DINING OUT: Deliso Confections Artisan Chocolate & Candy

April 20, 2012 Helen Klein
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Anthony Deliso is dealing in a different sort of stock these days, trading in bonbons instead of shares.

The former broker left Wall Street some seven years ago, and after taking up candy-making, opened his eponymous chocolate shop, Deliso Confections Artisan Chocolate & Candy, in Bay Ridge on January 19 of this year.

“It’s a lot of fun,” noted Deliso. “I hope it grows. I like doing it, though I spend a lot more hours here than I thought I would.

Set in a small storefront on 87th Street right off of Third Avenue, the jewel box of a shop offers an array of candies – including several varieties of truffles (including Grand Marnier and Bourbon Pecan, $2 each) and a range of bonbons ($1.75 each) featuring nuts and fruit fillings (mango, raspberry and passion fruit among them).

In addition, the store purveys peanutbutter cups made with both dark and milk chocolate ($2 each) toffee ($7 per bag), caramel corn (mixed with nuts and drizzled with chocolate, $5 per bag), hand-dipped Oreos ($1.25 each), and peanut brittle ($6.50 per bag), all made by Deliso. A final offering is hot chocolate ($2 for a shot sized portion, $3.25 for a cup).

Appealing to the eye, the confections are even more appealing to the palate. Made with Belgian chocolate, they are filled, stressed Deliso, with “real fruit purees, freshly ground espresso. The Bourbon truffles have bourbon. The coffee bonbons have coffee. The raspberry ganache chocolates have raspberry.” A stickler for fresh ingredients, Deliso even grinds the nuts for the peanut butter cups.

The dark chocolate bonbons filled with espresso cream are shaped like tiny coffee cups, and taste of the espresso beans that Deliso himself ground to make the filling, sweet but not too sweet, and with a distinct coffee flavor that impressed itself on my palate.

That was just the beginning. Tiny white chocolate hearts blushed with pink are filled with sweet-tart passion fruit puree. A creamy caramel which melts in the mouth is robed in chocolate and dusted with sea salt. The chocolate ganache inside the Bourbon Pecan Truffle is sensuously satisfying, its creamy soft interior providing an appealing contrast to the chocolate shell and chopped nuts in which the confection is rolled.

The handmade chocolate almond toffee is a study in contrasts, soft, nut-studded chocolate yielding to the crisp yet chewy toffee, and delighting the palate with the mingled flavors of sweet and slightly salty. Like all of the truffles and bonbons, the toffee was supremely satisfying.

Yes, it put a smile on my face, and mellowed me out for an afternoon of work, which became just a little bit sweeter, thanks to the magic of Deliso chocolates.

Deliso Confections Artisan Chocolate & candy

278 87th Street

Brooklyn NY 11209

718-567-7600

www.delisoconfections.com

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