Below is the email that I sent to my mailing list…  I’ll write more about this when I get the chance.

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Hello,

I am very sorry to write that BonBonBar will be going on hiatus.  I am relocating to San Francisco, and I cannot say when I will be able to restart production.

This change was a difficult decision to make, especially since I have been so thankful for the phenomenal goodwill and enthusiasm of my customers since the company’s founding.  It has been a pleasure to make candy for you.

If you would like to enjoy or share our handmade candy bars, caramels, and marshmallows one last time before the hiatus, I will be accepting orders until this Monday, August 17th.  The final shipping day from Los Angeles will be Wednesday, August 19.

Thank you!
Nina
Founder & Chief Chocolatier, BonBonBar

If you find yourself in the Napa Valley this season, you may find Annie Baker selling her Annie the Baker cookies at area farmers markets.  And then… you will find yourself addicted to these cookies that are “for those who love cookie dough more than the cookie.”

I met Annie in 2006 when she was the enthusiastic pastry chef of Mustards Grill, and I’m very excited that she’s moved on to start her own company that she’s passionate about and whose products are so delicious.  These cookies combine the puffy moistness of cookie dough and the depth of balanced flavor of a baked cookie.  You can get: Semi Sweet Chocolate Chunk, Toffee Milk Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter with Mini Peanut Butter Cups, and Oatmeal Double Chocolate Chip.

Annie adjusted the ratio of ingredients in her cookie recipes so that they spread and crisp less — and  so retain their doughy goodness.  I’d recommend them all, based on your personal tastes.  I almost want to say that the Toffee Milk Chocolate Chip is my favorite, but then, when lingering over the cookie jar, I proceed to break off a piece of the peanut butter, and then the choc chip, and then the oatmeal…. I feel like it’s a bit extreme to cast my lot with only one.  I don’t usually eat entire sweets at once, but I think I’m averaging more than one cookie at a time with these.

Look for her under the yellow and black Steelers tent at the St Helena and Napa farmers markets!

And check out Oxbow Market while you’re in Napa, which houses vendors such as The Fatted Calf (zomg!!!!!!!!!!), Hog Island Oyster Company, Kara’s Cupcakes, Three Twins Organic Ice Cream, Model Bakery, and Taylor’s Refresher, and wine, cheese, fish, and meat.  Sitting outside by the river with lunch, a glass of wine, and a bag of cookies is pretty fabulous…  For a valley with such a lovely landscape, it can be surprisingly hard to find a cozy place to relax and enjoy it outside.

I did an interview with Marla Camp, the publisher of Edible Austin, on Heritage internet radio this morning with Emily Olson from Foodzie and Jeffrey Lorien from Zhi Tea. I think it’s my first live interview about BonBonBar, and I don’t want to brag or anything, but I think I actually achieved coherence. Sweet.  Though listening to it myself, I realized I hadn’t heard my voice recorded in a long time… oddly, it wasn’t anything like how I remembered.

Anyway, you can check it out here. I start at about 17:30.

Single Malt Scotch Cake: Chocolate Chiffon Cake, Caramel Filling, Scotch Simple Syrup, Scotch Milk Chocolate-Caramel Frosting, Maldon Salt.

It’s hard to believe, but this is Chad’s 4th documented birthday on this blog.  One year ago, there was the Salted Chocolate Nut Cake.  Two years ago, there was the Blood Orange Creamsicle Cake.  Three years ago… I barely knew how to make cake… so we went to The French Laundry.

And now, it’s Chad’s 30th birthday, and here it is: the Single Malt Scotch Cake.

Chad had made a few reverential comments about the Salted Chocolate Nut Cake during the past few months, so I’d schemed to make it again, but with Scotch in the frosting for variation.  When asked directly about his choice of cake this year, he said he wanted a cake a modeled after the Scotch Bar.  My eyes lit up and I told him about my hybrid idea, but no, he wanted a straight translation of the Scotch Bar — nothing more and nothing less than Scotch, chocolate, caramel, and salt.

The structure of the cake is actually pretty similar to last year’s, and has the salient properties of the Scotch Bar to boot.  Chad even had the great idea of “enrobing” the cake with a dark chocolate shell, but I couldn’t get around to doing that, and I’m also not crazy about cutting chocolate-covered/wrapped cakes.

