"confections" news and stories

I don't know how lucky one person can get. I was able to go to a second pastry demonstration in two weeks. Not only that, the demonstration was done by Norman Love, the owner of one of the best lines of chocolate confections available in the U.S. today. He's been in the pastry kitchen for quite some, and was the corporate pastry chef for the Ritz-Carlton for 13 years before leaving to start Norman Love Confections

It was a really great demo, too. Chef Love was advised by his legal team to not demonstrate chocolate truffles, so he did cakes instead. He made from start to finish two cakes: a chocolate hazelnut cake and a milk chocolate raspberry cake. Of course he had brought some components with him for expediency, but for the most part Chef Love mixed all of the ingredients and built each of the cakes right before our eyes. He also did sneak in some chocolate work, making the garnishes for each of the cakes.

Chef Love was really personable as well. It's obvious that he is passionate about his chosen profession and incredibly knowledgeable. He was great about answering questions and he gave out lots of great tips. He was very easy to understand. Most of the people in attendance were pastry professionals, but there were also a lot of students and I'm sure a few lay persons. And yet I am 100% sure that everyone left knowing exactly what Chef Love was talking about all night. Check out the gallery for this post: it's comprised of images I took at the demonstration.

What exactly is a meringue? Would you consider it a cookie because technically you "bake" it? Or is it candy because it's mostly all sugar?

Whichever you call it, I'm including a photo of tiny little meringue ghosts from 101 Cookbooks because they're too cute to pass up on Halloween. Not only are meringues relatively easy to make with just a few ingredients, but this photo of white ghosts is spooky-cute against a black background, and with a hint of their reflection in front of them.

Then again, I didn't think ghosts cast shadows or made reflections!

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I love Peeps. Not the creepy new ones that Just Born is releasing at every conceivable holiday, though. In fact, the black Halloween ones are just downright wrong, as are the filled marshmallows. But the marshmallow yellow chicks and purple bunnies are simply perfect. They're sweet and sugary, light and fluffy. They're made out of sugar, corn syrup and gelatin, in much the same way as homemade marshmallows. I always buy them around Easter and in the grand scheme of Easter confections, the low-cal, no-fat Peeps are not a bad option, with only 32 calories per peep.

The Italian government recently voted, almost unanimously, to uphold its decision to allow only products made with 100% cocoa butter to be labeled as "pure chocolate". Other fats are allowed in the products, such as those from milk, fruits and nuts, but the European Union currently allows up to 5% vegetable fats to be present in a product labeled as "pure chocolate". In both sets of definitions natural flavors and soya lecithin (non-genetically modified, in Italy) are allowed to be present in chocolate.

Italy introduced this definition of "pure chocolate" in 2003 in order to protect traditionally produced Italian chocolate from competition with imports, which were less expensive due to their partial use of non-cocoa fats. Italy, which may have to face the European Court of Justice because of its failure to recognise the European standards, is planning to petition the EU to obtain Traditional Specialty Guaranteed (TSG) status for its chocolate. Achieving this status would mean that the EU would recognise the Italian "pure chocolate" label and its assurance of 100% pure cocoa butter products made in a traditional manner.

Italian chocolate makers and cocoa growers have supported the government's efforts wholeheartedly. Chocolate is a 350 million euros ($424 million dollars) per year business in Italy, with the average Italian consuming nearly 10 pounds per year, a number which doubled in the past ten years and continues to grow.

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A restaurant in Tokyo has introduced the world's first fast food sweets. These aren't your usual deep fried apple pies and chocolate chip cookies, either. This restaurant offers sweets that are made to look like traditional fast food offerings, from hamburgers to french fries. At first glance, a Mamido's Burger hamburger looks quite ordinary, but the taste reveals something entirely different. The "bun" is made of sponge cake and the "patty" is actually a molded chocolate cream. Their version of a breaded fish burger features a patty made from bananas and what looks like a side order of french fries, pictured above, are deep fried slices of custard cream.

Young people and women are generally the target market for sweets and confections in Japan, but the shop is proving to be popular with men, as well. According to the owner, a man who might be embarrassed to be seen eating a slice of cake, can walk along looking as though he is enjoying a burger!

[Via Fast Food News]