Chocolate Candies, Filipino Style

fondant with chopped candied langka (jackfruit)

mango paste

yema (egg yolk candy)

pinipig (pounded young glutinous rice) crunch bars

enrobed in bittersweet chocolate

A Filipino blog talking about a store (in the Philippines) selling chocolate candies with Filipino flavors and fillings piqued my interest and I immediately borrowed the idea. I was not expecting that dark chocolate and sweet jackfruit will go nicely together but surprisingly they do. It's the same with yema and my favorite, mango paste, which I made by boiling mango puree until very thick, the same process in making fruit leather. They are all delicious as chocolate candy fillings with their familiar Filipino flavors. I have a small bag of puffed pinipig which I will be using later for Guinomis and made bittersweet chocolate Pinipig Crunch, an homage to a childhood favorite, Nestle Crunch. Yummy yum yum!

New Year's Eve Menu Is Halfway Done

The macaroni salad is cooling in the fridge and the morcon is already stewing. Oh, yeah, I remember now why I never make morcon: it is so tedious to prepare. It took me almost an hour tying the rolls and maybe used up a hundred yards of kitchen twine! I made the yema balls last night and baked the meringue for the silvanas. I still have to prepare the buttercream though and I'm not sure if I still have the energy.

Philippine Yema Candies

6 egg yolks
1 can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup sugar
toothpicks
pieces of cellophane to wrap candies

• In a small saucepan, mix milk and egg yolks. Cook over medium-low heat to a paste, stirring constantly. Form into 1 inch balls. 
• In a heavy stainless steel pan, caramelize half the sugar. Moving quickly, dip the balls with toothpicks. Remove the candies by gently twisting the toothpick then pull out. Set the candies on a piece of aluminum foil to cool. 
• If the caramel turns too brown throw it out. Clean the pan, caramelize another ¼ cup of sugar and dip the remaining balls. 
• You can also roll the yema balls on white sugar, if preferred.
• Wrap in colored or white cellophane.

I don't use non-stick pan to caramelize sugar to be able to see the color progress of the caramel properly. Once the caramel gets too dark, throw it out and heat up another batch, ½ cup at a time.