Mendiants at Chocolats Passion
Photos by Nanette Gordon
Unless you are a chocolate maker, a connoisseur of confections, or perhaps a food writer specializing in chocolate, chances are you haven’t heard of mendiants. Browsing in specialty sweet shops, perhaps you’ve noticed these little puddles of chocolate studded with nuts and dried fruits. They’re a traditional French confection with an interesting history. The word mendiant means “beggar”, and it refers to four monastic orders that had taken vows of poverty, and begged for charity. Historically, the chocolate circles have four toppings, each one representing the four Roman Catholic mendicant monastic orders and the original color of their robes during the Middle Ages: white for the Dominicans, represented with almonds; gray for the Franciscans with raisins; brown hazelnuts for the Carmelites: and dried figs for the Augustinians who wore purple. It’s these ingredients, begged for by the monks, that are found in the traditional mendiant.
The mendiants you’ll find in chocolate stores these days usually retain the signature shape, but might add a larger variety of fruits and nuts. Except at Chocolats Passion in Portland, where owner Catherine Wiersema and chocolatier Sarah Levine make several thoroughly modern versions, bearing only a small resemblance to the historic ones. The elements are all there, but this confection now fits the aesthetic and style of the modern French chocolatier. This mendiant is a wavy rectangle of dark or milk chocolate, filled and topped with a wider variety of fruit and nuts than any French monk ever imagined. “The molded bars fit our aesthetic. It’s the perfect size and shape for holding the ingredients,” says Catherine.
They currently produce four varieties of mendiants, created by both Catherine and Sarah, with more in the works. Sarah, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America’s pastry program, puts in a lot of time making the individual components. Strawberry paté de fruit is made from locally grown strawberries, picked by the whole team in June, as an outing. The candied Meyer lemon is a labor-intensive activity that includes blanching the peel up to six times, simmering with organic sugar and letting it sit for several days. The two elements are combined in a 72% dark Guittard chocolate shell studded with pistachios, and becomes one of the bars included in a gift box of four. A second dark bar includes a gianduja filling of milk chocolate, hazelnut paste and caramelized hazelnuts, topped with more hazelnuts.”We use hundreds of pounds of hazelnuts,” says Catherine, showing me a bag full of a variety called Sacajawea from Oregon, roasted to order.
A milk chocolate mendiant bar created by Sarah is made with pecan praline and candied pecans spiced with chipotle pepper, providing a little tingle of warmth on the back of the palate when eaten. This special treat was awarded a silver medal last year by the Northwest Chocolate Alliance, and is also included in the box.
“Every chocolate we make is tested with both dark and milk chocolate,” Catherine says. “You can’t be a snob about chocolate. Milk chocolate just goes better with some ingredients.” These are welcome words to me, the milk chocolate lover. Another milk chocolate mendiant contains Turkish apricots and Australian candied ginger, with Marcona almonds. “This one had to be milk,” Catherine comments, “and it’s very popular.”
Catherine started Chocolats Passion as an online business in 2014 then opened the shop in the fall of 2018, but she started making chocolates long before that. She grew up in Clermont-Ferrand, a city in the center of France, with a mother who was a wonderful baker and gave all four of her children the responsibility of cooking lunch every Sunday. Later, Catherine began to make truffles for friends, but a 20 year detour as a landscape designer came before she found herself embracing chocolate as a vocation.
The tiny shop is a laboratory of sorts, and Catherine is a mentor to three young women with a passion for chocolate just like herself. Darcy Brennan Poor was the first to join Catherine after a stint as a pastry chef. Ruby Bradford, the newest addition, is an apprentice, still in high school. “It’s a very French concept, to have an apprentice,” says Catherine. “The most important thing to me is for everyone to create, experiment and get their hands dirty. Summer is play time and there will be some new products coming in the fall.” One to watch for, the vegan tablets, a mendiant-like product, being developed by Sarah.
Mendiants are just one example of the molded chocolates at Chocolats Passion. There’s an extensive variety of creations, in colorful squares, hearts and miniature planets, as well as specialties including seasonal shapes. Flavors are a mix of infused ganaches, caramelized nuts, candied fruits, caramels and creams combined in surprising, and delectable, ways. Catherine prefers the molded look to enrobed or free form candies. “They’re really fun,” she says. Packaging is equally as thoughtful, with black boxes that fold out like flowers or clear boxes wrapped in Japanese washi paper, brought back from a trip to Japan.
The beauty of mendiants are their limitless possibilities and combinations. There’s an ongoing disagreement about chocolate combined with fruit in my home. I am firmly in the pro-fruit camp, plus any kind of nut, making a mendiant a perfect choice for me. If you’d like to try your hand at making the traditional version, here’s a thorough description by Alice Medrich, a chocolate making and baking icon. They’re much less involved than the Chocolats Passion ones, but you can always order those online for the full fashionably French experience.