Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance

FAMILY HEIRLOOM RECIPES

Illinois State Fair

August 12, 2022

 

 

First Prize

 

Truffles
Amy Wertheim, Atlanta, Illinois

 

As with most really good stories, this one involves a girl, discourse between two brothers, a subsequent parting of ways and each pursuing their dream in different ways….

 

In the 1920’s and early 1930’s two brothers, David & Bob Wertheim, were quite well known around central Illinois for being confectioners of new & delightfully tasty candies. They began their candy making adventures in their hometown of Lincoln on 5th Street, in a converted old garage. They were very surprised at their overnight success, so they decided to move their business to the “big” city of Peoria, IL and opened a full-scale candy shop. Unfortunately, about 1934, they had a falling out of sorts over a young lady, Nancy Hoblit, from Atlanta, IL; and although the two brothers would go their separate ways, David to the state of Washington, & Bob to Atlanta to marry his sweetheart, both continued to dabble in candy making.

 

Now David was a true confectioner, creating candies that had no possible chemical possibility, yet they somehow worked. Specifically, he created apple creams, essentially figuring out a way to create an apple center, then dipped in chocolate. For those not of the confectionary world, any type of liquid, but especially water is certain “death” to chocolate; but somehow, he was able to make an almost liquid center in chocolate (see folded newspaper article and ad placed on top the black book).

 

Bob, who didn’t continue to work in the confectionary field often pondered how his brother was able to create such a candy, but he was busy running the family hog operation, winning World Barrow Championships, catering to people traveling from other states and countries seeking top breeding stock, etc. That is, until he suffered a heart attack in the mid-1940’s. At that point, the family left the family farm and moved to town to live a less stressful life, hoping to extend his life expectancy. To help alleviate his boredom, his middle children, Franny and Tom, purchased a copper kettle for him as a Christmas present in 1947. And Bob began his fore way back into the candy world.

 

But before Bob could learn the secret of the apple center, David sold it to another company for (as the story goes) millions of dollars – which in the 1940’s was a LOT of money. Unfortunately, it was soon lost the gambling and the whole process started all over….David developing a new candy that chemically should not work, and before sharing it with Bob, selling it was ridiculous amounts of money only to be lost.

 

Not to be thwarted, Bob decided to come up with his own secret candy. He decided to create a similar “Frango” mint/truffle, but only better. He looked to the candy book he had kept when the brothers had parted ways, “Candy Secrets” last in print in 1908 (see black book, page 28). It was ok…but it didn’t have the true creamy center that he was looking for…so he began the experimentation process…

 

Over the years a little equipment was accumulated and his son, Tom, was captured as a young boy to help during the Christmas season packing the few candy boxes they made for gifts and to sell. Bob was still trying to figure out the perfect truffle center to challenge the Frango of Chicago. It wasn’t until about 15 years later, he finally figured it out while at a Pork Producers meeting. He scribbled the simplistic recipe on the back of one of the sheets being presented by a local hog operation (see paper to the left of the black book – it’s written in pencil and very faint….open it up and on the other side are the production numbers of the meeting he was attending).

 

This simple recipe should not work. It is liquid being added to chocolate. However, the precise composition and introduction of the cream and glucose works. But like all good recipes, someone always has to think they can make it better.

 

Since neither my grandfather nor my father had any formal knowledge of modern candy making, and they were relying the “Candy Secrets” it was still quite obvious to them that their candies were different, and not just because they tasted better than most… but by only using only what is necessary they had a candy that didn’t keep as well, but it certainly made one that tasted great! Except when, as previously mentioned, someone tried to “improve” it. Of course, this didn’t happen until the mid-1980’s.

 

After my Bob’s death in 1977, Tom continued to dabble in the candy “business”, but really only made just enough for family and friends at Christmas. By the mid-1980’s, the farming recession was hitting full force and the family business of grain farming had sickened, so Tom decided to change his “hobby” into a business and the business into a hobby. That’s when Tom started making his own stamp on the business by changing up some of the tried and true recipes.