The cake is a Chocolate Chiffon baked in angel food cake form, and it included the Walnut Oil like last year, because I thought that it would add a subtle note of interest and is perhaps healthier than all Safflower. I was a little bummed because I overbaked the cake enough to make it a little dry (I baked it 15 mins longer than the prescribed 60 mins b/c it kept making a foamy sound whenever I pressed the top, and it didn’t really bounce back much).  Luckily, the moistness of the caramel and frosting made up for it, but still, I guess this is what happens when you’re a rare cake-maker.

I brushed a Scotch Simple Syrup to imbue the cake itself with flavor; ratio of sugar to water 1:1, with Scotch to taste (and taste!).  The kind people at Talisker sent me a selection of Single Malt Scotch when they found out that I use Talisker in my candy bar, so I decided to use the Caol Ila 18 year. It’s smoky, but oh so smooth.

For the Caramel Filling, I again used the caramel recipe that I make my Caramel Nut Bar with, but omitted the nuts. Just as I was about the make it, though, I realized that the nuts gave it structural support, and caramel fillings are usually in the form of a buttercream — not a straight caramel.  My CNB filling is basically a modified caramel sauce, and I decided to go for it to try it as a cake filling.  But I decreased the amount of cream in the recipe by 15% and increased the amount of butter by 15% (honestly, this wasn’t even planned, I just rounded up and rounded down, and just did the math now).  I reasoned that the standup quality and shortness-giving properties of the butter would make for a sliceable frosting-like caramel.   I also added 15% more glucose for a little bit of thickening.  It worked nicely, though it would have torn up the cake if I’d tried to spread it on; instead, with gloved hands, I flattened a bit of caramel at a time and put it on the cake. It was still quite soft when cut into with a knife or fork, though, so it was just the right consistency — not chewy or tough.

For the frosting, I made the same Caramel-Milk Chocolate Frosting.  I’d planned to decrease the amount of cream to compensate for the added alcohol, but completely forgot.  But I forged ahead, adding Scotch and tasting until it was potent enough… 1 Tbs… 2 Tbs… 3 Tbs… Then the idea of adding a 1/4 cup of Scotch somehow seemed like way too much extra liquid — let alone, Scotch — to add… So I added 1/2 Tbs more.  3-1/2 Tbs = Perfect.  The milk chocolate frosting alone tasted slightly peculiar with the Scotch, but the sweetness balanced out with the dark cake and caramel filling.

When I finished frosting the cake, I thought it looked fine in its homespun way, with its ebb and flow of spoon-backed frosting that I like.  But then I realized that it wasn’t done yet…. And so I finished the cake with Maldon Salt, which I now think of as “adult sprinkles.”

It’s best to sprinkle the salt on for each piece as it’s served, though, because  if left overnight, the smaller salt grains will absorb moisture and break down into salty little puddles.

I like these Candy Bar Cakes.  They remind me a little of Pierre Herme’s style (or maybe it’s not just him?) of having set flavor combinations that are translated into different forms under generally the same name.

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Here’s the recipe!

This is the Single Malt Scotch Candy Bar in cake form — with scotch ganache frosting, caramel filling, chocolate chiffon cake, and plenty of Maldon Salt.  For the tastiest cake, use an assertive Scotch, such as Talisker Caol Ila 18 yr.  The peatier and smokier, the better.

CHOCOLATE CHIFFON CAKE

1/2 cup + 1 Tbs (50g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder, such as Valrhona
3/4 cup (6oz) boiling water
1 3/4 cup (175g) unbleached AP flour, such as King Arthur
1 3/4 cup (350g) sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 cup (3.75 oz) Safflower Oil, preferably organic
6 ea (120g) egg yolks, preferably organic
10 ea (300g) egg whites, preferably organic
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 325F.

Whisk together cocoa powder and boiling water until smooth.  Let cool.

In a large bowl, combine flour, all but 2 Tbs of the sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk for 1 minute.  Add oil, egg yolks, cocoa powder mixture, and vanilla.  Whisk until smooth.

Using a stand mixer, whisk egg whites until frothy.  Add cream of tartar.  Beat until soft peaks form.  Slowly add rmg 2 Tbs sugar.  Beat until firm peaks.

Mix 1/3 of egg whites into the chocolate mixture.  Gently fold an additional 1/3 of the egg whites into batter.  Gently fold in rmg egg whites until just blended.

