Chocolate Candies

When you have a hankering for something sweet and chocolatey without any added gluten, dairy or refined sugar, these make the perfect treat. They’re easy to whip up, they use everyday ingredients and the best thing is that once made they will happily store in the freezer for up to a month.

Joan Coukos is a self-taught chocolatier. Her bittersweet truffles are coated with a variety of flavorings, including blends of Chinese and Mexican spices.

Belinda Leong made many kinds of ganache (a rich, smooth chocolate-and-cream mixture) during her time at the venerable Pierre Hermé pâtisserie in Paris. Here, she slow-roasts white chocolate, which adds an enticing caramel flavor to the supercreamy ganache filling in her truffles.

These chewy, sprinkles-coated balls (called brigadeiros in Portuguese) are more like chocolate caramels than French-style truffles.

Cayenne-spiked cashew brittle is delicious alongside crunchy chocolate bark.

Use a fairly bitter dark chocolate to balance out the sweet, creamy peanut butter ganache filling and the tangy raspberry jam.

“I’m more addicted to chocolate than I am to sugar,” says chocolatier Jacques Torres. A small piece of this super-chunky dark-chocolate bark staves off his intense cravings.

F&W’s Grace Parisi experiments with ever-versatile caramel to make these chewy candies.

These milk chocolate jewels are studded with cranberries, blueberries and candied ginger.

Melissa Rubel Jacobson sets out bowls of flavored ganache and dishes of coatings so guests can create their own truffles to give as gifts.

Pastry chef Nicole Plue was intrigued by a recipe she discovered for matzo covered in toffee and chocolate. But she knew she could improve it by using crackers instead of matzo for a hit of salt. Now the saltines, slathered with buttery toffee and bittersweet chocolate, are a favorite on her petit four tray.

At Dominique Ansel Bakery, bags of this chocolate-covered toffee come with a tiny hammer to break off pieces. "I love the idea of making something for Christmas that can be shared," Dominique Ansel says.