Molded bonbons were like a revelation to me.
The way I could play with textures, flavors, long-shelf or fresh fillings inside a thin shell gave me such a drive to push my skills that I knew right away that I’d found my creative chocolate medium.
I wouldn’t say I had this love-at-first-sight reaction with dragées, though.
Start from the outside in
If you asked me about them 10 years ago, I would have described those chocolate-covered almonds you can get at the supermarket. They’re a little underwhelming, if you ask me.
But when I decided to teach my first panning class, I knew I had to somehow find in dragées the same room for exploration I’d discovered in molded bonbons.
I started from the outside in and found that my pecan praliné, flavored couvertures, and dujas were a far better alternative to the plain chocolate casing I associated with commercial dragées.
I just needed that little challenge of switching up the outer coating of the dragées to realize the centers could also be anything I wanted (as long as they were stable).
Choose exciting dragée centers
So the next step was filling my dragées with confections I preferred over the traditional dried fruit and unroasted nut center.
I started playing with pâtes de fruits, nougats, and caramels.
And, finally, with other inclusions I found delicious and exciting, like brioche cubes, mini marshmallows (like the ones I use in my s’mores dragée recipe), or infused marzipans.
Bland texture = boring dragées
That made me realize what my whole deal with dragées was: when you bite into a chocolate-covered almond, the textural experience is flat.
The chocolate is hard to bite into, and so is the almond. Something is missing there.
But swap the plain chocolate for a banana bread duja and a caramelized pecan, and you get a bite-sized contrast that’s simply impossible to put down.
And, of course, a great panner is your best friend
So if you want to start your dragée collection (I use Selmi’s panning machine), let go of the limitations of the flavors and ingredients you’ve tried before.
If you’d like to delve deeper into this amazing dragée universe, check out my Dragée and Panning Class Part 1 and Part 2.
There’s a whole world of confections and flavors waiting to be turned into a one-of-a-kind dragée line!
With love,
-Melissa