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How Sweet it is…

Belle Toffee - A Labor of Love

Many of us have family recipes and traditions we hope to pass along to our children and beyond, and we strive to make memories as we share the experiences together. For one local family, however, their award-winning legacy is becoming one the entire community can enjoy. Larry Marak grew up savoring his aunt Ida Belle's toffee, crafted from a recipe that originated sometime before World War II, and today he and his family have turned it into a labor of love.

As a young married man in the 1960s with small children and a limited holiday budget, Larry and his wife thought making the toffee to share as gifts might be a thoughtful way to spread Christmas cheer. Persuading aunt Ida Belle to share her recipe took a bit of encouragement, however, and when she did finally share the shorthand description on a weathered three-by-five index card, Larry and his wife Joyce had some experimenting to do. We had three young children at the time. Aunt Ida Belle's recipe called for cooking until you heard the almonds 'pop'. We had to wait until the kids were in bed for it to be quiet enough to listen for the popping. Finding the right temperature was also a bit of a challenge, as well as the hour-plus of hand stirring for each batch.

Those first production cycles weren't quite as delectable as Aunt Ida Belle’s but after several years of trial and error, coupled with several self-described messes, the Maraks finally created an iteration they felt tasted as delicious as aunt Ida Belle’s. They shared the tasty toffee with friends and family during the holidays, but that was the extent of it, until decades later when Larry and Joyce's son Jon encouraged them to make a batch to sell at a Christmas tree stand. The 40 tins sold quickly, and Belle Toffee was officially born, although with Larry still working full-time the business remained mostly a holiday hobby until 2009 when they decided to create a commercial-grade kitchen in their basement and scale up the production.

It was important that the business remain a family affair, however, so business marketing and growth in the past decade have been strategic and intentional. “Our production cycles center around the availability of our family. We are still making toffee in our basement with our children and grandchildren helping, but our processes have become more sophisticated through the years. When we began, we used to use tweezers to coat the toffee with chocolate. Recently, we have acquired machinery that will allow us to dramatically increase production. We are looking forward to eventually expanding to a standalone building dedicated to toffee production,” said Larry Marak.

With Belle Toffee winning numerous awards in the past three years and multiple local stores in the Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas stocking it, having that increased production capacity will be crucial. At the 2021 International Chocolate Salon Awards, Belle Toffee received several awards, including a Silver for its Bourbon Pecan Toffee in Gold Chocolate and a Bronze for its Dark Chocolate Almond Toffee. The Bourbon Pecan toffee also received a Bronze award in 2020 in the Specialty Foods Association competition. It is made with Missouri pecans and Missouri bourbon, and Larry says it's difficult to describe; "you just have to taste it."

Lee's Summit residents can find Belle Toffee in a variety of local shops, including All A Bloom, A Thyme for Everything, and Cockrell Mercantile, as well as shopping online at https://www.belletoffee.com.



 

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