BonBonBar is holding its 2nd Annual Candy Comfort promotion! Just as we begin to emerge from wintertime, tax-time, and recession-time (hopefully!), I think that a little handmade candy for friends, family, and co-workers might come as a welcome relief.

So, the rules are the same as last year — we’re offering a 20% discount on all confections sent as gifts through Sunday, April 18.  Do gifts to yourself count? Absolutely… but remember that all orders must be accompanied by a gift message. Kind (or funny) words rival chocolate in brightening up someone’s day, and that is what candy comfort is all about!

Coupon code: candycomfort

Thank you so much!
Nina

**This was the text from BonBonBar’s newsletter. Please email contact@bonbonbar.com to subscribe.

Before going to culinary school in 2006, I didn’t know anything about ganache.  I didn’t even know the word.  It sounded clunky and unreal whenever someone said it in class — obviously French, but not really like other French words.  And more often than not, the claim “it’s so easy” was said in the same breath.  My mind always raced at that point because I didn’t think so then, and now, 4 (four!) years later, I still don’t.  But it occurred to me a few months ago that ganache no longer makes me anxious.  I’ve become comfortable with ganache… Even though I still don’t know everything about it, and heck, your ganache might act differently than my ganache.

Ganache is usually an emulsion of cream and chocolate (and maybe other flavorings, liquid sugar, and butter), and it is mostly commonly the silky substance found in truffles (and I really have no idea how I didn’t know this for the first 26 yrs of my life); it can also be used as a frosting for cakes.  The biggest fear about ganache is that it will “break” and/or that it won’t “set up.”  It could be like any broken emulsion, like a broken hollandaise or mayonnaise.

The facade of simplicity begins with ganache recipes.  A normal, simple way to make ganache goes something like this:

Boil cream. Pour over chopped chocolate. Wait 60 seconds.  Combine.

So, 2 ingredients and 4 steps.  I can still hear everyone else sighing with boredom over this sort of recipe… because I, of course, was in that state of hyper-alert fright, anticipating impending disaster…  Not that it happened right away.  I never had a ganache break in culinary school, nor at the internship that I had at a chocolate company after graduation. I only saw photos of oily, grossly chunky ganaches in books, and read about finicky, uncertain ways to fix them… and inwardly hoped: “Please not me.”

When I was preparing to launch BonBonBar in early 2007 in Los Angeles, I developed about a dozen candy bar recipes, some featuring ganache, which I usually wanted to be pretty soft because I like that texture.  Sometimes they set up ok… Sometimes they set up very soft… Sometimes they took a couple days to set up… Sometimes they set up with a kind of grainy crust on top, composed of tiny spheres.  With the last one, I really didn’t know what it was at first, and even took a picture to use to ask around.  But then it dawned on me: my ganache was broken. And it seemed to be broken in ways that no one else understood.

The most reliably-textured ganache was my Malt Ganache, and coincidentally, I thought that it would be a great flavor to launch with in the Malt Bar in December of 2007 so I put the other unfortunates aside and focused on that.  It took about 22 versions of that ganache to get the malt flavor to come through strongly enough in a solid-enough texture, but once developed, it really was a winner: it never broke. Not once.

Then I launched the Scotch Bar in February 2008, and had endless issues with that Scotch Ganache.  I think I’ve finally figured it out — it is, after all, probably the recipe that I’ve made the most, and I kind of like the way it sounds because it rhymes — but that experience is why it took 2 years for me to introduce more alcohol ganache-based bars. I didn’t suddenly get a craving for different alcohols — it was just that pleasant realization that I could handle them without having another nervous breakdown.

So, here are some things that I’ve learned about ganache that I haven’t really seen addressed in other places, and thought it might be nice to share:

