar. The agave nectar adds flavor dimension while cutting down on the sweetness (and it’s much lower on the glycemic scale than sugar—not that we’re claiming this as health food). Yet with all this organic goodness and handcrafting, the candy is still so inexpensive that you’ll want to order lots for party favors, stocking stuffers, teacher gifts, and just to hand out, because they taste so good, they put you in a munificent mindset. |
|
 CranAlmond Toffee: ruby-like cranberries on one side, ivory almond slices on the other. Photography by Saidi Granados. |
While we discovered these toffees months ago, we wanted to put them on hold as a last-minute Father’s Day gift. If you haven’t yet remembered Dad, Grandpa or Uncle Sidney, here’s your chance. Take a closer look at all three flavors in the full review at TheNibble.com. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
April 11, 2008 at 11:52 am
· Filed under Contest, Candy
|
| Take this week’s Gourmet Giveaway food trivia quiz and learn more about caramels. You’ll have the opportunity to win one of our very favorite candies. Das Caramelini Salted Caramels were a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week, and we just can’t get enough of them. Three winners will get gift boxes that include Lavender, Chocolate & Toasted Walnut and Candied Ginger & Pistachio (shown here)—each more heavenly than the next. But you need to take the quiz by midnight, Eastern Time on Sunday, April 13th. You don’t have to answer correctly in order to win.Read about more of our favorite caramels in the Old-Fashioned Candy Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
|
Ginger & Pistachio is just one of the stunning flavors of Das Caramelini Salted Caramels. |
| |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
March 19, 2008 at 12:15 pm
· Filed under Special Sweets, Candy, Daily Food Holidays
|
Celebrate with Béquet‘s Salt Chocolate Caramels, shown here with Espresso and Mocha. |
|
Today is National Chocolate Caramel Day. No arm twisting needed! While the traditional caramel flavoring is vanilla, the buttery bites have been variously flavored with chocolate, coffee, maple, lemon, habañero—whatever appeals to the imagination of the candy maker and palate of the buyer (and, let us tell you—the habañero caramels from Cowgirl Chocolates are the bomb—and a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week). We went crazy for caramels last summer and nibbled on every one we could find, culminating in a review of our favorite caramels. People keep sending us more to taste, but we haven’t yet found any that we want to add to the list. Quality caramels are made with sugar and brown sugar, butter, heavy cream and the best flavorings (sea salt versus ordinary salt, the best maple or chocolate flavor, etc.). Like anything else, you can’t scrimp on the quality of your ingredients. It needs to be real vanilla, the freshest butter, etc., etc., etc. |
| Caramel is sugar that is melted into a syrup and cooked until the sugar crystals turn into a dark amber liquid. In this form, it can be used to coat nuts (that’s what pralines are) and popcorn (called “toffee popcorn”). Whisk in some butter, remove it from the heat and add cream, and you have a delicious caramel sauce. Cook those ingredients to what is known as the “firm ball” stage (245°F), and you get buttery, chewy caramel candy. Keep cooking the caramel to the “hard-crack” stage (290°F) and you’ll get crunchy toffee. Read about more of our favorite caramels in the Old-Fashioned Candy Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
March 2, 2008 at 7:37 am
· Filed under Chocolate, Special Sweets, Candy, St. Patrick's Day
|
| St. Patrick’s Day will be celebrated on Monday, March 17, 2008, honoring the feast day and date of death of the priest and patron saint of Ireland, who died on March 17th around 460 C.E. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade actually took place in New York City on March 17, 1762 and continues today, with kilted bagpipers and drum corps drawing enormous crowds (a few years ago, we joined them to see both a kilted Sean Connery and a suited Mayor Bloomberg march). These days the holiday is celebrated not just by people of Irish descent, but people of all backgrounds, in the United States, Canada, and Australia—and even in countries where there is no Irish population, such as Japan, Russia and Singapore. In Ireland, it was traditionally a religious holiday (pubs closed). But in 1995, the government decided to use St. Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to drive tourism. It is now a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, fireworks and other attractions. |
