Formosa Chocolates kintsugi cup bonbons
How it’s made: kintsugi coffee cup bonbons
Supply chain limbo is affecting us, just like every other business. I am hoping to have custom boxes in by Christmas, but even our usual off-the-shelf boxes are getting hard to stock up on. If worst comes to worst, y’all can eat the bonbons straight out of stock boxes, right??
After *many* hours of doing battle with Adobe Creative Suite (seriously unintuitive, but maybe I am also getting too old to learn new computer things), I have a new menu! This is the standard dozen flavors, though there will be seasonal flavors rolling through too.
How do you know you made your caramels correctly? This step is a good checkpoint - glossy, pleasant color, well-emulsified with no pools of butter, and *definitely* no air bubbles. If you are unhappy with how your caramels are coming out, I highly recommend troubleshooting with one of my favorite chocolatier mentors, @chefjungstedt.
2.5 L salted caramel with vanilla bean. Let’s hope this final push is enough to get through Mother’s Day. Looking forward to getting my sleep schedule back on track. 😅
A long time ago, in my Michigan days, I made stovetop dulce de leche, in an effort to bring a smile to a homesick Argentine’s face. Ladies and gentlemen, I made that dulce de leche from an entire gallon of whole milk. Because at the time, I didn’t know one could get similar results with a can of condensed milk in a pressure cooker. The things we do for love, right? I kept thinking this process would have been greatly improved with a magnetic stir bar and hot plate, but I worked with what I had. I stood there and stirred and stirred, until the kitchen filled with the most incredible smelI. After several hours, I was left with this silky smooth spread with a flavor that I had never encountered in all my years of living in Oklahoma. It tasted *caramelized,* but any Argentine will be quick to tell you it is definitely *not* caramel.
The biochemist 🤓 in me will tell you that it really *is* different from caramel, because it was browned from the Maillard reaction. It was never heated enough for the sugars to truly caramelize. The Maillard reaction leads to formation of several other complex flavor compounds, different from what happens during caramelization.
Today, I undertook a similar labor of love for y’all. “Maillardized” white chocolate (dulce de chocolate?) is made by slowly heating white chocolate in a warm oven and stirring every 5-10 min. Add cocoa butter as needed to get the fluidity you’re after, and a generous sprinkle of Maldon sea salt, because fancy salt makes everything better. I put it in the melanger for awhile to get a nice smooth texture.
Stay tuned to see what I make with this tomorrow!
Made a video showing you how to open the @harneyteas tea tins. The sales rep at #harneyandsons says that customers have been trying to pry off the lid with a flathead. Don’t do this. 😉
As you can tell from our Formosa Chocolate boxes, I am a big fan of reusable packaging. These tins are great for keeping mementos and sundries safe once you finish your tea.
#harneyteatribe
@craftchocolateexperience Opening Night!
#formosachocolate
