Candy

Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles

December 5, 2014 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Not to sound like too much of a snob, but THIS is what chocolate truffles should look like.

Not that I really have anything against the perfectly round and smooth confections that most commercial chocolatiers (even very high-end ones) sell as truffles, as many of them can be quite excellent.

But for me, truffles should look like the gnarly little fungi that inspired their name, and not something so perfectly formed that they look like they were machine made. There….I'll step down off of my soapbox now.

English Toffee

February 4, 2014 By Steve Dunn Leave a Comment

Food names can be so confusing at times. I grew up calling a candy VERY similar to this one, Buttercrunch. It was and still is my mom's favorite candy, though usually it is coated on all sides (individual pieces have been dipped) with milk chocolate and nuts, not just on one side with dark chocolate and nuts as this one is. English toffee, as I've always known it, is just the toffee part of this treat without ANY chocolate or nuts, so those of you Brits out there reading this may be awfully confused by the apparent discrepancy between the name of this dish and the photo above.

"Great Pumpkin" Truffles

October 29, 2010 By Steve Dunn 34 Comments

As a kid, there was nothing I enjoyed more about Halloween than sitting down to my annual viewing of the “Charlie Brown Halloween” special. Linus was my hero for believing so passionately in the Great Pumpkin that he was willing to risk the scorn of his friends, and miss out on all the trick-or-treating fun, to stand vigil in his pumpkin patch awaiting the Great One’s arrival.

Given that Linus and I were tykes together back in the early 60s, I imagine he is about my age today, and I’m also guessing that like me, he has outgrown his taste for Almond Joy, Milky Way and 100,000 Dollar Bars. That being the case, I thought I’d whip up a more sophisticated treat for the old duffer to enjoy as he sits in his patch this Halloween Eve, waiting for the arrival of the mystical Great Pumpkin.

Dude….if these truffles don’t attract the Great Pumpkin to your side, nothing will!

Homemade Marshmallows

January 29, 2010 By Steve Dunn 21 Comments

I first learned how to make marshmallows when at Le Cordon Bleu, and I have a few fond memories of the experience. The first, was that I couldn’t believe how easy they were to make. I mean, I thought there had to be some sort of magic involved in making such delicate little confections. I had heard for years of the challenges of making soufflés (all lies I tell you, they are really easy), and I guess I thought that making similarly light and airy “candy” would prove equally difficult. Nope.

The second thing I remember about making them in France was how funny it sounded to hear the chef talk about them. The French term for marshmallow is Guimauve, which itself is nothing to laugh at, in fact, I find it a rather sexy word to say.

Go ahead, try it yourself….Guimauve….see what I mean?

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