|
Order some shamrock cookies for a St. Patrick’s Day treat. |
| Our own NIBBLE celebration focuses on food and drink, starting with a selection of sweets you can order for gifts, a St. Patrick’s Day party, or just to treat yourself and your family. Take a nibble at our recommendations. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
February 12, 2008 at 1:46 pm
· Filed under Special Sweets, Candy, Gifts, Tip Of The Day, Valentine's Day
|
| Coincidentally, since our prior post was about Michael Recchiuti’s new cassis gelée chocolate, our tip of the day focuses on pâte de fruits—a.k.a. fruit gelee or fruit jelly, although we hesitate to use the latter term because these have nothing to do with Chuckles or those jellied watermelon slices. Pâtes de fruits (pronounced pot duh froo-EE) are gourmet fruit jellies, made of fruit purée, sugar and pectin. Those other fruit jellies are made with “fruit flavoring.” A great pâte de fruit is like eating a wonderful piece of fruit in a different form (as is a great fruit sorbet). For people who like sweets but not chocolate, a perfect Valentine’s Day gift is a box of the best pâtes de fruit we know, from Paris’s Maison du Chocolat (which, conveniently, has two shops in New York City from which they do mail order). And keep a box in your own pantry. They’re so versatile: instead of (or in addition to) cookies and petit fours when friends drop by for tea or coffee; as an accent on a dessert plate; when guests can’t eat your regular dessert due to nut or chocolate allergies. In fact, if you’ve forgotten the dessert, or the soufflé flops, bring out a plate of these beautiful, jewel-colored sweets and no one will be the wiser. |
|
Our favorite pâtes de fruit, from La Maison du Chocolat. |
| By the way, the difference between pâtes de fruit, plural, and pâte de fruit, singular, is not how many pieces you get, but how many flavors. If there’s more than one flavor, use the plural, pâtes. This nuance of the French language is courtesy of our French cousin Philippe. Read more about our favorite sweets in the Gourmet Candy Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. If you pursue the greatest chocolates, visit our Chocolate Section. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
February 12, 2008 at 1:17 pm
· Filed under Chocolate, Candy, Cocktails & Spirits
|
 Enjoy a Cassis Strata bonbon with a Kir Royale. |
|
Love chocolate? Love pâte de fruit? Love cassis (black currant)? Chocolatier Michael Recchiuti combines them all to create the February 2008 “Flavor of the Month,” Cassis Strata. It’s a layer of cassis gelée atop a layer of silky Madagascar single origin ganache, enrobed in pure bittersweet chocolate. Nibble a piece as you sip some creme de cassis…or add the cassis to a moderately-good Champagne (never a great bottle, where you’ll want to enjoy all of the flavor nuances and not cover them up with external flavors) to make a Kir Royale. The drink was named after Félix Kir (1876 - 1968), a mayor of the city of Dijon in Burgundy (the same city of mustard fame). He added a splash of cassis to white Burgundy. The “Kir,” as it was known, became very popular, and led to the Kir Royale, substituting Champagne for the still wine. (You can use any sparkling wine for a similar effect…and you can substitute framboise or Chambord [raspberry liqueurs] for the cassis.) |
KIR ROYALE RECIPE: First, pour about an inch of cassis in the bottom of the flute or tulip Champagne glass. Then, add the Champagne. Stirring breaks the bubbles in the Champagne, so the better option is not to stir (if you must, stir once, very gently). An alternate technique is pour in the Champagne first, then tilt the glass and pour the cassis down the side.
CHOCOLATE DETAILS: You can drink Kir Royales year-round, but the Recchiuti Cassis Strata is ephemeral, here only through the end of the month. 8 pieces, 3.5 ounces, $18.00. Read our full review of Recchiutui Confections. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
February 11, 2008 at 2:28 am
· Filed under Candy, Recipes, Daily Food Holidays
|
February 11th is Peppermint Patty Day. You may indulge in the occasional York Peppermint Patty or box of Junior Mints (we do). But if you love peppermint patties, making them at home is easy.- Combine 1 lb. confectioner’s sugar, 3 tablespoons softened butter, 3 teaspoons peppermint extract and 1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract.
