It's all in the Details: Days 10-14: Chocolate

Ok everyone! I hope you're ready for a weeks worth of posts in one. It's about to get really chocolatey!

Monday

My Cornets

The first thing we did was learn how to make cornets and used them to practice our writing. As you can see my writing does need some practice, though to be fair it was almost empty when I got to the numbers. This is also my last sheet; my writing got worse towards the end from fatigue.

We then tempered chocolate for the first time, but most definitely not the last. There are two methods of tempering chocolate. The first is the tabling method, which is what you see people doing at fancy chocolatier shops. It involves melting all of the chocolate to 115-130°F before cooling 2/3 of it on a marble table to 80°F. Then it is warmed back up to 88°F with the remaining 1/3 of chocolate. Chocolate sets at about 68°F. (All temperatures are for dark chocolate--white and milk chocolate are done at a lower temperature.)

The other method to temper chocolate is the seeding method. This involves melting the chocolate to 115-130°F and then cooling it to 88°F by adding more of the same chocolate that was melted. Chocolate that you buy is already in temper. This is the method we use in class, because we in fact do not have a marble slab laying around at school.

Chocolate needs to be tempered because cocoa butter can form 6 different crystal structures. Beta crystals are when a chocolate is in temper. Tempered chocolate has more shine, more snap, a longer shelf life, and more contraction of the chocolate (which lets you get it out of the mold). Melting the chocolate gets rid of all crystal forms and tempering it allows you to form the crystals you want.

We used our tempered chocolate to make mendicants, which are basically chocolate coins with stuff on top.

Mendiants: PB&J (left)/ pistachio, sea salt, and puffed rice (right)

The last thing we did on Monday was a knife sharpening workshop with Town Cutler. I didn't take any pictures during that process, since it requires both hands. I do have a razor sharp chef's knife to prove it.

Tuesday

We also did our first of many chocolate emulsion in order to make chocolate ganache. Ganache is any combination of chocolate and cream.

Ganache

We also started truffles. I made anise truffles. There will be more about that in the Friday section.

Wednesday

Wednesday started off with a chocolate emulsion to make hot chocolate. It was so delicious!

My makeshift pint container "mug" of hot chocolate

We then made rochers, which are basically crunchy stuff covered with chocolate (think Ferrero Rocher). My team made lavender and white chocolate rochers. The lavender was pretty aggressive on the palate, so if I made them again I would decrease the amount. Overall, I liked them...

Chopping Lavender

Tempering the white chocolate

Lavender White Chocolate Rochers

Rochers
(and bark made from extra tempered chocolate)

Thursday

We went to Dandelion Chocolates on Thursday. Read my post about that field trip here.

Friday

Friday was a busy day. We started by making a caramel popcorn in teams. Each team started with the same base and changed the spices. My team added lime zest to ours. After it cooled I drizzled chocolate over everyones caramel popcorn.

Spicy Lime Caramel Popcorn

The rest of Friday was used to finish the truffles we had been working on all week.

I made the praline paste for the imitation Ferrero Rochers

Whole anise seeds infusing into the cream

My piped out anise infused ganache

Once the ganache had set, I used a blow torch to heat up a knife to cut it into smaller pieces. (If I were to make them again I would cut it into smaller pieces.) I then hand coated them in tempered chocolate and shook them in sugar.