 

The first change to the “Frango” truffle was the lack of coating (white, colored green) and tossing it in a cocoa-powdered espresso coating. This was ridiculously messy!! During the coating process, the cocoa-powder lofted into the air coating e-ve-ry-thing; and the coating would “come off’ if you touched any part of it, needing it to be dipped again; and the mess in the WHITE candy boxes – it was unappealing and unappetizing looking. The solution was to offer them as a separate, specialty candy. Nope, big globby mess in the individual cello bags. This change lasted for two holiday seasons before being systematically being rejected by all, but especially Tom as the lofting cocoa-powder wreaked havoc on his contacts. Back to the drawing board….because even the old way of doing it wasn’t really all that appealing. The white colored green chocolate often would crack, didn’t really coat the chocolate cream center well, and was honestly a waste of chocolate because this was the only candy that was dipped in green.

 

The next version was round rolled balls, that were then dipped in regular milk chocolate. But the recipe made a LOT of centers…as in HOURS of individually rolling each piece. We did count of how many of those little creamy center balls we rolled from one batch and it was over 1600….so this, being a huge time waster, was also categorically rejected. Usually, it’s three strike and you’re out, but our version of the “Frango” was shelved after only two … until 25 years later, when Tom was playing with the chocolate one day and wondered if he could recreate the original center his dad, Bob, had made. Back to the “Candy Secrets” book he went and that piece of paper with the three simple ingredients scribbled on it. Maybe, just maybe it didn’t need to be fancy, or flashy, to be a good candy. But 10# of chocolate was a lot to waste on an experiment. So the third generation who had recently joined the business and was trying to make it more than just a simple seasonal hobby/business was recruited to taste, mix, and cross the fingers to see if they could really recreate the candy again.

 

And so we’ve come to the 3 generation, Amy, who joined the candy company full time in 2014 and took over as the primary confectioner in 2016 when Tom became ill. She too has made a slight change to the truffle presented today. Once the recipe was re-established, instead of rolling of the candies, the practice was to squeeze them through essentially a “sausage” stuffing machine. After going through several of these – they really aren’t made for “truffling”, she has developed a method of making large single rolls; then after curing for 24 hours, cutting them in to round flat bite-size disks. Much less time, and much cheaper on replacing the expensive machines twice a year. And even though these mimic the “Frango” of old, we think ours are far superior. But you can be the judge of that because as we tell folks, we are very proud to say we still only make candies from the simple ingredients ~ no preservatives, no flavorings, or modern chemistry. We offer you “regular old candy” the way it was always meant to be made, hand-made & hand-dipped especially for you….from a recipe last in print in 1908, and a candymaker’s epiphany in the mid-1950’s.

Pictures:

 

Bob (founder) teaching Amy (18 months, 3rd generation) how to dip the original truffles

 

Tom (2nd generation) teaching Annika (4th generation) how to dip 3rd version of truffles

 

Bob (founder) dipping the original truffle….note that health standards were a little different….smoking a cigarette. We like to say it added a “smokey” flavor and the ash would help set them up, lol

 

Black Book – Candy Secrets – one of two books we currently have in our possession. The Pease Family has on several occasions tried to buy them back and they don’t own any copies.

 

Article & Ad – from Candies By David, brother of Bob, his shop in the state of Washington

 

The note….with the original recipe.

 

 

 

 

First Prize

 

Truffles
Amy Wertheim, Atlanta, Illinois

 

10# milk chocolate + another 10# for dipping*
4 cups 42DE glucose
1 quart of heavy whipping cream
Additional ingredient: peppermint oil **

Melt chocolate in a chocolate machine, tempering not required, to 105°F. Hold until ready to add to cream mixture.

Place glucose and cream in sauce pan, heat to 150°F. Remove immediately, and pour into an extra large mixing bowl. Move liquid about until it cools to 125°F. Pour 10# of melted chocolate into the bowl/liquid. Add 3 half droppers of peppermint oil. Using a large spatula, slowly mix the two separate liquids together until smooth. Pour into a prepared pan lined with plastic wrap. Cover and allow to sit for 24 hours.

 

When ready to dip, slowly warm the center until just pliable and cut into 12 large pieces. Take each piece and roll out to a long strand about 1/2-inch thick. Cover with parchment and let sit for 24 hours.

Cut into individual pieces and dip and additional chocolate tempered appropriately. Candies are ready to eat within 8 hours.

 

Makes 1600+ individual candies

 

* Real chocolate, not coatings, not almond bark, not chocolate melted pieces, and not chocolate disks. Real chocolate, tempered. It won’t taste correct or set-up correctly.

 

** You can use any extract or oil to flavor the truffles as you like or have strictly a chocolate center.