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Tosa Confectioner Creates Latest 'On-a-Stick' Treat for Fair

Sweet, dark, chewy and tart – Niemann's covers the state's official fruit in chocolate for the 2011 State Fair.

Wauwatosa’s own has partnered with the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association to bring the latest sweet treat on a stick, chocolate-covered cranberries, to the 2011 Wisconsin State Fair.

“This is a first for us. We’ve never made anything on stick before,” said third-generation owner Jim Niemann. 

“Sure we have,” said Cindy Niemann Wollak, Jim’s sister. “Lollipops.” As Jim works the slurry mixture of chocolate and cranberries, he concedes the point.

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The venerable confectionery shop, started by Jim’s grandparents, has been around since 1919, but this is the first time Niemann’s has hand-made chocolates for the fair. Although the fair doesn’t open for another week, Niemann’s is carefully crafting 2,000 of the dark, rich treats. 

Niemann, who has owned the shop since 1986, said he was approached by the WSCGA. In 2010, Wisconsin produced 3.9 million barrels of cranberries, representing nearly 60 percent of the nation’s crop. For 16 consecutive years, Wisconsin has been the nation’s No. 1 cranberry producer.

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“We think fairgoers will enjoy this irresistible twist on our state fruit – making it a must try stick-fare at this year’s Fair,” said Tom Lochner, executive director of the WSCGA. 

The trick was how to execute the feat. Unlike most food on a stick, skewering just wouldn’t do. So Niemann came up with a slurry mixture technique much like the one used to make chocolate-covered nut clusters.

“We’ve been working on the process for a couple of weeks trying to get the ratio just right. Too many cranberries and it won’t hold together. Too much chocolate wasn’t right either,” he said of the mixture proportion, which turned to be about 50-50.

“We’ve done a few versions, too,” Niemann said. Some samples included a sprinkle of sea salt. But in the end it was the simple combination of dried sweetened cranberries from Wisconsin Rapids and high-quality, 70-percent cacao semi-sweet chocolate with a drizzle of white chocolate that passed the samplers’ taste tests.

“My daughter says it’s the best thing we’ve ever made,” Niemann said – high praise considering the shop’s long-standing reputation for quality sweets. 

Niemann anticipates using 200 pounds of cranberries and 1,500 pounds of chocolate to make about 2,000 pieces. He and his son, Charlie, work as a team on each side of a conveyor belt that pulls the warm, gooey confection into a cooling tunnel. Dad works the slurry, which stays at a constant 87 degrees, laying down small amounts of mixture in a column as his son places the stick.

Niemann then tops the stick with more chocolate-covered cranberries. Charlie places a few uncovered cranberries on top. The dark, shiny assembly proceeds through the cooling tunnel to set.

On the other end waits Cindy, who places the treats on a tray and takes them to be drizzled with warm white chocolate. They are packaged and tied with a white bow and sticker.

The 2.5-ounce delight of chocolate and fruit that’s all together chewy, sweet and tart will be sold in the Wisconsin Products Pavilion for $2.50 each.

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