Candy

The health benefits of dark chocolate, almonds, and dried fruit make this a great option to serve as a snack or to give as a gift to a health-conscious friend. In a box or tin beautifully tied with ribbon, the flourless bark can also make a welcome Passover hostess gift, which can be served immediately or nibbled on all week long. The dried cranberries add a delicious chewiness to this otherwise solid bark. All sorts of dried fruits and nuts can be used, but when buying the dried fruit, especially cranberries, be sure to pick an unsweetened variety. The added sugar can change the taste of the fruit and also alter the tempered chocolate.

Tempered chocolate solidifies easily into a hard, shiny chocolate that snaps when broken. It can be worked into a variety of shapes, spread into sheets, and used in molds. Tempering chocolate also keeps cocoa butter from rising to the surface of the chocolate and “blooming” into unsightly light brown patches. Many chocolate experts will teach you to temper using the marble slab method: You heat your chocolate, then pour it onto a cool marble slab, stirring and working the chocolate with a bench scraper until it has cooled to the proper temperature and then returning it to your bowl. This is a beautiful, classic French method to use, but as large marble slabs aren’t readily available for this purpose, here’s how to use the seed method. Be sure to have an accurate digital thermometer on hand.

Whereas the Double Chocolate Truffles (page 172) are the easy crowd-pleasers, Wasabi–Black Sesame Truffles should be reserved for your more adventurous friends. When mixed with chocolate, the spiciness of the wasabi is subdued, but it brings out some bitterness in the dark chocolate and gives the ganache a subtle kick. The strength of the wasabi varies greatly among the different brands of wasabi powder. Start with 1 tablespoon and then feel free to add more to taste. Keep in mind that the flavor will intensify as the ganache ages. The black sesame seeds are an important component of the truffle, both for their texture and for their nutty sweetness, which helps balance the bitterness of the ganache. If you can’t find black sesame seeds, regular sesames are a reasonable substitute, but they are a little softer and have a less intense flavor, so toast them first: Spread them in one layer on a sheet pan and roast them in a 350˚F oven for 5 to 8 minutes. Check them after about 4 minutes and shake the pan gently to turn them. They should be a light to medium golden brown when they’re done.

Caramel and sea salt has been a popular combination for gourmands for several years now, and its familiarity is growing, indicating that it’s more than a passing trend. Fleur de Sel Caramels are sweet- and- salty bonbons that can be served at any time of the year. Not as dainty as the chocolate truffles, they can blend in easily at a more casual affair. Fleur de sel is fairly easy to find at specialty food stores nowadays, and also is not uncommon at many grocery stores. It and other flaky sea salts have a less salty taste than processed salts, so their delicate quality won’t overwhelm the caramel and chocolate here.

Serve these nuts as candy, use them to garnish a cake, or fold into homemade ice cream.

This is a delicious way to use the peels of citrus after they’ve been juiced. Candied peel, either plain or dipped in chocolate, makes a zesty ending for a meal. Candy only unsprayed, organic citrus fruit.

Italian meringue is a firm cooked meringue made with boiling sugar syrup. It can be used alone as a frosting, or I sometimes pipe it into rosettes and dry them out in a low oven for tasty treats. Use a candy thermometer to make sure the sugar syrup reaches 235°F. By adding the hot syrup to the egg whites while whipping, you’ll be cooking them to approximately 140°F, the pasteurization temperature for eggs.

When I was a kid, these were always sold in candy shops, and I loved them. They were considered far too exotic to make at home; or at least no one would consider doing such a thing. Years later I learned how. Turns out, of course, they couldn’t be easier, and now they are a wintertime staple in my house.

The coast of Colima, a small state in southwest Mexico, is renowned for many candies, particularly coconut ones. The vibrant candied limes retain a slight bitterness that contrasts nicely with the sweet coconut filling. Eating them will make you feel like you are walking along the beach.

Guava is one of the most sensual fruits, and it truly shines when it’s cooked. Filled with luscious caramel and toasted pecans, this treat defines sinful. Look for guavas that are soft to the touch and fragrant. You can also find them frozen or puréed, but make sure they’re not loaded with sugar or anything else.

Crystallized fruit is basically fruit that’s been cooked for a long time in a sugar or piloncillo syrup until it is almost translucent (hence the name). t is customary to presoak the fruit overnight in lime or calcium oxide so hat it retains its shape after the long cooking process. The town of Santa ruz Acalpixa in Xochimilco is one of the best places to appreciate the normous variety of candied fruit, including prickly pears, figs, oranges, cactus paddles, and even chiles. A word of caution, though: beware of bees when making this! The process takes several days, but it’s quite simple and the fruit will fast for a several months and up to a year if stored properly. You can use he same method for many kinds of fruit, so pick some that are in season but slightly underripe so they don’t fall apart.

If you’ve visited Mexico, you’ve probably tried these goat’s milk caramel candies mixed with pecans and wrapped in bright red cellophane paper. The name gloria means “glorious,” and that’s exactly what these confections are. There are many versions of this candy made primarily in Linares, a city located in the south of Nuevo Leon. This recipe requires patience and a candy thermometer, but it isn’t difficult and the candies make very nice gifts.

