Seaweed Sesame Bonbon by Angela Borah

(This recipe appeared in the Winter 2022 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)

I grew up in a Korean household, and we ate rice wrapped in seaweed toasted in sesame. The seaweed is called ghim in Korean. This chocolate version is a seaweed ganache topped with caramelized white and black sesame seeds.

Yield: 480 pieces

Seaweed Sesame Bonbon

• 1770 g heavy cream
• 320 g glucose syrup
• 3 g fleur de sel
• 48 g kombu
• 20 g seaweed
• 1000 g Valrhona Caraïbe 66% chocolate
• 1417 g Valrhona Jivara 40% chocolate
• 129 g cocoa butter
• 145 g unsalted butter

1. In a saucepan, bring the heavy cream, glucose syrup and fleur de sel to a simmer. Combine the kombu and seaweed into cream. Infuse for 40 minutes. Strain.

2. Add enough heavy cream to bring the infusion to 2090 g. Reheat the infusion and pour it over the chocolates, cocoa butter and butter, mixing first by hand and then using immersion blender to emulsify well. Pour ganache into (8-mm) frames and allow to crystallize overnight.

3. Cut ganache into squares and garnish with Cantonese processed white and black sesame seeds.

Enrobing

• Valrhona Caraque 56%, as needed

1. Pass ganache through enrober, using Valrhona Caraque 56% chocolate.

Bonbon photo by Todd Coleman; headshot by William Cesark.

About Angela Borah

Angela Borah is the head chocolatier of Kreuther Handcrafted Chocolate, New York, NY. Her style in pastry is French technique-driven and inspired by the flavors of NYC. However, she finds her inspiration for new recipes in her Korean background and the ingredients that she grew up with.