Soy Lecithin: The Secret to Your Best Candies Yet

 

The sun is shining (hopefully), temperatures are rising, and the smell of spring is in the air—and certainly in your candy kitchen—as you create your delectable springtime confections. RCI member, LorAnn Oils, shares how you can take your chocolates and confections to the next level of perfection with a favorite secret ingredient—soy lecithin!

What Is Soy Lecithin?
Lecithin is an emulsifier used in foods to stabilize other recipe ingredients that do not inherently mix well. This naturally thick extract comes from soybeans and has super-charged emulsification abilities that produce perfectly blended gravies, dressings and sauces. For candy lovers, it’s the qualities lecithin adds to confections that are the cause for excitement!

Benefits of Using Soy Lecithin in Confections
When it comes to the confectionery world, lecithin is used as a natural emulsifier, preservative, antioxidant and flavor protector in chocolates and candies. Two ingredients we know do not live in perfect harmony: oil and water. The ability to keep oils and fats from separating makes lecithin ideal. Think of lecithin as the requisite sidekick for chocolates and buttery candies. Its emulsifying properties improve mixability, which enhances the texture of buttery candies and chocolates, while protecting the flavor. Lecithin’s emulsification magic also keeps candy from developing an oily residue on the outside, giving confections a beautifully smooth finish customers will appreciate.

The addition of lecithin can also extend shelf life thanks to the presence of antioxidants which help to slow the oxidation of fats and control crystallization. This is great news for professional confectioners, because it reduces the risk of mold developing and keeps chocolates, caramels and other buttery candies fresher longer.

Ask your supplier, as some soy lecithin products may be gluten-free and vegan-friendly, making it a perfect option for customers who have special dietary needs. Keep reading for a variety of ways you can use lecithin in the following candy creations.

Chocolates
Incorporating lecithin into melted chocolate can help it flow more smoothly and consistently. Lecithin acts as a binder in chocolate, helping cocoa solids, sugar and milk better adhere to the cocoa butter. Adding just a small amount of lecithin to melted chocolate keeps the chocolate from spreading too quickly so it doesn’t seize or thicken. Lecithin is also a more cost-effective option than cocoa butter and less is needed. Usage recommendation is 0.25 – 0.50% lecithin per total batch. Too much lecithin can have the reverse effect and cause chocolate to thicken.

Caramels, Toffees and Brittles
A common problem for candy makers is the stickiness of their products, particularly in toffee and brittles where the butter and sugar tend to separate during the cooking process. Luckily, lecithin helps to minimize this issue by allowing the butterfat to mix with the moisture in the batch. Lecithin can also help prevent caramels from sticking to their wrappers or wax papers. Usage should be limited to 0.20-0.40% of the total batch to achieve the best results.

Caramel Popcorn
For caramel popcorn, adding a little lecithin and oil at the very end will help your creamy caramel evenly coat the popcorn and reduce clumping.

Cinnamon Candies
When making hard candy, cinnamon oil is a flavor that may not stay completely mixed into the candy syrup and can float to the top. To help the oil stay mixed, stir a small amount of lecithin into the boiled candy syrup. Since lecithin is an emulsifying agent, it helps keep oils evenly mixed and emulsified throughout the batch. We recommend adding 1/4 teaspoon of lecithin per cup of sugar.

When making hard candy, it can be difficult to keep certain flavors, specifically cinnamon oil, evenly mixed throughout the candy syrup. To prevent cinnamon oil from floating to the top of your hard candy mixture, stir in a small amount of lecithin into the boiled candy syrup. As an emulsifying agent, lecithin helps to keep oils evenly distributed throughout the batch. LorAnn Oils recommends adding 1/4 teaspoon of lecithin per cup of sugar.

Now you can see why soy lecithin is a favorite secret ingredient for many candy makers and chocolatiers. Not only does it provide a range of functional benefits, but it also helps to create a smoother, more consistent product with a longer shelf life. With its natural and clean label ingredients, soy lecithin is an easy and cost-effective solution to improve the texture and flavor of chocolates and other confections.

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Building a Successful Team: Tips for Hiring and Retaining Star Employees

Attracting and retaining talented employees is essential to the success of any business. However, it can be a daunting task to figure out the best ways to attract and retain great employees. This week, we’re sharing how RCI member Romolo Chocolates has been able to build a successful team by utilizing effective recruiting and hiring practices, nurturing a healthy company culture and rewarding performance, so that you may be able to apply some of these techniques to your business.

