Ethereal, melt-in-your-mouth marshmallows from The Marshmallows Company. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

What do you say to an eight-year-old CEO? How about, “Congratulations!”

When Canaan Smith was just three years old, he was scrambling his own eggs for breakfast and watching the Food Network instead of morning cartoons.

One day at age 4, Canaan commented on how clouds looked like marshmallows. He then began thinking about different flavors of marshmallows. He and his mom, Megan, made a batch of peach marshmallows that were a big hit.

At age 5, Canaan sold his first marshmallows to family friends. He decided to launch his own marshmallow company, and within a few months he was selling to a local coffee house. By the following year, 2009, he was selling both retail and wholesale.

Canaan was featured in the local newspaper, the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald Leader. It led to an appearance on The Suze Orman Show earlier this year. He’ll be back in December as one of Suze’s favorite guests of the year.

The marshmallows are absolutely terrific: among the most tender marshmallows we’ve ever had, with excellent vanilla flavor.

These all-natural pillows of paradise truly melt in your mouth. As marshmallow connoisseurs who have tasted the wares of some of America’s finest marshmallow artisans, we urge you to try them. They’re as gourmet as it gets.

The marshmallows are a wonderful light snack or a topper for hot chocolate. For a special dessert, dip the tops into melted chocolate and decorate them (with mini chips, coconut or graham cracker crumbs, for example). Make the best s’mores with these marshmallows and the best graham crackers and chocolate bars you can find.

A good corporate citizen, the Marshmallows Company donates 10% to Heifer International and sends marshmallows overseas to our fighting troops. The CEO’s next focus is on green energy to produce environmentally friendly marshmallows.

Get yours at TheMarshmallowsCompany.com.

MORE MARVELOUS MARSHMALLOWS

 
Want flavored marshmallows? We’ve got them at The Nibble Gourmet Market.

Show of hands: Are these Halloween strawberries cuter than yesterday’s meringue ghost cookies? Not as cute? A tie?

You can send them as a gift, via SharisBerries.com.

Or you can make your own.

You can even plan a strawberry-decorating get-together this weekend. Ask a friend or two if they want to bring their own ingredients and join you. (They’ll also need to bring a baking pan to carry home the decorated berries.)

Ingredients

Who said boo? Photo of chocolate-covered berries courtesy SharisBerries.com.

 
Preparation

1. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Wash and completely dry the strawberries so the chocolate will adhere properly. You may wish to do this a couple of hours in advance.

2. If you own one or can borrow a chocolate tempering machine, great! If not, simply melt the chocolate in a microwave oven or double boiler. For the microwave, melt at half power for 1 minute in a microwave-safe bowl; stir, then heat at 30-second intervals until completely melted.

4. For orange chocolate, whisk two drops of yellow and one drop of red food coloring into melted white chocolate; stir and continue to add color until you get the right shade of orange.

5. Holding each strawberry by the stem, dip about half of it in chocolate. Give it a quick twist, shake off the excess and point it at the ceiling for a second, bottom side up, to be sure the chocolate adheres.

Decorating The Berries

Luscious blackberry marshmallows from
artisan confectioner Gateau Et Ganache.
Photo by Dhanraj Emanuel | THE NIBBLE.

It’s National Toasted Marshmallow Day, but today’s supermarket marshmallows are nothing to celebrate.

Over the decades, what was once a melt-in-your-mouth confection has acquired the personality of a cotton ball—but not as soft.

In the early 1950s, Kraft Foods developed a technique to make vast quantities of marshmallows commercially. The process drastically changed the delicate texture of handmade marshmallows, and the use of artificial flavors made the airy delight much less delightful. While mass-produced marshmallows are fun to pop into hot chocolate or toast for s’mores, how many of us enjoy eating them straight from the bag?

So today’s tip is: Seek out handmade gourmet marshmallows from a marshmallow specialist.

Think of gourmet marshmallows as you would fine chocolate. They’re an all-occasion gift with the bonus of being fat-free and gluten-free.

If there’s no artisan confectioner near you (or in your specialty foods store), check out our recommendations for the best gourmet marshmallows.

Brush up on the history of marshmallows.

