Hand-Crafted Candy Bars: From-Scratch, All-Natural, Gloriously Grown-Up Confections

236 Pages·2013·11.79 MB·English

by  Susan Heeger

HAND-CRAFTED
CANDY
BARS
FROM-SCRATCH, ALL-NATURAL,
GLORIOUSLY GROWN-UP CONFECTIONS
Susie Norris & Susan Heeger
Photographs by Joseph De Leo
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank the following people, who, in different ways, helped guide and inspire us on the
candy path, or walked it with us:
Jane and Jim, Frances, and Jim and Kelly Norris; Jason Epstein; Judy Miller; Helen Epstein and Peter
Peter; Marcia, Mike, and Otto Heeger; Laura and Peter Bernhard; John Heeger and Hoang Nguyen;
Andrea, Jim, Lily, Rosie, Lenard, and Elaine Steiner; David Draper; Audrey Augun; Gerson Zweifach; Tom
Hentoff; Amy Treadwell; Joseph De Leo; Alice Chau; Carrie Purcell; Stuart Courtney; Natacha Leighton;
Jackie Rogers; Carole Bloom; Peter Greweling; recipe-tester Christina Chung.
Very special thanks to our agents, Betsy Amster and Angela Rinaldi.
Text copyright © 2013 by Susie Norris and Susan Heeger.
Photographs copyright © 2013 by Joseph De Leo.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from
the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-45212440-7
The Library of Congress has previously cataloged this title under: ISBN 978-1-4521-0965-7
Designed by Alice Chau and Lydia Ortiz Illustrations by Lydia Ortiz Food styling by Carrie Purcell Prop
styling by Paige Hicks Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com
This book is dedicated to: Our families: Jacob, Sam, Natalie, and Thomas
Epstein, and Rob and Simon Steiner, avid supporters of our candy-making
adventures
Our dear friends: Jeremy and Dara Samuelson and Rebecca Farr, who helped
us conceive and envision this project and without whom it wouldn’t be
and to everyone who shares our candy-bar passion.
INTRODUCTION
LOVING CANDY BARS
An Action Plan
They took us sweetly through childhood and beyond; now we’ve grown up and
they can too. We present our passionate plan for making more of a nearly
perfect treasure.
CHAPTER 1
BREAKING IT DOWN
Candy-Bar Elements, Ingredients, and Tools
What is a candy bar? What should—and shouldn’t—be in it? This is where we
roll out some history, tracing the path of our favorite sweets, from Aztec gold
to Hershey heaven to high-octane, upscale cocoa. You’ll find a tool list, too, for
the well-equipped candy kitchen.
What Is a Candy Bar—and What Should Be in It?
The Sweet Life: Then and Now
The Artisan Option
Candy-Bar Toolbox
CHAPTER 2
BORN-AGAIN BARS
A Fresh Take on a Candy Classic
Inspired by the classics, we take building-block recipes from chapter 5 and
combine them in different ways, pairing complementary textures and tastes to
craft luxurious, special-occasion bars for today.
Chocolate & Nuts Inside & Out
Over the Moon
Crispy Cookie Crunch
Cocoa-Nib Caramel Cookie Sticks
White-Chocolate Cookies & Crunch Bars
Dark Chocolate—Dipped Almond Coconut Bars
Molten-Chocolate Peanut Bars
Egyptian Nougat Bars
Nut ’n’ Nougat Bars
Chocolate Nougat Cups
PB & Chocolate Cups
Milk-Chocolate Cup-of-Fluffs
Melty Chocolate Minties
Chocolate Butter-Toffee Snaps
Caramel Pecan Tortoises
CHAPTER 3
BITS & BITES WE LOVE
A Few Delicious Extras
We couldn’t bear to leave these out, though they don’t fit our definition of a
bar as an often-layered, usually chocolate-coated confection that takes time to
savor rather than tiny treats you can just pop in your mouth. But we feel they
are absolutely necessary to the sweet life well-lived, not to mention the
pleasures of a movie.
Chewy Caramel Bites
Crunchy Chocolate Mint Buttons
Chocolate Taffy
Chocolate Scallops
Raisins in the Dark
Corn Candy
CHAPTER 4
DREAM BARS
Healthier, Spicier, Sexier
Candy can be good for you, especially if you make it yourself, using premium
dark chocolate and loading in the walnuts, dried blueberries, and citrus zest,
and lots of flavors-du-jour in the food world (green tea, black sesame,
chipotle), which pair beautifully with chocolate. We’ll give you recipes to prove
our point, along with a Mix-and-Match Chart to help you craft your personal
version of a dream bar.
Basic Mixed-Nut Bark
Candied Mint & Citrus Zest Bark
Medley of Sesame & Sunflower Bark
Chipotle Chocolate Coins
Classic Dark-Chocolate Truffles
Green-Tea Truffles
Tarragon & Wasabi Bars
Black & Pink Pepper-Caramel Cookie Bars
Orange-Chocolate Cookie Crunch Bars
Maple-Nut Logs
Rocky Road
Choc-o-Nilla Nougat
Tart Cherry Jungle
Chocolate-Dipped Stawberries
Hazelnut Strawberry Jams
CHAPTER 5
CANDY-BAR BASICS
Fundamental Recipes and Techniques
Going from candy-lover to candy-maker can be a pretty straightforward
transformation if you’ve got the tools. It’s also very satisfying, in the old-
fashioned, deep-heart vein of hand-crafting in the kitchen.
FILLINGS
Marshmallow
Soft Chocolate Nougat
Soft Vanilla Nougat
Marzipan
Fondant
Basic-Batch Caramel
Dark-Chocolate Caramel
Milk-Chocolate Caramel
Hard Caramel
Nutty Toffee
No-Fail Chocolate Fudge
Old-Fashioned Chocolate Fudge
Vanilla-Bean Fudge
Milk-Chocolate Ganache
Strawberry Jam
Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Very-Vanilla Sugar Cookies
Brown Sugar–Crisps
COATINGS
Tempered Dark Chocolate
Tempered Milk Chocolate
Tempered White Chocolate
CHAPTER 6
GILDING THE LILY
Dressing Bars for Dessert
While hand-crafted candy bars hardly need elaboration, they will show up
even more fetchingly on a plate if you crown them with Dark-Chocolate
Flowers or a soupçon of Caramel Sauce.
Dark-Chocolate Flowers
Candied Mint Leaves
Candied Citrus
Simple Syrup
Easy Vanilla Buttercream
Easy Chocolate Buttercream
Caramel Sauce
Orange-Brandy Caramel Sauce
Raspberry Sauce
Vanilla-Bean Sauce
SHOPPING RESOURCES GUIDE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX