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Let you know the wide range of applications of candied fruits for bakeries… That is the goal of this piece and the starting point of a new category of help articles and culinary proposals to the pastry chef. Whether you are an industrial baker or working in your own artisan workshop, we want to bring you closer to the many uses of our delicious preserved fruit and, especially, candied fruits for bakeries, pastry shops… Let’s start with the chocolate coating of the famous ‘Fruits of Aragon’…
An internationally renowned product
‘Fruits of Aragon’ are a delicious confection that represents our region’s gastronomy worlwide and is originating from Calatayud.
Its typical packaging, a wooden tray, and the cellophane wrapper of colors of these traditional fruit chocolates, have provided the Frutas de Aragón with its own easily recognizable identity. We are talking about a product that, paradoxically, is popular and gourmet at the same time. The perfect combination of candied fruits and chocolate make the ‘Fruits of Aragon’ a delicious delicacy appreciated by those with a sweet tooth and lovers of traditional products.
But let’s go directly to know how to make the Aragon-style chocolate coating of candied fruits, and what peculiarities its cooking has to preserve intact the aromas and the distinctive “crunchy” texture of the candied fruits.
‘Fruits of Aragon’: preparation with Lazaya’s candied fruits for bakeries
The selection of candied fruits
The ingredients used to prepare the tasty Frutas de Aragón are dark chocolate and candied fruits for bakeries. The selection of quality candied fruits is essential in order to make delicious fruit confectionery. In Lazaya, Lázaro’s family has been making candied fruits for bakeries since 1940, with the same care than those days and with maximum respect to the traditional recipe. Candied fruits traditionally used to make this confection are cherries in liquor, apples, peaches, pears and oranges. We are used to adapting our production to our customers special requirements, e.g. flavour adding, sugar-free products…
The chocolate coating of candied fruits
It is one of the distinctive features of the ‘fruits of Aragon’: the chocolate coating of candied fruits. Dark chocolate (containing 56% cocoa and 31% cocoa butter) is tempered at 31/32 degrees Celsius, depending on the room temperature, and then used for the process.
The cold tunnel
Chocolate-coated candied fruits go from heat to cold in a short period of time. Here and during a maximum time of 5 to 6 minutes, and at a temperature of 18/20 degrees Celsius, chocolate glaces and completely dries, taking the fairly hard consistency that covers the glace fruit.
The coloured wraps
The cellophan packaging covering these delicious Aragonian glace fruit chocolates is also very characteristic of this recipe. In many factories the old packaging machinery remains at work, as it has not evolved at all. The packaging of frutas de Aragón remains being done one by one due to the irregular shapes of the confections regarding the different fruits involved. Every factory stamps its own mark in this wrap.
The packaging in craft baskets
The packaging of the delicious ‘Fruits of Aragon’ is still done in many workshops in the traditional way, in small wooden or wicker baskets, which imitate (in small) the baskets and cages in which bread and fruit were once carried. Even today, these baskets are still made as they were decades ago.
In short… How to make chocolates filled with candied fruits:
- Select a good assortment of candied fruits for bakeries. Remember that one of the characteristics is that they have diferent shapes and sizes (apples in portions, orange slices…).
- Coat in pure chocolate at 31-32 º Celsius for a maximum of 6 minutes.
- Reduce the temperature to 18-20º Celsius so that the chocolate can dry over the candied fruits.
- Package one by one.
- Place them in a wood basket or wicker round hamper.
If you wish more information about our candied fruits for bakeries, confectionery and pastry shops, do not hesitate to contact Lazaya’s preserved fruit factory. If you have any questions about how to use it or what degrees Brix you need for your pastry preparations (maybe these delicious chocolate-coated candied fruits), ask directly down here, in comments. 😉
