Collaborator Feature
FARM CHOCOLATE
Patricia Doyle
SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA
Orange Walnut Toffee
buttery toffee with candied California orange peel and toasted California walnuts
I am both an artist and a food crafter, with the goal of creating the most delectable, organic confections available, all with no machines, but rather with the love that comes from hand crafting. I know you will taste the difference!
My story began when, at age four, I spied a Suzy Homemaker Oven in the local toy store. I would never have believed, even later, just how much time I would spend tinkering and creating in the kitchen, baking daily with my brand-new plastic appliance of the late ’60s.
Inspired by a mother who delighted in making soap, wine, fondue, and clothing for her four children, this left me with complete freedom in unsupervised bliss to spend countless hours stirring hot syrups and concocting a wide range of dishes from the age of nine. For the next 40 years, I would come to love scouring the many cookbooks my mother gifted me and, even as a college athlete, would sneak away from my physics textbook to peruse the latest Gourmet or Chocolatier magazine.
After years of private-chef and catering work in my native Aspen, Colorado, I read a Ruth Reichl article on the best brands of chocolate, and the rest is history! At once, my customers clamored for something different in the realm of chocolates — what I would describe as one-of-a-kind rustic luxury, inspired by, and rooted in, European esthetic.
The Orange Walnut Toffee is part of Dandelion Chocolate's collaborator program where we partner with craft chocolatiers who use our single-origin bean-to-bar chocolate in their confections.