• If you’re researching ganache recipes, you’ll generally find two kinds: one that is meant to set and sit at room temperature and one that is meant to set and sit in the refrigerator.  I would say that at least 90% of the truffle recipes out there are meant to be refrigerated, and are usually made at home or in restaurant kitchens.  The room temperature variety is usually made by professional confectioners, and that’s what I was making and still do.  The recipes are formulated differently.  The former usually has a ratio of about 1p cream to 1p chocolate while the former has about a 1p cream to 2p chocolate ratio.  The refrigerated variety calls for more cream (ie fat & water), which keeps the ganache softer when chilled, and if brought to room temp before eating, are very soft; these may or may not be covered in chocolate.  The room temperature variety calls for less cream because too much cream would make it too soft at room temp and the more water, the faster the spoilage (water & air are the biggest food spoilers).  You can ship room temperature ganaches, but not refrigerated.
• Room temperature ganaches need to set up at room temperature overnight, and the temperature of the environment where the ganache sets makes a big difference (btw, it needs to set up overnight b/c of the cocoa butter, which is very thin when melted, but sets firm at room temp).  With refrigerated ganaches, you don’t really have to worry about it because it is guaranteed to be chilled completely. Now I realize why even my not-broken ganaches in Southern California often set softer than usual — it didn’t get as cold for as long there overnight.  A difference of even 5 degrees in overnight temp will affect how firmly the ganache is set the next morning.
• Not all broken ganaches separate grotesquely into liquid cocoa butter and cocoa solids as seen in some books.  When mine break, they just look thin, and have a slightly curdled sheen when looked at closely in the light.  Unbroken, It should have a good, kind of buoyant body to it — like a smooth pudding.
• What to use to emulsify?  Spatula, whisk, food processor, or immersion blender?  Some say that using a food processor or an immersion blender introduces too many air bubbles and so encourages spoilage.  But I’ve found that the food processors provide the tightest emulsion.  I started out using a home food processor, then using a robot coupe pro food processor, then a pro immersion blender, and now a regular immersion blender. When I switched from using a food processor to an immersion blender, I adjusted my recipe so that it had slightly less cream so that it would set up as firmly as it did in the food processor.  So, my theory is that the tighter emulsion of the food processor balances out the possible air issue.  Of course, if you’re lucky, you can have a Stephan with a vacuum to take out the air that makes the densest ganaches.  I don’t use a spatula or whisk to emulsify my ganaches; I think that they would be even looser, and maybe more finicky.
• How to emulsify?  With an immersion blender, you have to start in one area and emulsify that before gradually working in the rest of the cream.  If you move the blender around too quickly at first, there’s the chance that it won’t emulsify at all, as if born broken. Or if you get an emulsion and then mix in too much liquid at once, the emulsion can break.
• The speed at which you emulsify makes a difference.  Earlier this year, my ganaches seemed to be breaking pretty often.  Then my immersion blender died, and I started using a new one.  I could instantly tell that the new one was more powerful, and I haven’t had a ganache break since.  My theory is that the old one gradually got weaker and I didn’t notice.  The more powerful your emulsifying tool, the less chance of breaking.
• Broken ganache in a food processor makes a sloshy sound.
• Should the chocolate be melted, chopped, or melted tempered?  I’ve had luck using melted milk chocolate at 112 (and cream cooled to same) and chopped dark chocolate.  I never had luck with melted or melted tempered dark chocolate for my ganaches, but I haven’t tried it in a few years.
• I’ve never had a ganache break from being over-agitated.
• Should the cream be boiled or just brought to 90F or 120F?  For dark chocolate, I boil it, and immediately pour it over the chocolate.  I don’t mind getting rid of some water in it through boiling, maybe preventing some spoiling, and I like that it melts down the chocolate easily.
• I’ve had ganaches break when the room temperature was very cold.  So I’d wait until after I’d cooked or baked something, and then make it nearby.
• How do I fix a broken ganache?  I let it cool down a little, and then blend it in one spot. It’ll eventually look worse… until it looks better.  It works for me.  I used to add a little bit more cream and blend around it, and it worked eventually, but I didn’t like adding more cream b/c that’s changing the recipe and I found not adding cream works just as well.
• I don’t really like the flavor of butter with chocolate, so all of my ganaches are low or no butter.  I like the flavor of alcohol with chocolate, so most of them are relatively high alcohol.  I think that this has caused texture issues.  Alcohol is a liquid and using a lot of it makes for softer ganaches that take a little longer to set up, especially since there isn’t much butter to give body.  At least alcohol is more shelf-stable than cream.  But it is amazing how even the most potent alcohol can be easily overshadowed by chocolate.  It was difficult enough getting the Scotch flavor to come through in the Scotch Bar, but when I developed the Bourbon Bar, I had to adjust even more because the Bourbon was even harder to get to come through…  Using a 141 proof Bourbon wasn’t just for show.  But you also can’t use too much alcohol, because that, I’ve read, breaks down the chocolate.
• I think that sugar has something to do with encouraging the emulsion.  My malt ganache was all milk chocolate and also had malt syrup added to it, and as I said, it never broke.  So, for my other ganaches, I always have a small percentage of milk chocolate in them and a fairly high percentage of glucose; I think that the thicker texture of both of them also somewhat make up the lost body for not having much butter in them.  The milk chocolate may also help make it easier for some flavors to come through because it’s less potent than dark chocolate; it may give an undesired caramel flavor, though, so you may have to balance how much you use.