Recruiting

When recruiting potential candidates for a job opening, it’s important to look in the right places, as this will increase the potential pool of qualified candidates and make the recruitment process more successful. Romolo Chocolates has found the most success using Indeed.com for online recruitment. Indeed offers employers the opportunity to ask questions which helps to pre-screen potential candidates. They also utilize bulletins at local colleges and high schools to post job openings. By simply posting signs about hiring in their windows, they’ve had success with generating interest and interviews.

While Romolo has tried using social media as a recruiting tool, it has not led to a single successful interview. Instead, they have found it to be more of a platform for their followers to post I Love Lucy memes. 

Hiring for the Right Fit

It's not often that businesses come across true star employees, but when they do, these people can become a great asset to the team. Despite best efforts, it can be hard to identify the qualities of a star performer from resumes and interviews. Even if that person appears to have the right qualifications, that doesn’t always mean they will be a good fit for the business.

When assessing potential job candidates, it’s important to identify those who share the same values and goals as the business. It is also beneficial to assess the candidate's attitude, desire to learn and grow, and ability to collaborate with others.

Company Culture

When asked to identify their most successful tool for retaining employees, Romolo Chocolates says, it’s their company culture. They have spent time exploring the company’s culture from the founder’s perspective and historical successes, which has allowed them to define their values, vision, purpose and “key ingredients” for a successful team. To introduce the new culture, the staff was reoriented over the course of several culture education and Q&A sessions.

Romolo Chocolates’ culture is constantly evolving to ensure that management and team expectations are met. It covers important topics such as safety and customer experience, for which everyone is responsible.

New Hire Training

At Romolo, new hires come on board under a 90-day probation period before receiving benefits. The team usually knows within the first four hours if the hire will work hard and absorb the knowledge they are teaching.

On their first day, new hires take a tour of the facility with a member of the culture team. At this time, paperwork has been completed and they are wearing a new uniform when they step onto the floor. During the first two weeks of training, they attend a culture session with other starting or returning team members, which helps them understand the company values and purpose, as well as the expectations and policies.

Team members are assigned a trainer each day who not only teaches, but also takes breaks and lunch with the trainee. The culture of Romolo Chocolates emphasizes kindness, and they ask their employees to train with respect and kindness.

Cross Training

Romolo Chocolates encourages cross training, and employees who are trained for more than one position earn higher hourly wages. Cross training allows employees to be versatile and proficient in multiple roles. Cross training staff can offer numerous benefits to businesses, such as improved performance and greater job satisfaction.

Performance-Based Rewards

The company rewards employees who excel at their job. Employees are rewarded with wage increases, continuous learning opportunities, gold-tier health insurance, a paid time-off program and pension plan. In many instances, maintenance hires who excelled at their job have been moved into production work with wage increases. Team members who demonstrate great people and organization skills have also been promoted to leadership.

Romolo Chocolates is proof that effective recruiting, hiring for the right fit, creating a healthy company culture, training and performance-based rewards are all powerful tools for building and nurturing a successful team. With the right tools and knowledge, any business can create an environment that encourages and rewards excellence. As a result, these businesses are more likely to attract and retain top talent.

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

Creative Easter-Themed Product Names Generate Interest

Want to refresh your line of confections for Easter with little to no effort? You don't have to create entirely new recipes or invest in costly advertising campaigns to get customers excited about your products; all you really need is a bit of imagination. By giving your existing confections a new name themed for Easter, you can create more interest and drive sales with simple additions or, better yet, without actually changing anything but the name. In this blog post, we'll explore some creative ways to give your confections a fresh twist for the Easter season.

Photo credit: Abdallah Candies

Rabbit Tails

Simply rename your chocolate-covered marshmallows as “Rabbit Tails” for a quick and easy refresh. Cute labels, like the one pictured from RCI member Abdallah Candies, can be created on Canva to draw attention and add excitement to an existing product.

 

Photo credit: Bruce’s Candy Kitchen

Bunny Feed + Bunny Poop

Just for the Easter holiday, RCI member Bruce’s Candy Kitchen renamed candy-coated, chocolate-covered sunflower seeds as “Bunny Feed.” They also sell packs of colorful Sixlets^® as “Bunny Poop.”

