AUSTRALIA CAMPARI BON BONS

We live in Australia now where my partner Adam is from.  I had always wanted to visit Australia growing up watching movies like BMX Bandits and surfing movies with my brother and cousins.  Finally, when my trip came around I met an Aussie guy and fell in love...he had the best eyes and when we met in Byron Bay that summer in August 2008, it was the biggest surprise of my life, that is next to finding out I was having our twins.  But that is another wonderful story I will save for the San Francisco post.

So, when I had the chance to work at the Byron at Byron Restaurant and Spa as a Commis Chef, you could imagine my glee!  It was a back breaking, blood wrenching, sweat pouring out of me experience, but for that whole year, I could not think of anything else but cooking and the life of a Chef.  When the Vogue Dinner came around and opportunity to learn a thing or two with Chef Mark Best was given to me I was blown away at the food that they conjured up, it really was magical.  Imagine a marshmallow that looks like a marshmallow, but when you bite into it, the flavor of smoked tomato bursts onto your taste buds.  Or the Campari bon bons which were nothing short of the kid in a candy store version for grown up kids.  They actually gave me the low down on how to make these little gems and here it is for you to try.  It is fiddly to say the least, but the result is a little bit like tingly toes...you can't get the sensation from anything else.

Ingredients

250 g  sugar

85 g   water

100 ml  Campari

Corn starch. You’ll need a lot. I used over 500 gm for a small 20cm x 20cm mold which only allows you to make about 9 bon bons at a time….

 Campari Syrup

1.  Make syrup by mixing the sugar and water in a pot and heat it until it reaches 117˚C .

2.  Remove from heat and add the Campari.

3.  Cover the pot with a clean tea towel and let it rest for 5 minutes.

4. Remove the towel and carefully and very slowly pour the syrup into another pot. Repeat this process 4 or 5 times to obtain a homogeneous mix.

5. Let the syrup reach room temperature and then cool it down in the fridge in a squeeze bottle for a couple of hours. This step is not necessary but the increase in viscosity of the cold syrup helps to obtain a smooth and nicely shaped candy.

Campari Candy Starch Molds

1.  Using a sifter, fill a cake pan with enough corn starch to cast the molds. About 2 cm should be enough. I used about 600gm of corn starch to fill a small 20cm x 20cm  cake pan.

2.  Place the pan with corn starch in the oven at 120˚C for 1 hour.

3.  Remove the cake pan from the oven and gently press the corn starch into the pan to obtain a smooth surface with no spaces or cracks.

4.  Use an object of desired shape to cast the molds in the corn starch. I used the back of a kitchen utensil that was round and had a flat end to create a cylinder mold. Leave about one inch between each mold and make them about ½ cm deeper than what you want because you are not going to fill them completely with the syrup.

Making the Campari Candies

Campari Candy Liquid Filling

1.  Fill the molds with the cold Campari syrup about ½ cm from the top. The top of the corn starch mold tends to be a little loose and may not hold the syrup as well.

2. Sift at least about 1 cm of corn starch on top to cover the syrup.

3.  Let the candy set for about 24 hours. With this process, the top of the candy is going to be round while the bottom end is going to be straight so the resulting candy is not going to be symmetrical.

4.  Once the Campari Candy is set, carefully remove it from the corn starch mold and brush off all the extra corn starch on the surface.

5. Store the Campari Candies in a cool and dry place. They don’t hold well for long so try to consume them on the same day.

Enjoy!