Hello,

Easter seems to be the marshmallow-iest of holidays, so we are excited to launch the new S’More Rum Candy Bar in its honor.  We’ve sandwiched our Vanilla Marshmallow between Gosling’s Black Seal Rum Ganache and our housemade Graham Crackers, and enrobed all three layers in dark chocolate.  The vanilla, spice, dark sugar, and chocolate flavors of traditional s’mores are deliciously complemented by a twist of dark rum.

We have also put together an Easter Collection brimming with all of our marshmallow-based confections.  And for the anti-marshmallowists, there’s always chocolate and caramel!

Thank you!
Nina

Plus, here’s the label, which features the BBB Vanilla Mallowman gone pirate-style.

Label by Michael Boyda.

Again, promises of a real blog post soon…

How to Scrape a Vanilla Bean

How to Make Marshmallow Pops

How to Melt Chocolate in the Microwave

Salted Caramel: Smooth or Crunchy?  You Decide

Using Vanilla Extract Versus Vanilla Beans

Hello,

Happy Holidays!  Even though I have been quiet on the newsletter front, it has been busy at BonBonBar.

The most exciting news is that I have been hard at work writing a cookbook! It is called Beautiful Candymaking, and it is due out in the Fall of 2011 through Sterling Publishing.  The book will feature my take on a wide range of candy recipes — from toffee to fudge to caramel corn — along with candymaking tips/techniques and gorgeous photography courtesy of The White on Rice Couple.

After developing so many recipes for the book, I thought that it would be a good idea to recharge and seek new inspiration for the company’s confections.  So, BonBonBar will be closed from December 23 to February 1 as I eat my way around France, Italy, Brazil, and California.  I am looking forward to returning with refreshed ideas for new products, but it most likely also means that, unfortunately, some candies will be rotated out in the new year.

As always, thank you so much for your support and enthusiasm.  Happy customers have always been my favorite part of this BonBonBar adventure, and you have given me the amazing opportunity to run a truly artisan food company that will be going into its fourth year. I am grateful, and lucky.

All the best for a happy and sweet holiday season, and I hope that BonBonBar treats will be a part of it!

Thank  you!

Nina

Founder & Chief Chocolatier,BonBonBar

MORE BONBONBAR NEWS

So far, our candy bars are being featured in Fine Cooking, DailyCandy, and The Huffington Post’s 2010 holiday gift guides.

If you would like to place your holiday orders in advance of when you would like them to ship, please let us know in the comments of the order.

All orders placed during the break will ship after February 1.

Below is the email that I sent out to my mailing list today.  I’m very excited about this candy bar.  Although I’d conceived of it as a lighter Valentine’s Day-like candy originally, it ended up taking up the tones of bbq — with salt, pepper, and corn.  Oh well… I think it works.

——————————————————————————

Hello,

The Bourbon Candy Bar is here!  For its launch, we are honored to be using George T. Stagg Bourbon in this bar. This 141.8 proof bourbon is renowned for perfectly balancing intensity and finesse.  It is made in small batches that are released to the public only twice a year.  When our supply runs out, we will switch to another bourbon.  We have rounded out this bar with caramel, salt, black pepper, dark chocolate, and a corn wafer.

We are also using this opportunity to raise funds for Haiti relief.  10% of all product sales until Midnight on Sunday, January 31, will be donated to the American Red Cross for Haiti.  Advance Valentine’s Day orders placed during this time will also be included.

Thank you!
Nina
Founder & Chief Chocolatier, BonBonBar

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Hello,

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season, perhaps enhanced by handmade candy bars, caramels, and marshmallows!