Pour batter into ungreased 10″ aluminum tube pan, preferably with feet.  Run a thin knife through batter to break any large air pockets.

Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Invert pan on feet (or over a glass bottle) until cool, about 2 hrs.

SCOTCH CHOCOLATE FROSTING

18 oz milk chocolate
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 cup (200g) sugar
1 3/4 cup whipping cream, preferably organic
1/4 - 1/2 cup Single Malt Scotch, or to taste

In a large bowl, combine milk and bittersweet chocolates.

In a small saucepan, bring cream to a simmer.  Keep warm.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, stir enough water into the sugar so that it looks like wet sand. Place over medium heat.  Brush sides with wet pastry brush to thoroughly dissolve any sugar crystals.  Boil without stirring until syrup turns an amber color, about 7-8 minutes; it may be necessary to swirl the pan to ensure even cooking without scorching.  Turn off heat.

Slowly add whipping cream while stirring slowly– being very careful of vigorous bubbles. Stir over medium heat until any hard caramel bits dissolve.

Pour caramel over chocolate.  Let stand 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. Stir in Scotch, tasting until preferred strength is reached.  Chill until completely cool, about 2 hours. Let stand 1 hour at room temperature before continuing.

SALTED CARAMEL FILLING

1 cup (200g) sugar
2/3 cup (5.25oz) cream
2 Tbs butter, very soft
1 tsp Maldon salt

In a medium pan, stir enough water into the sugar so that it looks like wet sand. Place over medium heat.  Brush sides with wet pastry brush to thoroughly dissolve any sugar crystals.  Boil without stirring until syrup turns an amber color; it may be necessary to swirl the pan to ensure even cooking without scorching.  Turn off heat.

Slowly add whipping cream while stirring slowly– being very careful of vigorous bubbles. Stir over medium heat until any hard caramel bits dissolve. Pour caramel into a bowl.  Stir in Maldon salt. Let cool.  Stir in butter.

SCOTCH SIMPLE SYRUP

1/3 cup (66g) sugar
1/3 cup water
1-3 tsp Single Malt Scotch

Boil sugar and water in small saucepan until clear.  Let cool.

Add single malt scotch to taste.

ASSEMBLY

Dislodge cake using a long thin knife around the sides and core, being careful to neither cut into the cake nor the pan.  Dislodge the bottom using the knife.

Place cake on a cake board or plate.  Cut cake in half horizontally using a long bread knife.  Place top half aside.

With a pastry brush, dab the top of the bottom half thoroughly with Scotch Simple Syrup.

Using a stand mixer, beat the frosting until it’s spreadable and the color of milk chocolate, about 15-30 seconds. If too thick to spread easily, add some additional cream and beat until integrated.

With a pastry bag (or ziploc bag trimmed at one corner), pipe a thick ring of frosting on the outer and inner perimeters of the cake.  This will be a barrier to prevent the Caramel Filling from oozing out of the cake.

Pour Caramel Filling onto the cake between the rings of frosting.  If Caramel Filling is too firm, carefully stir in more cream, a Tbs at a time.  Smooth with a small offset spatula.

Place the top layer of the cake on top.

Dab the top of the cake with Scotch Simple Syrup.

Make a crumb coat on the cake by spreading a thin layer of frosting all over the cake.  Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, until frosting is set.

Beat frosting briefly again if necessary, to lighten consistency. Spread remaining frosting all over the cake.

If the whole cake will be eaten immediately, sprinkle generously with Maldon Salt.  Alternatively, sprinkle Maldon Salt individually over each slice.  If left salted overnight, the salt will dissolve into puddles on the frosting.

I spent a bit of my first year in business worrying.  There was so much that I had little or no experience with that I was often anxious about things that had happened or could happen.  I tried to do my best and figure things out logically or by asking other people, and I had mellow periods, but it was easy to worry about just about anything, anytime.

That abated a bit as I got more experienced, and as I felt more comfortable with the work, I listened to my iPod more and more.   At first, I just listened to my library of songs that I was familiar with and could tune in and out of, but as I got even more comfortable, I realized that I could easily learn a few new things by listening to audiobooks.  And they would give me a bit of perspective outside of my work.  Again, I started to listen to them during the really repetitive tasks, like packaging individual items and chopping nuts & marshmallows, but now I listen to them while cooking and working with tempered chocolate, too.  The only task that always remains silent is the final packaging of mailing boxes, when I want to be sure that everything that was ordered is included and packed properly.  And the iPod is put away when someone else is working with me.

