Recipe: Buckwheat Beehives

the appetizer:

Start your own home candy business with Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner by Peter P. Greweling and The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), with recipes like Buckwheat Beehives, Toffee Drops, and Turkish Delight.

Buckwheat Beehives

Yield: 100 pieces

Heavy cream — 180 g — 6 oz — 25%
Buckwheat honey — 70 g — 2.5 oz — 9%
Milk chocolate, unmelted, tempered, chopped — 450 g — 16 oz — 63%
Butter, soft — 20 g — 1 oz — 3%
Ganache Batch Size — 720 g — 25.5 oz — 100%

Milk chocolate discs, 25 mm diameter — 100 discs — 100 discs
Additional buckwheat honey as needed
Thinned milk chocolate, for dipping as needed
Coarse sugar, for finishing as needed

Buckwheat Beehives

Make the Discs

Use tempered milk chocolate and a stencil to cut out discs. Alternatively, spread tempered milk chocolate 2 mm thick on parchment. Allow to set 90 percent, then use a 25-mm cutter to make the discs. Regardless of the method used to make them, leave the discs attached to the parchment.

Make the Ganache

1. Combine the heavy cream and buckwheat honey in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.

2. Pour the hot cream mixture over the chopped milk chocolate and let sit for 60 seconds, to allow the chocolate to melt.

3. Using a spoon, stirrer, or spatula, stir the mixture in vigorous small circles in the center of the bowl until it emulsifies.

4. Stir outward in larger circles to spread the emulsion throughout the bowl, checking to see that all the chocolate has melted. If necessary, place the ganache over a warm water bath (not exceeding 34 degrees C/94 degrees F) to melt the chocolate.

5. Massage the butter into the ganache, taking care that no lumps of butter remain unincorporated.

6. Pour the ganache into a hotel pan, covering the bottom of the pan with a thin layer. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the ganache. Allow the ganache to rest at room temperature until slightly firm and of a plastic consistency. This may take 1 hour depending on the ambient temperature.

7. Agitate the ganache lightly by placing it on a marble slab and working it gently to induce crystallization.

To Make the Buckwheat Honey Beehives

1. Using a No. 2 tip, pipe a border of ganache on the outer edge of each disc.

2. Using a paper cone, fill the center of each circle with buckwheat honey.

3. Using a No. 2 round tip, pipe increasingly smaller concentric circles of ganache on top of one another, building a beehive shape on top of each disc and enclosing the pool of buckwheat honey. Allow to crystallize at room temperature until firm enough to handle, about 20 minutes.

4. Using a 3-prong fork, dip each beehive in the thinned milk chocolate.

5. When the beehives begin to set, place 6 to 8 crystals of coarse sugar on top of each.

Wfrom:
Chocolates and Confections
Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner
by Peter P. Greweling
The Culinary Institute of America
Wiley 2007
Hardcover 388 pages; US $65.00
ISBN: 978-0-7645-8844-3
Recipe reprinted by permission.

Buy Chocolates and Confections