Artisan and flavored butters made from scratch. Adrián Ciaurriz’s bonbon proposals

In so good.. magazine 33, Adrián Ciaurriz shares an interesting study, the result of an exhaustive research process to obtain a high-quality artisan and flavored butter that pays homage to the typical flavors of French culinary tradition. 

To achieve this, the chef, who has recently joined René Redzepi’s Noma restaurant, has explored the industry’s way of proceeding to obtain high-end butters. He then tried to adapt the methodology to an artisan philosophy. The result is a creative collection of five butter bonbons: dill and lime, sweet pesto, salted caramel, red berry, and chocolate and mole.

“This collection has its origins in the Belgian Manon chocolates, chocolate-covered butter bonbons that I first came across with in a formulation course given by Josep Maria Ribé. I immediately saw the possibility of integrating the flavored butters, so traditional in French cuisine, into a themed proposal,” he explains.

Photos: Ivan Raga

Discover so good.. magazine #33

Butter characteristics

Fresh butter is a product with a milk fat content of between 80% and 85%, about 16% water and 2% non-fat milk dry matter (non-fat solids).

But how should we understand butter? Butter is a dairy derivative with a high fat content, derived exclusively from milk or certain dairy products, in the form of a solid emulsion of the water-in-fat type.

This saturated fat does not have a single melting temperature, but rather a range in which its different triglycerides melt progressively. This is what we know as the Solid Fat Content (SFC) at different temperatures, the control of which will be vital for the subsequent process of elaboration of the bonbon.

Adrián Ciaurriz’s two suggestions for using his butters as bonbon fillings

• Always use one part chocolate and one part cocoa butter

When we started with the first tests, we realized that the texture of the butter with the syrup was crazy, super creamy, and super delicate. The problem was its extreme fragility, which made it difficult to consume.

We had to slightly harden the fatty part of the butter somehow. That is why in all the bonbons we present there is one part chocolate and one part cocoa butter. Both just give the necessary hardness to still be able to enjoy a subtle, light bite.

• The importance of temperature after churning

If we take a look at the SFC table, we can see how as the temperature of the butter rises the solid fat content decreases. Bearing in mind that butter is an emulsion that whips up due to the amount of solid fat it contains, the warmer the butter is the less solid fat there will be and the less aerating capacity we will have. That is why the temperature of the freshly obtained butter is so important.

Sweet pesto butter bonbon, step by step

In so good.. magazine 33, Ciaurriz also reveals the step-by-step instructions of his basil butter. “The traditional flavored butters of French cuisine used to rely on aromatic herbs. That is why my first choice was to choose basil and look for a result that somehow reminded me of pesto sauce, in which the milky part was provided by the butter itself,” he says.

In this case “I sought an appropriate temperature to obtain a light and fluffy texture, but at the same time to allow its handling and arrangement in a mold with some motifs. In summary, the higher the temperature, the more liquid the texture is, since much of the fat will have melted, and that will surely facilitate molding, although the texture will be less light once refrigerated. On the other hand, a lower temperature will result in a more whipped butter, more difficult to mold but with a more pleasant texture once refrigerated.”

Discover the sweet pesto butter bonbons and four butter bonbons more by Adrián Ciaurriz in so good.. magazine 33

Dill and lime butter bonbon

“This is a bonbon created on the same principle as the basil bonbon, having the Meunière sauce as a creative reference, a sauce made from parsley, lemon, and butter. The least pastry-like part of this sauce is the parsley, so we replaced it with an ingredient that is more akin to the sweet world and that fits perfectly with the butter and, in this case, with the lime – the dill.”

Red berry butter bonbon

“One of the best allies in patisserie to add intense flavors with little water are freeze-dried products. At ElBulli, one of the things researched on in the pastry station were essences, which were freeze-dried ingredients rehydrated with a little water to obtain a sauce with very intense flavor. Based on this technique, we made a very intense syrup based on a green cardamom and freeze-dried red berry infusion which, above all, gave us the characteristic acidity of several red berries such as raspberry and cassis. The extra freeze-dried raspberry has a floral nuance that I wanted to highlight in the bonbon. Finally, the freeze-dried beet above all brings color and some earthy notes that pair very well with the green cardamom.”

Chocolate and mole butter bonbon

“In every collection of bonbons, there must be one that refers to one of the most used ingredients in patisserie – chocolate. In this case, we opted for a chocolate pairing that refers to its origin – spicy chocolate. As far as we know, chocolate has its origin in Mexico, so we decided to provide that spiciness with a very Mexican preparation: the mole. So in this case we start with fresh butter of very good quality to which we add a vanilla syrup, aroma par excellence linked to dark chocolate, and we finish with a large part of mole chocolate”.

Salted caramel and toasted butter bonbon

“We had to make a nod to a classic combination, salted butter caramel. Playing with this idea, we started with a combination of half fresh butter, half toasted butter. We added a syrup made from vanilla and molasses, an unrefined sugar with notes of coffee, caramel and licorice. Finally, to round off the caramel note, we used Callebaut Gold 34% chocolate.”