WEEK NO. 7: LOTS OF CHOCOLATE

Sorry for not posting photos last week. I accidentally left my camera at school...oops. Last week was so much fun, and I have decided that I really like chocolate work. On Thursday we made four types of bite sized chocolates including Dark Chocolate Mousse Truffles with Baileys (YUM!), Malakoff (sliced almonds + pistachios in chocolate milk), Caramel Cups and White Chocolate Raspberry Truffles. All of them we absolutely delicious. On Friday we made chocolate sculptures. We had a choice of 5 or 6 cartoon characters we could create, but we also had the option of bringing something in ourself. I chose Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup. I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

Chocolate work is quite difficult, but once you get tempering down, it's much easier. Tempering is the heating and cooling of chocolate which causes the molecules to properly align (for dark chocolate, heat to 45°c, down to 25°c and back up to 30/31°c). When done incorrectly, the chocolate will be left cloudy or grainy (think of when you leave a chocolate bar in the car and it melts, and then hardens back but is left white/cloudy). When done properly, the tempered chocolate will be shiny/glossy and have the good snap when broken. 

{photos by Julia Ferguson of Room for Dessert}