BonBonBar received its first online order two years and one day ago.  During all of the adventures and surprises that have unfolded since then, I’ve been consistently amazed by how lucky I am to have such fun and kind customers.  So, I also wanted to thank you for making this such an exciting and rewarding experience.  I have learned much and enjoyed much since Dec 2007, and I am looking forward to 2010!

Thank you!
Nina
Founder & Chief Chocolatier, BonBonBar

Hello,

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for such an enthusiastic welcome back!  It’s been exciting to cook and enrobe in the kitchen again for BonBonBar, and the days are flying by once again.

This is just a quick reminder that orders for Thanksgiving should be placed as soon as possible.  I will be shipping out the last Thanksgiving orders Saturday & Monday to ensure that they arrive in time.

Our seasonal Pumpkin Pie Candy Bars and Pumpkin Pie Caramallow are perfect for the holidays!

Thank you!
Nina
Founder & Chief Chocolatier, BonBonBar

Pumpkin Pie Candy Bar Pumpkin Pie Caramel & Graham Cracker

Pumpkin Pie Caramallow Pumpkin Pie Caramel wrapped around Vanilla Marshmallow

Single Malt Scotch Bar Chewy Caramel, Malt Ganache, & Maldon Salt.

I thought that I’d write a few thoughts and experiences about working in commercial kitchens.  I remember when I first starting working in commercial kitchens, everything seemed so heavy duty and intimidating.  Now, I’m used to it, and when I’m in a home kitchen, everything seems so small and cute!

SIZE

I’d say that I’ve rented one HUGE kitchen, two medium kitchens, and two small kitchens.  While the larger kitchens are impressive and great for setting up multiple stations, I’ve come to really respect the simple efficiency that I’ve felt in smaller kitchens.  There’s a lot to be said for being able to put ingredients directly onto the table from the fridge, to place them near the appropriate equipment after weighing them out, to cook at a stovetop, to turn around to pour out the result, and then to step a couple feet to the side to wash the dishes.  And repeat.  In the larger kitchens, you spend so much time traveling between the different areas that you lose time… and have time to think about losing time.

And as much as I try not to, I have a tenacious habit of spreading my stuff out when I work, and the larger kitchens act like enablers to that.  Though speed racks, which hold multiple sheet pans, are a great way to keep things condensed, and mobile, since they have wheels.

STORAGE

Some people assume that a candy company needs just a little space as if the making and distributing of candy has to be a sylph-like enterprise.  But stuff adds up — cases of chocolate, cambro containers of ingredients, pots, tools, chocolate melters, cutting boards, sheet pans, gift boxes, mailing boxes, candy pads, labels, molds, finished products, foil pouches, etc.  So, a decent amount of storage space is also necessary, usually under work tables, in metro racks, or in speed racks.

WINDOWS

Wonderful for getting a sense of the day and the neighborhood.

Bad for working at night and perhaps being watched.

TABLES

I love wood-topped tables.  They don’t warp from heat (important because I cook and pour out a lot of hot caramel; I put the pans on wooden cutting boards on stainless steel tables).  They’re not not as loud when you place things on them.  They feel good when touched. My current kitchen is my first that has one instead of all stainless steel.

OVENS & STOVES

I grew up using electric stovetops and used induction burners in culinary school, so it took a little while getting used to the powerful flames of commercial gas stovetops that have been in my kitchens.  My current kitchen only has a large stock pot burner, so I’ve been using induction again when I need to heat smaller pots and I think I’m falling in love all over again.  They’re so smooth and efficient, they’re like the silk of the kitchen burner options.  I’d only use induction burners if I could, but my biggest pot would need a more expensive burner with a larger heating surface, so now I’m using a combination of the stock pot burner and the induction burner.

Many commercial ovens are convection ovens, but I don’t use the convection setting.  I only use ovens for two things — to roast nuts (which I roast as low and slow as I can to get the best depth of flavor) and to bake cookies like shortbread and graham crackers, which I’m just used to baking without convection and don’t take a lot of time anyway.

EQUIPMENT

Cool, big toys are great unless they’re not being used.  Then they just take up space.

For my marshmallows, I recently bought my first hobart mixer, which is the standard for commercial mixers.  In my last kitchen, I used someone else’s hobart when they weren’t using it.  Like most commercial equipment, it’s heavy and powerful.

