Tag: ZINGERMAN’S CANDY MANUFACTORY
A confectionery homage to Catalan almonds at the Candy Store
Before there were chocolate shops, and centuries before bonbons became a thing that anyone could even imagine, if you wanted to impress someone you were going to visit and you lived in Spain, you probably took them some turron. This terrific soft almond turron (the top one in the photo) from the Alemany family in Catalunya is beyond amazing!
The Alemany family began to sell honey and honey-based confectionery all the way back in 1879. One hundred and twenty-four years and five generations later, they’re still at it. Alemany is located in the small town of Os de Balaguer, about half an hour north of Lleida in Catalunya. The village has only about 300 residents, which means the Alemany family and their artisan workshop have been very much at the center of local life for nearly a century and a half now.
A big part of their business is honey. They travel all over Spain to gather the best single-blossom honeys when they’re in season. The family also uses them to craft a whole range of honey-based confectionery. Their products are new to us, but the family have been working as they do since they started in 1879! Technology clearly has advanced enormously, but the techniques—and the taste of the turron—remain pretty much as they were in the late 19th century.
Alemany’s Soft Almond Turron is a concentrated confection that’s made mostly of Marcona almonds (which are denser and far more flavorful than almost any other almond) with the addition of a small bit of honey, sugar, and egg white to help hold it together! Catalunya is the world capital of this amazing almond variety. At seventy percent almonds, the turron is the almondine equivalent of dark chocolate. Honey and sugar remain wholly in the background, which means that the turron is only a tiny bit sweet, and very wonderfully almondy. It’s easy to carry these small packets with you in your purse or even a coat pocket. Terrific with coffee—a shot of Espresso and a nibble of this terrific turron would make any afternoon better! It’s so, so, good!
P.S. We are also stocking Alemany’s Burnt Sugar Turron that’s sweetened with white chocolate. And we have the family’s really terrific honey vinegar at the Deli as well!
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The classic way for Dutch kids to start their day
Although it’s not a combination that has historically been given much thought on this side of the Atlantic, the practice of eating bread and chocolate in tandem has long been hugely popular in Europe. The Pain au Chocolat I wrote about last week is one of the most famous French versions. Alternatively, many French folks will put a chunk of good chocolate into a piece of freshly baked baguette and eat it as is. The Chocolate Sourdough bread at the Bakehouse is one of our American adaptations, and the Roadhouse’s new pancakes made with freshly-milled spelt and laced with French Broad chocolate chips are another awesome addition.
If you go to the Netherlands, the combo is altogether different. There you’ll see slices of buttered white bread that have been covered liberally with chocolate sprinkles. You read that right—chocolate sprinkles are the star of the morning meal. While we think of sprinkles here as something kids like to see on cupcakes, in the Netherlands, sprinkles are serious business. The formal “invention” of sprinkles in this way came in 1919. How did sprinkles show up on the Dutch culinary scene? One version (as Ted Ownby of the University of Mississippi told me 20 years ago, “All origin stories are disputed”) is that they were invented in Amsterdam by a candymaker named B.E. Dieperink. Dieperink, it seems, was inspired by bad weather. One day when it was hailing outside, he came up with the creative idea to make a confection that resembled the pellets that were falling from the stormy Dutch sky. The original version was crispy, anise-flavored sprinkles. Dieperink named them Hagelslag, meaning “hailstorm” in Dutch.
The chocolate sprinkles seem to have followed about 15 years later. They quickly became a huge commercial and culinary success. Since the middle of the 20th century, Dutch kids have delighted in eating slices of generously buttered bread, covered completely with chocolate sprinkles, for breakfast. Sprinkles in the Netherlands are serious business—they take up the same sort of significant aisle space in Dutch supermarkets as tuna, anchovies, and sardines do in Spain. To illustrate the seriousness with which they’re taken, many families with kids will pack a box of them for travel abroad, in much the same way some children bring stuffed animals. For folks who grew up with them, the Hagelslag offer a sense of continuity and calm comfort.
Unlike the kid-style sprinkles they sell here in supermarkets, the Dutch ones actually have flavor and are made from good chocolate. The Dark Chocolate are my preference. I have happily eaten them out of hand, as well as made myself a slice of buttered bread and Hagelslag to have as a snack. We also stock the Milk Chocolate version for those who are so inclined. Assembly couldn’t be easier. Stop by the Candy Store to buy a box (or two). Pick up a loaf of Bakehouse White bread (which is far more flavorful than standard supermarket white breads). When you get home, cut a thick slice. Spread on a fair bit of room-temperature butter. Cover generously with the sprinkles! Smile. Eat. Enjoy!