Photo credit: Marie’s Candies

Cottontail Crunch + Chick Feed

Add pastel-colored Easter candies, jelly beans, yogurt-covered raisins or (whatever spring treats you have on hand) to your existing trail mix or caramel popcorn and give it a clever name like, “Cottontail Crunch” or “Chick Feed." Target sells a limited edition Easter-themed trail mix called “Bunny Bait” and RCI member Marie’s Candies adds Easter candy corn to roasted peanuts for a sweet and salty “Bunny Tracks Mix.”

Photo credit: Williams Sonoma

Bunny Bark

Make subtle changes to your existing bark recipe by adding pastel sprinkles or candies and rebrand it as “Bunny Bark.”

The goal is to bring excitement and fun to your normal offerings, making something new with very little change or without changing anything but the name. Look through your inventory to identify items that can be reimagined for Easter. With a little creativity, you could see a bump in lemon buttercream sales by rebranding them as “Ducktails.” Or why not rename your coconut creams as “Cottontails" for the holiday?

Capture the spirit of the season with a little imagination and every bunny will want a taste of your Easter-themed treats!

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

Increase Easter Sales: Host a Peeps® Pop Event

Easter is one of the biggest holidays for many candy shops. Hosting an “Easter Bunny Peeps^® Pop Event” is a great way to create buzz about your store while increasing sales and foot traffic leading up to Easter. In this week’s post, we’re sharing the idea from RCI member, Dolle’s Candyland in Ocean City, Maryland, which includes valuable tips on how to make your event successful.

Making “Easter Bunny Peeps Pops” are very easy, which makes this a great hands-on activity for kids that requires minimal work for candy makers. Here’s what each participant will need:

Ingredients (per child)

• 1 Peeps Marshmallow Bunny
• 1 Sucker stick
• 1 Mini marshmallow (for the bunny tail)
• Melted tempered chocolate (for dipping)
• 1 Paper plate
• Markers (for writing kid’s name on their plate)
• Sanitizing hand wipes

5-Step Peeps Pop Procedure

Dolle's shared their "recipe" for creating a successful Easter Peeps Pop event with these five easy-to-follow steps:

#1: Distribute hand wipes and have children roll up their sleeves.

Dolle's team was prepared with a large container of hand wipes, purchased from Amazon, to make hand-washing a breeze while kiddos waited in line.

#2: Write child’s name on the bottom of a paper plate.

This step allows for you to hold the peep “hostage” while it cools (you’ll learn why on step #4).

#3: Let each child dip Peeps Pop in chocolate, place it on a plate and add a mini marshmallow “tail.”

This is where it’s important to keep steps to a minimum—little to no decorations are necessary. Having hosted similar events, Dolle's has learned the value of keeping it simple. “If you leave sprinkles out, the kids will want to use all the sprinkles,” noted Anna Dolle Bushnell. In other words, you don’t need sprinkles at all. Kids will be more than satisfied with simply dipping their marshmallow in chocolate and adding the tail. Another important tip to note, have a step-stool handy for the smaller children.

#4: Hold the Peeps Hostage

This step was emphasized by Anna for good reason, “Instead of walking around the store with a wet, chocolate Peeps Pop, we put it through the cooling tunnel of our enrober until the chocolate set.” Adding that placing the pops in front of a fan or in the refrigerator would be suitable alternatives if you don’t have a cooling tunnel.

The key to this step, and the overall success of this event, is while the chocolate cooled, participating families had about ten minutes to shop in their retail store.

#5: After Peeps Pop is set, announce child's name in shop.

When ready, a member of the Dolle's team read the name on the bottom of each plate before presenting the child with their finished Peeps Pop. “Most of the kids would gobble it right up, but some did take them home,” Anna noted. “Some of them were beautiful, while some of them ended up with a pool of chocolate.”

Leading up to the event, Dolle’s Candyland created a public event on Facebook to help spread the word. They were surprised to find people lined up out the door to make chocolate-covered Peeps. “I didn’t know I would need stanchions [to direct the crowd],” Anna explained, “I think we [as candy makers] take for granted what we do—people really love candy. It’s such a great thing to give them an experience like this, that really is very minimal.”

The Conclusion

Due to the buzz created by this free, one-day event, Dolle’s Candyland increased their sales by 150% more than the day before. “People were just so thankful that we did it and some adults did it too,” added Anna. If space limitations prevent your store from hosting an event, consider boxing up the ingredients and supplies for customers to make Peeps Pops at home. Wishing you a “hoppy” Easter!

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.