Herbal Candy Making Endeavors

For the last five years I have been making annual forays into confectionary for The Great Lakes Herb Faire. I make herbal candy as personalized gift for the instructors and organizers. The area of herbalism I am most intrigued by is culinary herbalism. This candy making allows me to play with flavor profiles and creative combinations as well as packaging and graphic design.

Torrón (Spanish) also know as Torrone (Italian) is a style of candy that originated in ancient Rome. Honey and other ingredients were cooked long and slow for hours to form a creamy taffy-like confection with nuts and fruits mixed in. What appealed to me about this recipe was both its rich history as well as its clean ingredients. I used lemongrass, hibiscus, and ginger as the herbal twist.

I designed Turmeric Coconut Latte's to be accessible to all food restrictions and in a reusable container with a latte art inspired label.

Chocolate Salami is not salami, rather it is a historically Portuguese confection that has a variety of textured components like a meat salami does. Creamy chocolate with dried fruits, nuts, cookies, and caramels mixed throughout.

I made a version that had a curated selection of herbs. 

Version 1: Juniper, Blood Orange, Ginger. 

Version 2: Rose, Hibiscus, Lemon.

Vegan, keto, gluten, and refined sugar free candy? 2018 was the year where this became my focus. Dates and coconut allowed that experiment to succeed. Lavender Flower Brownie, Coconut Wild Rose, and Hibiscus Orange Calendula Carrot Cake confections.

2019 was a year of coconut honey based chocolates highlighting smoky lavender, candied elderflower, and lemon verbena. A beautiful complimentary flavor profile.