Go for the Dark Chocolate
And maybe the Milk Chocolate, too
P.S. You won’t see chocolate sprinkles on the Zingerman’s Mail Order site, but we’d be super happy to send some of the Hagelslag your way. Email us at [email protected] soon!
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Dark chocolate artisan “nuggets” ready to mix with milk
If you’re looking for a great-tasting drink to bring comfort as the colder weather works its way into our lives this fall, check out this superb new Sipping Chocolate from my friend Shawn Askinosie. Everything we’ve gotten from Shawn for the last fifteen years has been nigh on phenomenal and this new offering is as outstanding as the rest. The crew at Askinosie alters the chocolate origin from time to time depending on what’s tasting best for this application. Right now, it’s Tanzania, a few months ago it was from the Philippines. All are excellent. I rarely drink milk, but I made a cup to try it out and it was so good I drank the whole thing in a matter of minutes. Because it’s chocolate and not cocoa (which is alkalized), the flavor is more chocolatey with less of the light, slightly bitter taste of cocoa.
The chocolate it’s made from is, like everything we get from Shawn, superb. It’s from the Mababu coop in Tanzania. Shawn has been working with the farmers there for about fifteen years now. You can taste the chocolate in its “eating”—as opposed to sipping—form in the terrific Tanzania chocolate bars we have from Shawn at the Candy Story and Deli. Made with rare Trinitario cacao beans, it’s been one of my favorites for ages. Smooth, cocoa-y, dark but not at all overwhelmingly so. The Askinosie crew shared that, “When roasted, the beans evoke subtle, fruity notes of strawberry and blueberry and when tempered, it creates the creamiest mouthfeel of all of our chocolates.” The single-origin Sipping Chocolate brings that same super tasty complexity to the cup.
To make the Sipping Chocolate, the chocolate is broken up into small “nuggets.” The crew at Askinosie makes them by using a special mill that’s designed specifically for that purpose. I’ve been eating them out of hand at home—it’s a good way to sneak an afternoon pick-me-up (keep a container in your desk drawer?). There’s a recipe/ratio on the “can” (it’s made from recyclable cardboard) but Shawn suggests warming the milk or heavy cream and whisking in the small morsels to your own taste and thickness. No additional sugar is needed. Want a second opinion? A few years back the Wall Street Journal wrote that the Askinosie Sipping Chocolate is “basically pure, satiny ganache. The bittersweet chocolate is intense and brooding, brightened with hints of sandalwood and spice.”
Snag some Sipping Chocolate at Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory
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Terrific topping for gelato, cake, toast
Here’s an easy and delicious new taste treat from the crew at the Candy Manufactory. The caramel we’ve been making for years as an ingredient in other confectionery work is now available to take home in 8-ounce cups. If you’re like me and making caramel is not part of your regular cooking routine, then grab some! Since the Candy crew has done all the work for us, the Caramel Sauce is excellent and easy to use.
The Candy Manufactory Caramel, like so much of what we craft around the ZCoB, is made special by the quality of the raw materials that go into it. We long ago made the commitment to cook and bake with Muscovado sugar from the island of Mauritius. Muscovado is essentially old-school brown sugar. Here in 2022, it’s much more work to produce but the flavor is far bigger, more complex, and delicious. Muscovado retains the sugar cane’s natural molasses, and adds great depth and complexity to this sauce, the Zzang! Bar, our Toasted Pecan Pie, the Butterscotch Pudding and Donuts at the Roadhouse, and many more. (We sell the Muscovado sugar at the Bakeshop and Deli as well for your home cooking and baking.) Caramel was likely first made in the Arab world—where sugar was well-established—over a thousand years ago by slowly cooking sugar with water. Milk would have come along much later, most likely in the middle of the 19th century.
This new Caramel Sauce is super tasty on gelato, with cakes, or tortes. Add it to coffee for a caramel latte. Drizzle a bit on French toast or pancakes. Steve Mangigian, managing partner at the Coffee Company, has been dipping slices of autumn apple into it!
