Chocolate Trends, Inside Marich
The Art of Pancrafted® Chocolate
Pancrafted® Chocolate
The art of panning chocolate is a time honored tradition that rewards patience and precision. The process involves building a multitude of thin chocolate layers over an incredible center. And to finish, the layered chocolate is carefully dusted, or expertly polished to a nice shiny gloss.
Compared to placing candies and fruits on a conveyor belt that pours chocolate over the items, our Pancrafted® technique involves skilled candy makers ladling or spraying centers until they reach the perfect thickness and finish.
The term Pancrafted® is a process we defined right here at Marich. Panning chocolate at Marich involves the human touch, and artistry by our candy makers one layer at a time.
The Process of Panning
Panning is a time honored artisan technique for layering chocolate. The centers (a chewy caramel, a sweet sun-ripened Bing Cherry or a perfectly roasted nut) are loaded in a pan, which resembles a huge stainless steel mixing bowl turned on its side, and is attached to a turning mechanism… somewhat like a cement mixer.
This stainless steel pan then tumbles and rotates the centers, while our expert candy makers carefully ladle or spray even layers of delicious milk, dark or white chocolate over the incredible centers.
Once the candies have reached the ideal thickness of coating, the pieces are moved to a conditioning room where it will rest for a few days.
This cooling room is a vital step to ensure our creamy and delicious chocolate has adequate time for the beautiful finish to set. The cooling room stays at a specific temperature that is cold enough to cool the chocolate and warm enough to make sure that the cocoa butter does not separate from the chocolate and come to the surface, this is called “blooming”.
Depending on the item being created, the process of becoming the final Pancrafted® product can take anywhere from 3 to 10 days.
Can You Pan Anything?
We really are not too limited, as long as we can fit the center to be coated within the pan and it has some room to tumble. We have panned items as small as a chia seed, to larger centers like caramel corn popcorn, fresh roasted nuts and sun-ripened fruits.
From milk chocolate cherries, dark chocolate caramel corn popcorn, milk chocolate toffee almonds, to dark chocolate pistachios, we’ve Pancrafted® it all.
Why We’re Pancrafted®
What sets our Pancrafted® style apart from other chocolate dipping techniques is that the process involves a dedication and artistry to the craft every step of the way. It is a time honored skill to be a candy maker at Marich, an artisan craft that flows within each of us. Each candy maker has their very own special talent that they bring to the table, and we believe that you can taste it in our finished products.
We freshly roast our own nuts, craft our own signature buttery toffee, and have experienced candy makers overlooking, and inspecting every layer of the Pancrafted® process. Creating our most prized candies and chocolates, and your favorites!