FOOD TRIVIA

Marshmallows get their name from the marsh mallow plant (Althea officinalis), the root of which contains a sticky, white, almost jelly-like substance. The Egyptians combined it with honey as early as 2000 B.C.E., to make a candy.

See’s gourmet Lollypops are made from
heavy cream, butter and flavors, in
butterscotch, chocolate, coffee and vanilla.
There are root beer lollys, too. The line is
certified kosher.

It’s National Lollipop Day. Read this history of the lollipop as you enjoy one or two.

According to the National Confectioners Association, eating sugar from a stick likely dates to prehistoric man, who licked honey off the stick he used to scrape it from the beehive.

The ancient Arabs, Chinese and Egyptians made fruit and nut confections candied in honey, which may also have been eaten from sticks, owing to the stickiness of the confection.

But what we think of as a lollipop may date to Europe in the Middle Ages, when sugar was boiled and formed onto sticks as treats for the wealthy—the only people who could afford sugar.

By the 17th century, sugar was plentiful and affordable. In England, boiled sugar (hard candy) treats were popular. The word “lollipop” (originally spelled lollypop) first appears in print in 1784, roughly coinciding with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Beginning in the later part of the 18th century, industry, including confectionery, became mechanized. Horehound drops, lemon drops, peppermints and wintergreen lozenges became everyday candies.

While we don’t know the inventor of the modern lollipop, the first automated lollipop machine was invented in Racine, Wisconsin in 1908. The Racine Confectionery Machine Company’s machine put hard candy discs on the end of a sticks, producing 2400 lollipops per hour, 57,000 per day (Today’s machines can produce 3 million lollipops daily).

Far beyond the Tootsie Pop of childhood, today’s lollipops come in all shapes and sizes, from hand-crafted works of sugar art to caffeinated Java Pops and bacon lollipops.

Find reviews of our favorite old-fashioned candies.

We can’t believe we ate the whole thing.
Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

The Skinny Cow line, which for years has offered reduced-calorie ice cream sandwiches to diet-conscious ice cream lovers, first expanded to ice cream cups, cones and bars.

Now, there’s candy. And we like it.

There are:

 
The candies are sold in single serves and 6-packs.

Learn more at SkinnyCow.com.

Warning: These products can be addictive.

Jelly beans are mostly sugar. No wonder
they are so popular! Photo by River Soma |
THE NIBBLE.

Today is National Jelly Bean Day. It’s also the 35th anniversary of the best-known brand of jelly beans, Jelly Belly, which petitioned for the holiday.

JELLY BEAN HISTORY

Many sugared confections are the ancestors of jelly beans. Turkish Delight, which is jelled sugar and rosewater coated with powdered sugar, is one well-known candy that, according to CandyWarehouse.com, is mentioned in the Bible (see the photo for the resemblance to jelly beans).

Centuries later, an unknown confectioner switched the powdered sugar for granulated sugar, added some flavors, and created the gumdrop.

Then, in the 17th century, a French confectioner invented a process called panning, which created a hard sugar coating by stirring candies in a mixture of sugar and syrup. Nuts were panned (such as Jordan almonds); later, chocolate was used to create chocolate-covered nuts and other candies.

Take a gooey mixture called a sugar slurry, add a coating and you get a jelly bean. Jelly beans are made from sugar, corn syrup and starch, with small amounts of anti-foaming agent, flavoring, lecithin and salt. To make them shiny, they’re coated with edible wax and confectioners’ glaze.

The modern jelly bean is believed to have been invented in the U.S., sometime after 1850. The earliest recorded advertisement for jelly beans is from Boston confectioner William Schrafft, who may have also been the creator.* The ad promoted sending jelly beans to Union Soldiers engaged in the Civil War (1861-1865).

By the early 1900s, jelly beans had become a staple penny candy. Possibly, they were the first bulk candy. They became part of the Easter tradition in the 1930s, when somebody connected their egg shape with the eggs symbolic of the spiritual rebirth of Easter. Their festive colors made them a perfect celebratory candy.

During World War II, much of the chocolate produced in the U.S. was sent overseas to soldiers. Americans focused on other sweets; flavorful, colorful jelly beans became popular.