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Taking craft candy bars to new levels of excellence with Ca$hew Cow candy bars
If you still haven’t had one of these amazing artisan candy bars, you might not yet know what you’re missing. Thanks to the hard work of the crew at the Candy Manufactory, what most of us knew as junk food and a quick way to get a sugar fix, has been transformed into a set of candy bars so complexly flavored and so compellingly good that they’re pretty much redefining the category. There’s a good bit of magic and mystery in every bite!
The very catchily named Ca$hew Cows have a homemade cashew brittle (made from cashews, sugar, butter, and a hint of sea salt) base, blended with a mix of milk chocolate, cashew butter, and some crisped-rice on the inside, along with pieces of cashew that have been roasted in butter and sea salt. All of which is again dipped in that very dark chocolate. You get a really nice texture, a touch of crunch from the rice, and a really lovely modest, mouth-filling flavor that never strikes me as overly sweet. A great way to boost your energy in the afternoon and/or end your evening. If you want to make them an elegant dessert, simply slice the bars into half-inch thick slices and serve them on a beautiful plate with toasted nuts and dried fruit.
How good are they?
Jamie LeBoeuf, long time confectioner, Candy Manufactory production manager, and a Staff Partner this year and next says:
For me, the Ca$hew Cow and Peanut Butter Crush bars have some substance and a satisfying texture to them. Where the Original Zzang!® and Wowza have the airy, sweet nougat, and the What The Fudge has the dense, sweet fudginess to them, the Ca$hew Cow and Peanut Butter Crush present a totally different texture. They are not quite as sweet as other candy bars. I love the mild, buttery flavor of cashews. The big cashew pieces and cashew butter have lots of protein and nutty richness, plus the crisped rice cereal keeps them from being too dense and heavy. The little hint of salt brings out the cashew flavors and brittle bits add some roasty, caramelly sweetness. I like to think of them as breakfast bars. When I skip breakfast and need a little mid-morning snack, a Ca$hew Cow mini is just the thing to hold me to lunch time.
And Dane Peterson at the Deli describes them as:
10 out of 10. Best candy bar on the planet. Better than any other candy bar. “It is ELITE” The cashews are roasty, toasty, and glowing. He even loves that it sticks to your teeth slightly because then he can taste it for like 20 minutes, he is literally praising God for the existence of this bar.
Come by the Candy Store on Plaza Drive (inside the Coffee Company) to get a Ca$hew Cow at the source! Or grab one at the Deli, Roadhouse, or any number of other spots in town and around the country.
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Almonds, hazelnuts, and pistachios transformed into easy-to-enjoy sweet spreads
If you’re looking for a lovely little touch of something sweet to brighten a dark winter day, drop by the Candy Store (inside the Coffee Company, down the block from the Bakehouse) to check out these great little nut spreads from Sicily. They’re crafted by a small family-owned company run by a trio of fruit farming brothers-in-law near the town of Ribera on Sicily’s southeast coast (due east, straight across the sea, from Tunis). The family is dedicated to tradition, to preserving Sicilian culture, and to the sustainability of the land—a commitment that’s reflected in the quality of their confections.
Nuts have long been an essential element of both eating and economics in Sicily. Almonds came to the island about 1000 BCE from the Middle East. Not long after, Romans brought pistachios from their eastern colonies. (They’re still known today as festuca, from the Arabic, in the local dialect.) Sicily’s volcanic soil contributes significantly to the quality of the nuts, which are found in a wide range of dishes, both main courses and desserts. Pistachios are particularly prized, so much so that police helicopters hover over the fields as harvest approaches to prevent crop-theft.
The good news here is that we don’t have to engage in any unlawful activity to have access to these nut spreads. They are all, very properly, placed right on the shelves at the Candy Store—almond and pistachio, pistachio and hazelnut, hazelnut and chocolate, and also a very Sicilian orange and lemon spread. All are sweetened with sugar, another key local ingredient imported by Arab conquerors to the island in the 9th century (Sicily was one of the first places in Europe to have it). The company name, Scyavuru, means “scent,” or “fragrance,” in Sicilian dialect—you’ll understand why when you pop open the lid and catch the great aroma that emerges. You can use the nut spreads to top off your toast, spoon some into a Bakehouse croissant, or put a bit on a plate before you scoop some gelato on top. The staff at Scyavuru layer the different nuts as you would a parfait, so the small glass jars look as lovely as the spreads inside taste. As they say in Sicilian, Bon appititu!
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