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Bonbon

A moulded chocolate shell with a filling. The modern professional term for what Belgium calls a praline, and the piece that most tests a maker's tempering.

A confection form — this describes how it was constructedintermediate

What it is

A bonbon is made by casting tempered chocolate into a polycarbonate mould to form a thin shell, filling the cavity with ganache, caramel, praliné or fruit, and capping it with more tempered chocolate. The shiny, sharply defined pieces in a modern chocolate box are bonbons.

They are the most demanding common confection, because everything depends on the tempering. Correctly tempered chocolate contracts as it sets and releases from the mould by itself; badly tempered chocolate has to be forced out, arrives dull, and blooms within days. The high-gloss finish and the coloured cocoa-butter decoration on contemporary bonbons exist partly to display that the tempering was right.

Shelf life is set by the filling rather than the shell — a water-containing ganache is perishable, a caramel or nut paste much less so.

Category kind
A confection form — this describes how it was constructed
Legal status
Industry convention, not a legal definition
Also called
chocolate bonbon, moulded bonbon
Texture
snappy, creamy, smooth

What the percentage means here

Refers to the shell chocolate where it is quoted. As with any filled piece, the shell is a minority of the mass and the filling determines most of the eating experience.

Working with it

Requires couverture and correct tempering. A bonbon that will not release from its mould is reporting a tempering failure, not a mould problem.

Related

Production steps involved

  • TemperingA bonbon that will not release from its mould is reporting a tempering failure. The gloss on a modern bonbon exists partly to display that it was right.

Commonly confused with

  • Chocolate truffleA truffle is a rolled or enrobed ganache; a bonbon is a moulded shell with a filling. The base gives it away — a bonbon's is flat and sharp.
  • PralineIn Belgium a praline IS a bonbon; in France it is a nut paste used as a filling; in the American South it contains no chocolate at all.
  • Filled chocolateA bonbon is one way to make a filled chocolate. The EU floor for how much of a filled product must be chocolate coating applies to both.

An easier starting point

  • Chocolate barkBark forgives everything except tempering, and there is no mould to release from or shell thickness to judge. It is the right first project.
  • Chocolate-dipped fruitDipping needs a fork and a tray; a filled bonbon needs polished moulds, three tempered operations and a filling at the right temperature. Start here.

Covered in

Compared in

  • Truffle vs bonbonSet against Truffle, which readers frequently believe is the same thing.

Techniques that work with this

  • Making filled chocolatesShell, fill, cap. Three tempered-chocolate operations in sequence, and the filling has to be at the right temperature for all of them.
  • Making chocolate cupsShells formed in paper or silicone cases rather than polycarbonate moulds. The accessible route to a filled chocolate.
  • Working with coloured cocoa butterThe source of every mirror-finish coloured bonbon. It is tempered cocoa butter, and it fails for the same reasons chocolate does.
  • Storing finished chocolatesFilled chocolates keep for days to weeks depending entirely on the filling, not on the shell.
  • Packaging chocolatesCocoa butter absorbs whatever it is stored beside. The wrapper is doing more work than it looks.
  • Cleaning chocolate equipmentPolycarbonate moulds are never washed with detergent. One dishwasher cycle destroys the finish permanently.

History and culture

Sources

  • ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
  • The Science of Chocolate — Royal Society of Chemistry(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)