2 French Candies And A Cookie: An Alternative To Cake And Pie At Your Wine Tasting Event
Posted on: 29 June 2016
If you're hosting a wine tasting party, then you probably don't want to serve up heavy cakes or pies. But you should have something sweet for people to enjoy. Alongside cheese and crackers you should have some form of dessert. A great option is to serve a selection of French candies on a tray, alongside a tray featuring the most famous French cookies of all time, the Madeline.
Mendiants
These candies are made of chocolate, dried fruit, and nuts. Unlike other chocolate candies that have nuts and fruit mixed into the candy, mendiants are made by placing the fruit and nuts atop the chocolate. What you end up with are little circles of chocolate that are dotted with decorative and tasty dried fruit and chocolate. These candies get their name because they are made by different orders of monks. Depending on the order that makes them you will get a different fruit. The choice of topping correlates to the color of the robes that the monks wore. The fruit and nuts make this a great match for heavy-bodied white wines such as oaked Chardonnay or even sweet wines such as Rieslings. They are also great with red wines because the fruit and dark chocolate is a great pairing for the flavor notes in most reds.
Chocolate Truffles
Chocolate truffles are wonderful to serve at a wine tasting. They are rich and luxurious and made of basically two ingredients: cream and chocolate. You can get flavored truffles that would be made with anything from raspberry liqueur to salt. If you are going to let them sit out at room temperature, then you should choose truffles that have been covered in tempered chocolate. This will prevent them from melting. If you prefer the taste of ganache chocolate truffles (that are only covered in powdered cocoa powder), then you should keep them chilled until they are ready to be served.
Because you are serving them with wine, you should probably stick with pure chocolate and avoid the liqueur-flavored truffles. The dark chocolate truffles will work especially well when paired with some of the darker wines you will be serving, especially if you're serving something like a Petite Sirah which has strong notes of chocolate.
Madeleines
Because not all guests will like chocolate candies, a good option is to have a platter with Madeleine's. These are the classic lemon flavored sponge cookies in the shape of a seashell that you will find in bakeries all over France. They have a very light flavor, so people who are drinking light-bodied white wines such will appreciate the alternative to the heavy chocolate. These will work well with a Sauvignon Blanc.
If you can't find the candy that you'd like to serve locally, you can order gourmet candies online at sites like http://www.abdallahcandies.com.
Share