This text is part of the special Plaisirs booklet
What if this Halloween year, you replaced the traditional small commercial chocolate bars and gummy candies with local products with local flavors? Overview of artisanal confectionery where to stop this weekend to find sweets made in Quebec.
Fays, chocolate terroir
For their chocolates and nougats
The creations of the chocolate maker Mathilde Fays are the perfect blend of high quality chocolate and the delicate flavors of the Quebec region. With flavors like “red currants and dune pepper”, “rhubarb and lemon thyme”, “sea buckthorn”, “camelina oil and hemp seeds”, it is difficult to be satisfied with a box of 12 chocolates.
Or buy ? On their online store and in store at 47, rue Notre-Dame, Oka
Candylab
For their hard candy
Lovers of hard candy will fall for the playful and fruity hand-made creations of Candylab. In the store, you can watch the artisan confectioners at work as they stretch, roll and slice the huge rolls of sugar into tiny candies. For Halloween, you can get small pumpkins in style jack-o’-lantern orange flavored.
Or buy ? On their online store and at 6030, boulevard Monk, Montreal
Pretty Bean’s
For their homemade marshmallows
This little Mirabel confectionery offers hand-made marshmallows with original flavors, such as pear, almond and chocolate; chai tea; maple; lemon, white chocolate and poppy seeds.
Or buy ? On their online store and in several specialized grocery stores
Ernestine
For their chocolates
This neighborhood chocolate shop offers bursty creations, such as Cherry Bombs, a revamped version of Cherry Blossom, or The Eye of Cyclops, a dark chocolate filled with marshmallow and raspberry jelly, as well as small chocolates with original flavors, such as that apple crumble, banana pudding and s’mores.
Or buy ? On their online store and at 1827 avenue du Mont-Royal Est, Montreal
La Fudgerie
For their homemade fudge and chocolates
Residents and tourists alike love the succulent bites of homemade fudge from chef Jacques Thivierge. Old-fashioned fudge, praline brown, crunchy maple, coconut milk and fleur de sel caramel, there is something for everyone. La Fudgerie is also reinventing certain commercial chocolate bars: its Venus is filled with nougat and caramel, like Mars, and its Caramiche is filled with caramel like a Caramilk.
Or buy ? On their online store and at 16, rue du Cul-de-sac, Quebec
Old fashioned barley sugar
For their barley sugar lollipops
It was from nuns that the founder of the company, Lyna De Grâce, learned how to make barley sugar when she was a child. Since 1998, Sucre d’orge d’antan has been producing and distributing artisanal barley sugar lollipops throughout Quebec. In the past, barley sugar was made from the liquid residue from cooking barley. If the recipe is different today (water, sugar and glucose), the pleasure of sucking this candy from our childhood remains the same. Available in shapes and colors for any occasion, these lollipops come in pumpkins and witches for Halloween.
Or buy ? On their online store
Pra House
For their pralines
Praline, a confection of French origin, usually consists of a nut (a peanut, an almond or a hazelnut) coated with cooked sugar and flavored. For its artisanal creations, Maison Pra uses almonds and several types of homemade coating. There are the original ones, the candied pink pralines with a vanilla flavor, the crunchy reds, and those inspired by the Quebec region, the maple pecans.
Or buy ? On their online store and in several specialized grocery stores
National dinette
For their soft caramels, fruit jellies and other sweets
With their very simple list of ingredients (sugar, cream, butter, fleur de sel, vanilla pods), Catherine Lépine-Lafrance’s soft and creamy caramels are far from the traditional Sainte-Catherine taffy which is difficult to chew and stick to the palate.
Or buy ? On their online store or at 16, rue Gilford, Montreal