TEMPERATURE

Chocolate work and storage is best for me between 68-72F degrees.  To maintain that, it’s a matter of storage upstairs/downstairs or front/back depending on the time of day, or near a door or around a corner from the oven, or in a separate AC’ed conference room, or using gel paks and coolers.

Fans can help a lot to move heat, as well as a cross-breeze from having the front and back doors opened (if there are both), or the hood above the stove (if there is one).  Kitchens tend to stay fairly warm — if they’re on the smaller side, the heat generated from the multi-door refrigerators and freezers can be significant.  This can be a good thing in the winter, if it would otherwise be too cold.

ODOR

Chocolates, like many foods, can absorb odors from their environment.  Sweet or savory odors, I try to protect every component and confection with wrapping or moving to a different/protected space.  Garlic, salmon, peppers, etc, are obviously bad, but any strong odor is bad.  For instance, the other day, I knew that I had to make strawberry jam, which is like unleashing the loveliest, lushest strawberry patch in your kitchen, and that I had to dip Scotch and Coffee Candy Bars as well as cut marshmallows.  I made the strawberry jam last, after everything was packaged and stowed because I didn’t want the lingering odor to affect the candy that I’d work with in the open air.

On a related note, I especially take care to isolate the coffee for my Coffee Candy Bar so that it’s as far away from other ingredients as possible — it’s so potent!  This is also one reason why I’m reluctant to do anything with chilis.

Equipment and tools can also retain odors.  I smell every cutting board before use, whether they belong to me or not (I use them for cutting, but also as handy flat surfaces).

The ONE time I let my guard down, I wound up with a painfully large batch of Garlic Malt Bars due to a contaminated spatula that someone had borrowed without asking (this is also the ONE time that happened) and that I was so grateful to get back that I used it without smelling it.  I was working with someone on a diet that day, and I didn’t taste one until we were packing up.  Then I had to start over.

PEOPLE

In some kitchens, the space was only for my company during my time, and in others, there were others around.  In the beginning, I only worked at night and alone, but as things progressed, I sometimes have helpers or work at the same time as others from other companies.

As in many other aspect of the business, the people make all the difference — btw having fun or slogging through.  On good days, it’s almost festive to have a group of people in the kitchen skipping along with their work and it’s also instructive when you can compare notes or help each other out, but on bad days, a bad attitude or a complainer can bring everyone down.  And that’s when iPods are especially handy, though not foolproof…

Here’s a copy of what will be going out to my mailing list…

Hello,

BonBonBar is up and running again!  We are now accepting orders to start shipping on Wednesday, Oct 28 — just in time to treat yourself and others for Halloween!  To commemorate the occasion and to thank you for your loyalty, we’re offering 10% off orders placed by this Sunday at Midnight PT. Coupon Code: sfbay

I’ve spent last the two months settling into Northern California… which has meant seeking out delicious food and thinking about how my confections could fit in.

The fantastic array of coffee roasters in the SF Bay Area has led to the creation of the Coffee Candy Bar.  We use organic, shade-grown Blue Bottle Coffee beans to infuse a layer of ganache that is topped by Chewy Caramel.  Maple-Roasted Walnuts provide subtly sweet and nutty notes to the finish.

Based on my discovery of organic ginger at the Berkeley farmers market, I’ve designed the Ginger Candy Bar, which matches the House-Candied Ginger with a zesty Lemon Almond Nougat.

And with the holidays approaching, I couldn’t resist bringing back the Pumpkin Pie Candy Bar, with a Spiced Pumpkin Caramel and Graham Cracker enrobed in Dark Chocolate.  I like the Spiced Pumpkin Caramel so much that I’m also making a Pumpkin Pie Caramallow by wrapping it around our Vanilla Marshmallows.

I want to thank you for your support and enthusiasm for my artisan company throughout the hiatus!  I’m thrilled to have the company back, and I hope that you enjoy our new confections as well as your old favorites!

Thank you!
Nina
Founder & Chief Chocolatier, BonBonBar

OTHER BONBONBAR NEWS

We are now accepting holiday orders.  Please email nina@bonbonbar.com to discuss your needs.  Ordering early ensures a stress-free holiday gift season.

The Malt Bars, Cherry Bars, Orange Bars, and Hot Chocolate Mix have been rotated out of the current selection of confections to make room for the new ones.  I am truly sorry for any disappointment.  They may be rotated back in at some point.