Dark Chocolate Covered Raisins--Healthy Candy
Well, I hope when I mentioned earlier this week that I was back to a healthy living routine that you didn't think I was done with candy making. I was at a ballgame with friends Tuesday night, one of whom had a bag of Dark Chocolate Raisinets . . . with all sorts of health claims on the package . . . blah, blah, antioxidants, blah, blah . . . and I thought to myself, "Why haven't I made chocolate covered raisins? Or chocolate covered other healthy things?" I had no answer for myself. So I decided that chocolate covered healthy things are the perfect candy for my new back to fitness campaign. It's candy that's good for me, right? These particular raisins are super healthy because they cost a lot and came from Whole Foods and are organic. They're covered with a cocktail of tempered scraps of Michel Cluizel 72% cocoa and Valrhona 70% cocoa—leftover from other chocolatiering projects. I didn't look at any recipe or instructions before making these last night . . . but I'm wondering if any of you might have some ideas for a not-incredibly-labor intensive way to produce individual chocolate covered raisins, as opposed to these chocolate covered raisin clusters. I just dumped a half-pound bag of raisins into a pound of tempered chocolate, then spooned them out and spread them out on a wire mesh splatter screen, which allowed the excess chocolate to drain off. They don't look very pretty, but they taste great. I bet the Raisinets company uses a hi-tech, expensive chocolate enrobing machine that keeps the raisins separate from one another. Any ideas? I'm off to work with a bag of healthy candy for my co-workers.
I'm pretty sure we could be friends if that's your definition of health food.
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Yum! I love raisinets. Hee.
I'm not sure if confectioners use a rotating drum to achieve that effect (like in jellybeans). I've seen Kitchenaid attachments for that.
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Thanks for the tip . . . I've got a KitchenAid stand mixer, so I'll look for the attachment. I'm not sure how the chocolate could set if it were constantly tumbling, though. Hmmmmmmmmm.
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Pleeeeeease tell me where you work. Promise not to stalk; you can just drop a bag out of the window.
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Only if you promise to be dressed as you were in your great locked-out adventure this week!
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How about dumping the entire thing through a strainer, bouncing it a bit to get rid of the excess, and then spreading them out on a baking sheet. Would cut down on the spooning, at least.
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Hi FRM,
here's a little more to expound on the subject: https://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=41377
and https://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=103126
apparently the method I described is really how raisinets are made
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Thanks Manggy and Tanya . . . I just found the KitchenAid panning attachment on line . . . it costs $699! I won't be able to afford that anytime soon . . . so I'll have to settle for non-professional looking chocolate-coated candies . . . maybe I'll try the Tanya method next time . . . .
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If you're ever in the Salt Lake City, UT area you can go on a tour of the Sweet Candy Company (see website at: https://www.sweetcandy.com/ )They often show their panning equipment in action. On the tour they mention that Jordan Almonds are among the oldest panned candies in the world.
Also, thank you for the splatter screen idea-that will help when I make another batch of chocolate covered raisins.
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