- Mix in 1/4 cup evaporated milk. Roll into 1-inch balls, place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet and chill for 20 minutes.
- Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass to 1/4″ thick, so they look like peppermint patties.
- Next, prepare the chocolate coating in a double boiler: 12 ounces of good-quality semisweet chocolate (you can use chocolate morsels, but the key is to get the best-tasting chocolate you can find, like Guittard or Valrhona) with 2 tablespoons shortening.
- Dip the patties and place them back on the waxed paper to harden. |
|
 Make a batch of peppermint patties for yourself,
and more for gifts. Yours may not look this
perfect (these are from the Wisconsin
Cheeseman) but they’ll taste great. |
| If you want to go all out, you can decorate the tops of the patties with candied mint leaves: Dip tiny leaves or cut pieces of leaf and crystalize in sugar syrup.This recipe makes about 5 dozen peppermint patties. Be sure to make extra for friends and family—these are so good, you’ll want to eat the whole batch. Find more of our favorite mints in the Candy Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
February 11, 2008 at 2:15 am
· Filed under Top Pick Of The Week, Candy, Gifts, Valentine's Day
|
Artisan marshmallows like these, flavored
with real lavender buds, can be as pretty as a box of chocolates. |
|
If your Valentine doesn’t like chocolate, how about marshmallows? Gourmet marshmallows come in a variety of flavors that will delight the young and charm the food sophisticate. In addition to Valentine gifts, we like serve them as “petit fours” after dinner with coffee. The medley of available colors and flavors match holiday themes and other occasions. And the flavors are heavenly.- Read our review of America’s best artisan marshmallows.
- Check out Plush Puffs brand of marshmallows.
- People on sugar-free diets will love La Nouba sugar-free marshmallows.
- The fudge-covered marshmallows from Momma Reiner must be experienced.
- The great Belgian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini also makes gourmet marshmallows.
Try some of these beauties and you just might develop a marshmallow habit. |
| |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
February 10, 2008 at 11:50 pm
· Filed under Chocolate, Special Sweets, Candy, Tidbits (Food Facts)
|
What’s the difference between “chocolates” and “confections?” Is a “chocolatier” or chocolate shop the same as a “confectionary?” A confectionery (also spelled confectionary) is a confectioner’s shop—more popularly called a candy store or sweet shop. A chocolatier (a French word, pronounced cho-co-la-tee-YAY) is both the chocolate shop and the person who makes the chocolate. While both of these words are commonly used in American chocolate circles, the French words for confectioner, confiseur, and candy shop, confiserie, are not.
- The term “confection” refers to all candies and sweets, including candy bars, candied nuts, chocolate, fudge, hard candies, licorice, lollipops, marshmallows, marzipan, nougat, mints, toffee and other products, from cotton candy and candy canes to gum drops and gummi bears.
- The term applies to snack items, so any baked goods and ice cream sold at a confectionery are included. |
|
 Nougat (from Burdick Chocolate) is a confection. |
So…if chocolate is a confection, what’s the difference between a chocolate shop and a confectioner’s shop?
- A chocolatier is a chocolate specialist, and generally makes some or all of the chocolates sold on the premises.
- While a chocolatier often makes marshmallows, marzipan, toffee and other confections, most of what is sold is chocolate-based or chocolate-coated.
- In a confectionary, you’ll find a balance of sweets, of which only a portion are chocolates.
Read more about chocolate in the Chocolate Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. If you want to find the confectionery, you’ll have to look in the Candy Section and under Cookies, Cakes & Pastries. |
|
|
Permalink
|
|
January 8, 2008 at 6:34 pm
· Filed under Candy, Tip Of The Day
|
Don’t throw out those crumbs!
|
|
Today is English Toffee Day, so get yourself a box. But don’t toss out the “crumbs” at the bottom: They’re delicious on ice cream, cheesecake, yogurt or cake frosting. In fact, Enstrom’s, one of our favorite toffee makers, sells crumbs by the bag for toffee fans who find many other uses for them. Click here to read our article on Things To Do With Toffee.You’ll also find reviews of our favorite toffees in the Toffee & Buttercrunch Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
| |
|
|
Permalink
|
« Previous entries
|