Imagine a sticky, messy, sweet, syrupy, crunchy ball. It’s the kind of sweet dentists warn you about (my dad has endured many painful visits to such because he absolutely loves them). They are sold by street vendors outside bus and subway stations, churches, and movie theaters; in parks, at festivals, and occasionally in candy shops. I never met anyone who actually makes these, and I found very few recipes, because, as with many sweets in Mexico, we tend to buy from people who have made a particular candy for generations. I want to thank Jose Luis Curiel, a wonderful professor and historian, for giving me this recipe.

Jamoncillo is the name of many different candies in Mexico, but they are usually firm on the outside and soft when you bite into them. Most commonly, you will see them in slices or blocks and made only from a couple of ingredients. This particular one is made from pumpkin seeds and sugar and is found primarily in central Mexico. The paste is often used to make alfeñiques, or figures in various shapes. In Jalapa, Veracruz, you can still visit some convents where they make beautiful peach shapes that are molded around a square of wine-soaked cake. Traditionally, this particular recipe was tinted using grana cochinilla, a small insect that comes from a cactus plant and is used to this day for its incredible vibrant red color. I’ve substituted it in this recipe with food coloring, but you can always leave it out. This preparation is a bit time consuming because you have to soak the pumpkin seeds overnight and peel them, but the result is well worth the effort.

PAT Gina would happily eat cashew brittle any time of day or night. She calls it “a crunch of heaven.” When I’m in the doghouse, this is usually what gets me back in my bed and off the sofa. So, fellows, if you are like me and never know the right gift to purchase for your wife or girlfriend, make this fantastic dessert (featuring a smooth and buttery pudding to dip the brittle into) and she will forget all about whatever mistake you may have made (or wrongheaded gift you may have bought). GINA This butterscotch-pudding recipe is very special to me. Growing up, I was always fidgety (especially in church). So my mom and my great-great-grandmother (Mama Callie) would always give me butterscotch candies to keep me still. To this day, I go all soft and quiet when I taste its buttery, rich, and smooth flavor. But the cashew brittle has a story to go with it, too. When I was pregnant with Shelbi, brittle was the only quick fix for my cravings. Pat would buy it by the pound; I’m sure people thought he was crazy, but at the time he didn’t know how to make it. We finally made it on the show as a tribute to that crazy time in our lives. Combining these two favorite flavors, with so much meaning and good memories behind them, is my version of sweet, salty, smooth, and crunchy heaven. This is as good as Christmas morning—new-shoes-and-a-handbag happy.

Just a hint of chocolate at the end of the party completes the evening—and these taste fabulous with the Bellinis. Run your hands under cold water (and dry well each time) while you’re rolling the truffles into balls to prevent the chocolate from melting in your hands (and ruining your manicure . . . ).

These lend a spicy bite to just about any green salad, particularly Crispy Smoked Quail Salad with Bourbon-Molasses Dressing (p. 127). But they’re also a delicious snack to serve with any of the killer cocktails in the last chapter.

A lifelong praline devotee, I’d never seen a white version until longtime customers and friends Diane and John B. Connally III introduced me to Ginny Marye Sharman. I lamented that I’d been searching in vain for a great, new, party-worthy praline, when Ginny said, “I have the one for you. It’s my daddy’s.” She sent me the recipe with the following note, “Chubby Marye, my daddy, was from Alexandria, Louisiana, and loved to cook! He always made his white pralines on cold winter evenings. I learned to make them watching him. It’s a family tradition that he learned from his mother, Mama Dee.” I tried it immediately. Not only was it the easiest praline recipe I’ve ever encountered, it was also one of the tastiest. My mother’s recipe, for example, demands intensive beating with a wooden spoon. Ginny’s recipe takes a beating, but for only half the time. Chubby’s pralines make a fine finale for any party; or wrap them up in waxed paper, seal with an embossed sticker, pile them in a decorative bowl, and hand them out at the end of the evening as favors. (Pictured on page 164, top tray.)

Remember the peanut butter cup commercials? Man and woman, so happy in their busy day, walking around with snacks in their hands, the sky above the color of a blue slushie the houses plastered in marzipan pastels, a happy-sounding tune of endless comic surprise piped through the air, the world a perfect place. Then—whoopsie, so clumsy of me—they smack into each other, exchanging flavors, and a wonderful new treat is born. Introducing nuts to chocolate is all well and fine and, sure, millions have been made on the combination. But if only the candymakers had the temerity to take the next step, something truly delicious could have come of it: chocolate, nuts, and a faint wave of chile heat all strummed like harp strings by the dexterous fingers of a luscious salt. Use this recipe to explore new dimensions of your favorite chocolate by trying it with a variety of salts. Choose the type and quantity of chile depending on your desire for heat.

Like the inventor of the airplane, the creator of fleur de sel caramels is contested. Was it George Cayley, father of aerodynamics, who invented it in 1799; or Jean-Marie Le Bris in his horse-drawn “albatros artificiel”; or John J. Montgomery in his glider; or Otto Lilienthal, Octave Chanute, or Percy Pilcher? Some say it was the Wright brothers. The arguments tend to get political and technical. The French have been making fleur de sel caramels for some time. Some say salted caramel came from the New World, where salt water was used in confectionary. But it’s all but certain they never made use of great salt. However, the Americans, prone to exaggeration, have succeeded in burning the sugar to the point where the caramel treads somewhere between a dessert topping and a meal. Blend burnt caramel with good salt and little stars of flavor glimmer from within the impenetrable vastness of the caramel. Look skyward. Machines for soaring among the stars might never have been invented had the salted burnt caramel come first.