Big Bend Eats
By Carolyn Brown Zniewski
SWEETS FOR THE SWEET
There are two holidays coming up
that are traditionally celebrated with
candy. Both were originally pagan cel-
ebrations. Valentine’s Day dates back
to Roman celebrations and was
renamed for either one or both early
Christian saints named Valentine. It
was not until 1382 and the poet
Chaucer that Valentine’s Day became
a celebration of love. Knights charging
off on the crusades would bring back
red rose petals for their wives and
lovers from gardens in the Middle
East. Easter, the second biggest sweets
holiday of the year, was the celebration
12
of spring and rebirth retrofitted for
Christianity a few hundred years AD.
Both are now promoted as occasions
for sweets.
It wasn’t until the 1800’s that candy
became a part of both holidays. We
can thank Richard Cadbury of the
chocolate company. He developed
new methods of refining chocolate. His
new process produced a much tastier
drinking cocoa but it left an excess of
cocoa butter. Mr. Cadbury
discovered he could use the
“waste” for making choco-
late candy. In order to
build a market for the
candy, he had his workers
make heart-shaped boxes,
filling the boxes with small
chocolate creams as the
perfect gift for ones sweet-
heart. The boxes were lux-
ury keepsakes that were
saved for other uses. Until
the beginning of the 20th
century all chocolates were
made by hand and very
expensive. February 14
came but once a year so
Cadbury started promot-
ing chocolate creams for
sale as a treat at the end of
Lent on Easter Sunday.
In 1875 Cadbury
invented the Cadbury
crème egg, still available
today. As manufacturing
came to candy making the
variety of shapes and kinds
of candy exploded into the
giant selection we now
have. The most recent
addition was in the 1930’s
when Forrest Mars, Sr.,
son of the Mars Company
founder Frank C. Mars developed the
M & M. As a late bloomer in the
sweets line up it is now colored to
match every holiday.
Here are several recipes so that you
can put together boxes or plates of
Cenizo
First Quarter 2018
candy for friends and loved ones. Get
together with a few folks and spend the
afternoon listening to your favorite
tunes and being your own candy com-
pany. All these are quite easy to make
and so delicious they will be happily
enjoyed by everyone.
Chocolate Truffles
1 pound semisweet chocolate chips
1 2/3 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
Place chocolate in a medium-size
bowl. Heat cream to a simmer. Pour
hot cream over chocolate, cover bowl
and let stand 10 minutes. Uncover and
whisk chocolate mixture until smooth.
Add vanilla and salt stirring to com-
bine. Pour into a pie plate and let cool
to room temperature. Cover and
refrigerate until set, about three hours.
Place cocoa on a plate. Using a
melon baller or small ice cream scoop,
scoop chocolate mixture, roll into balls
and cover each ball in cocoa powder.
Place on parchment-lined baking
sheet. Refrigerate until set, about 15
minutes. You can put each one in indi-
vidual small muffin papers. Top each
one with a red hot.
Chocolate Creams
1 cup mashed Idaho potatoes,
warm and unseasoned
½ tsp salt
2 tsp any 1 flavor (vanilla/orange/
lemon/maple/rum/peppemint)
extract
2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
1 pound dark or milk chocolate
for dipping
Combine the potato, salt and
extract in a four-quart mixing bowl.
Sift the confectioners’ sugar over the
potato while stirring the potatoes. Add
about one cup sugar at a time. The
mixture will liquefy when the first
sugar is added and then gradually
begin to thicken. When it becomes the
consistency of stiff dough, knead it
even though all the sugar has not been
added. The amount of sugar will
depend on the moisture in the pota-
toes. Knead until smooth, cover with a
damp cloth and chill about 30 minutes
until completely cool. Scoop into ½-
inch balls. Using a toothpick to skewer
the balls, dip into melted chocolate.
Melt the chocolate carefully over sim-
mering water. Do not let the chocolate
get too hot. Let the chocolates set on
parchment paper. Put each candy into
a small muffin paper.
Tiramisu Truffles
24 ladyfingers
2 Tbls sugar
2/3 cup mascarpone - room
temperature
2-3 Tbls espresso/coffee
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate
In a food processor, blend ladyfin-
gers until you have fine crumbs. Set
aside 2 Tbls to sprinkle on the truffles
later. Mix together sugar and crumbs.
Beat in mascarpone until fully incorpo-
rated. Add the espresso one tablespoon
at a time until as thick as cookie dough.
Refrigerate 45 minutes to an hour until
dough is firm. Scoop into 36 1-inch
balls and place them on parchment
lined baking sheet. Freeze for 10-15
minutes.
Melt the chocolate over simmering
water. Do not over-heat chocolate.
Using a toothpick as a skewer dip a
cold tiramisu truffle into the melted
chocolate and transfer it back to the
baking sheet. Sprinkle the truffle with
reserved
ladyfinger
crumbs.
Refrigerate for 10 minutes to harden
chocolate. Store tiramisu truffles in an
airtight container in the refrigerator.
Put each candy into a small muffin
paper. They will keep for about a
week.