And, if you’re old enough to remember, they were the favorite candy of president Ronald Regan. He persuaded the Jelly Belly company to make a blueberry jelly bean so that he could serve red, white and blue jelly beans in the Oval Office.

Here’s some jelly bean trivia:†

 
JELLY BEAN BARGAIN
Through Easter Sunday, April 24th, 2011, Jelly Belly is offering a 35% discount on all merchandise on JellyBelly.com. Just use the code 35YEARS when you check out.

Happy National Jelly Bean Day!

*Schraft’s candy company was established in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1861, by William F. Schrafft. Succeeding him in 1898, Frank Shattuck expanded the company to include restaurants, most located in Manhattan. The ice candy and cream sundaes were very popular when Pet, Inc., makers of Pet evaporated milk, purchased Schrafft’s in 1967. They broke the ice cream, restaurant, and candy operations into separate companies. Alas, the businesses ultimate ceased operations.

†From CandyWarehouse.com.

A two-layer Black Forest marshmallow with
a chocolate bottom and a top made with
cherry purée. It’s topped with dried cherries
and chopped chocolate. From Crumbles
Cookie Factory, it’s fabulous. Photo by
River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

To adapt comedian Rodney Dangerfield’s famous line, marshmallows don’t get no respect. At least in the world of fine confections.

That’s because most of us are only familiar with the tough, cottony supermarket variety of marshmallows.

But there’s a world of excitement out there: gourmet marshmallows so airy and flavorful that they’ve replaced chocolate as our favorite after-dinner treat, and as an accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee.

Today’s gourmet marshmallows are made by confectioners who are the marshmallow equivalent to top chocolatiers.

And you can get marshmallows in just about any flavor—even savory ones, like chicken and beef (we didn’t taste those, but we did try bacon-topped marshmallows).

Consider putting bags of fine marshmallows in your Easter basket this year.

In this “supersize me” era, small indulgences are most welcome.

As we nibbled our way through a box of Dufflet’s caramel and milk chocolate coated pistachio nuts, six pieces a day (80 calories), we were reminded how luscious chocolate-covered nuts can be.

We’ve been serving them, along with other Dufflet Small Indulgences, for dessert, with a cup of coffee or tea.

The Dufflet line is divided into crackle (brittle), morsels (enrobed nuts and fruits) and tumbles (little cookies). The company, based in Canada, sells in the U.S. at select retailers and at Amazon.com.

Instead of taking time to prepare a dessert after dinner—or for a light dessert after a heavy meal—create a confections plate with two or three choices. It’s fancy and casual at the same time.

Learn more about Dufflet at DuffletSweets.com.

Find more of our favorite candies in our Gourmet Candy Section.

What’s for dessert? A trio of treats. From
top: caramel-enrobed pistachios, chocolate-
enrobed tart cherries and crackle. Photo
by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

We apologize for our strong opinion, but we think that supermarket marshmallows are terrible. Hard in texture, cottony in the mouth, they’re the Wonder Bread of marshmallows. If they’re your only frame of reference, we’re not surprised if you don’t particularly like marshmallows.

Here’s a cooking video that shows you how to make good marshmallows from scratch. It’s pretty easy. (The cute kids at the beginning will go away shortly so as to not interfere with the cooking.)

If you decide that you like making marshmallows, you can try other recipes until you’re as good as our favorite artisan marshmallow makers. (Different emulsifiers achieve lighter or heavier textures, for example, and you can make any flavor under the rainbow.)

Find more of our favorite old-fashioned candies in our Gourmet Candy Section.

It’s National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day.

The best-known chocolate covered raisins in the world are Raisinets, made by Nestlé. Some fun Raisinet facts:

Celebrate the day with Raisinets. Photo
by Jerry Deutsch | THE NIBBLE.

To celebrate National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day, Nestlé has launched the Star Struck Sweepstakes: Upload a photo of you with Raisinets, and you could win your choice of a trip for two to Hollywood or New York City, plus $2,500. The contest continues through June 21, 2011.

Final factoid: There’s a town in America called Raisin City, located in the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Home to nearly 5,000 raisin growers, it’s where 99.5% of U.S. raisins are produced—including those that become Raisinets.