Cocoa Confection with Salted Caramel

Cocoa Confectionery with Salted Caramel. Soft Cocoa Truffles from Alsace with Guérande Salt.

Cocoa Confectionery with Salted Caramel is a French cocoa truffle from Chocolaterie Bruntz, 16 pieces per box, with pieces of salted butter caramel. Not a hard praline, not a bar, not a candy.

Cocoa Confectionery with Salted Caramel is a Truffes Fantaisie from Chocolaterie Bruntz in Kingersheim, Alsace. Many sweets become cloyingly sweet after the third piece, and the palate is overwhelmed. This variety solves precisely this problem in its own way. The core is sweet and creamy, but at the end, sea salt provides a clear finish. The mouth remains refreshed, and the next piece tastes as good as the first.

Sweetness that ends on a salty note

The truffle starts dry and slightly bitter due to the dark cocoa powder on the outside. Then the core yields, releasing cooked cream and butter caramel. It contains five percent salted caramel pieces, firmly cooked from sugar, glucose syrup, cream, and salted butter. They remain palpable in the soft core, similar to brittle, but more yielding. The salt comes from the salt marshes of Guérande on the Atlantic coast. There, it is harvested by hand from shallow basins, gray, coarse, and comparatively mild in tone. It doesn't push itself forward but cleanses the palate after the sweetness. What remains is a clean, slightly mineral finish. The texture is softer than any filled praline because the core works without cocoa butter. Vegetable fat from copra and palm kernel already melts at around 24 degrees Celsius. Anyone expecting a crunchy caramel candy with a bite will find this variety too soft. Here, everything melts, and only the caramel pieces offer brief resistance.

The ratio of salt to sugar is deliberately understated. Those looking for the intense saltiness of a fleur-de-sel caramel cream will find less salt here than expected. This variety aims for balance, not contrast at all costs. With the second piece, the salt becomes more noticeable because the palate is already attuned to sweetness. This build-up over several truffles is characteristic and makes the box pleasantly consistent.

From the coffee table to the scoop of ice cream

A glass of dry cider is the most French partner, as its acidity and carbonation balance the sweetness. Two truffles per person are sufficient to conclude a meal; three are a clear statement. When serving with coffee, choose a mild filter coffee rather than an acidic espresso. If you want to extend the Breton theme, place the Caramels au beurre salé alongside and compare firm against powdery. For a quick dessert, crush two truffles over warm rice pudding, allowing the core and salt to meld. The same trick works on a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but only if the truffles are at room temperature. The confectionery is not suitable for baking or melting, as it doesn't temper cleanly without cocoa butter.

This variety has no place on a cheese board; the core is too sweet. Next to a aged Comté, it simply seems out of place. However, it pairs surprisingly well with a glass of Sauternes or an aged Rivesaltes, as both wines tolerate salt. A rum with a distinct vanilla note also complements the butter caramel well.

Good to know: Serve the truffles at around 18 degrees Celsius. Straight from the refrigerator, the caramel remains hard, and the salt emerges too late. Half an hour on the table is enough to taste the significant difference.

An Alsatian house with a Breton quote

Caramel au beurre salé originated in Brittany. Since the 1970s, it has been a staple in patisseries there. It's no coincidence that a chocolatier in Alsace picked up on this theme. Bruntz has been operating in Kingersheim, north of Mulhouse, since 1960, founded by three brothers of the same name. Since 1978, the business has been located on Rue de l'Industrie and employs about ten people. In 2005, the Ricou family took over, and in 2024, the parents handed the reins to Quentin Ricou and Laurent Kalis. One is the son of a chocolatier, the other comes from two decades in fine food retail. The house became famous in the 1980s with Truffes Fantaisie in the shape of the Alsatian Kougelhopf. This ridged silhouette is still the company's signature today. The basic mixture follows a French recipe from the 1930s: vegetable fat, sugar, low-fat cocoa powder, and whey powder. Because cocoa butter is absent, the product is called cocoa confectionery in Germany and not chocolate. As a partner of the Marque Alsace, Bruntz officially carries its origin on the packaging.

The caramel pieces are cooked separately and then stirred into the cold mixture. If the caramel were added warm, it would melt into the fat, and the bite would be lost. This intermediate step is precisely what distinguishes caramel flavor from real caramel pieces.

The cocoa powder on the outside is also a craft step, not just decoration. It binds residual moisture on the surface and keeps the truffles separated. Without this layer, the balls would stick together in the box. At the same time, the powder provides the tart note that makes the sweet core palatable. In Kingersheim, dragées and hand-poured chocolate figures for Easter and Christmas are also made. The cocoa confectionery is produced year-round and sustains the business through the quieter months.

The orange box as a gift

The orange box features a printed black and white ribbon with a bow and requires no gift wrap. 100 grams, 16 truffles, a format between a token of appreciation and a supply. It stands upright, can be stacked, and survives a journey in a bag without pressure marks. Along with the house's two other varieties, it creates a small assortment from one manufacturer. For a larger group, one pack is not enough: calculate three to four pieces per guest. The confectionery is not suitable for shipping on hot summer days, as the core melts too early. However, as a gift for dinner, it works reliably, because sweet and salty almost always goes down well.

In the office, the box has a side effect: it's empty after two days. If you want to keep it to yourself, don't leave it openly on the table. For a dessert buffet, place the truffles individually in small paper cups to keep the cocoa powder in place.

Salted caramel is now found in almost every patisserie and supermarket aisle, mostly as a flavor and rarely as a substance. The difference lies in the pieces that actually remain palpable between the teeth. Flavor can be added, but texture must be cooked.

Bring the salt of the Atlantic coast into a truffle from Alsace.