I tend to go for history, biographies and rarely, fiction — which, btw, makes me feel old because I used to mostly read fiction.  On the job, I’ve listened to subjects, titles, and authors like Theodore Roosevelt, Truman, Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Einstein, Magellan (who was killed before he made it around the world!), the Mayflower, Steve Martin, Sandra Day O’Connor, Captain Kidd, Andrew Jackson, Shackleton, the Mondavi’s, P.G. Woodhouse, Churchill, Wicked, The Country of the Pointed Firs, the CA Gold Rush, Sherlock Holmes, Sarah Vowell, Neil Gaiman, Billy Collins, Paris 1919, Balzac, Susan Orlean, Hannibal (the Carthaginian), David Sedaris, Ruth Reichl, John McPhee, the Darien expedition, Nick Hornby, Abraham Lincoln, TEDTalks, Dickens…

I admit, listening to Dickens’ Hard Times has been just that — the sentences seem to make sense, but I can never make sense of them altogether and I doubt I’ll ever finish that one.  I often think about Dickens, however, when I select my audiobooks.   I believe he was often paid by the word, and when I look for books, I often look for length.  Two volumes totaling 80 hrs about Churchill’s life, and not even getting to WWII?  Fantastic!!!  I consented to Steve Martin’s 4hr memoir about his standup career because I was interested in it — and ended up listened to it a few times because, well, why not?  I’ll usually listen to a book for awhile at a time, and then go into the music library part of the iPod to listen to music on shuffle for a little while like intermission.  Or sometimes, it’s all one or none…  Silence can also be wonderful to work to.

When someone else started listening to an epically long audiobook about Warren Buffett earlier this year, my interest was piqued.  It turned out that he also had Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, so I got those, too.  When I got them onto my computer, I realized that they weren’t in typical audiobook format, which is continuous and allows you to stop at any point, switch to listen to music files, and then go back to the same point in the book.  Instead, the books were broken up into files equivalent to song files, and they stored along with the songs.

I listened to the beginning files of How to Stop Worrying… but when I stopped to listen to music instead, I lost my place.   I’d have to write down the file# and time somewhere to keep my place or waste time/memory looking for my place.  But then the best thing happened.  As I was listening to music on shuffle mode, a chapter from How to Stop Worrying… came on with a bit of succinct wisdom, and then a song file played after that.  In the weirdest of ways, I think that this method of listening to it has made it the most effective it can be.  Instead of earnestly listening to the audiobook in long blocks when I feel the need to listen to it and then finishing it and vaguely remembering key points that will fade away, the advice not to worry is randomly whispered into my ears whenever the shuffle strikes.  I hear some things more than once, or sometimes for the first time — sometimes when I need soothing and sometimes when I don’t.  It’s almost subliminal (and the college-days film theorist in me gets a kick out of the semiotics of this).  Since it’s been woven into my work and thoughts, it sinks in well and is a welcome commercial btw songs, rather than a task in itself.

And of course, credit should be given to the book itself.  As he notes in the intro (which really should be read/listened to continuously to get a foundation for what the book is going for), you’ve probably already heard much of the advice in it, but it’s good to hear about it out loud once in a while and about how people have specifically gotten over their worries.  In fact, my favorite parts to listen to are those narratives “by so-and-so” about their own experiences overcoming worry — in many ways, they are song-like, but they’re just not set to music.  And to think that they took place early last century is somehow charming, though it’s easy to mistake them as contemporary. The advice in the book usually comes down to living life in the present (or “day-tight compartments”) and to take responsibility for your life without dwelling on what can’t be changed, and to change what you can.  The narration is also pitch-perfect — down to earth, but authoritative.

The book really has changed me.  There are still so many imperfect things about my company, but my perspective on how to think about them has changed.  Perhaps a concern now is to not try to take on more than I can really handle because I’m not worried that I won’t be able to do it.

Anyway, back to a more practical matter — listening to an iPod during work isn’t such a bad thing after all, though, of course, it wouldn’t work on a larger scale. Though part of me thinks that instead of playing background music or talk radio on speakers in kitchens, maybe audiobooks would work, too.