"It's easier to into Carnegie Hall than it is to temper Chocolate"

Truer words have rarely been spoken! It took me...oooo...hmmm about THREE days to complete my first chocolate box! But....in my small defense, I was working a full time schedule and had to work on them at night and on the weekends. One good thing is that there was no crying this time around - LOL. I did learn a ton though. Things that weren't taught in class (or maybe I missed).

Chocolate and bread are alot alike. They both are extremely sensitive to room temperature (ambient temperature), they are funny in the way they like to be touched (agitated) and sometimes they really wanna just be left alone.

In the case of chocolate, the first goal is to melt it to a particular temperature (105 for Dark and 98 for White and Milk). The heat MUST be low (this I just really learned - eek).; If not, some of the chocolate will heat too quickly, leaving un-melted chunks...not good. It also can't be stirred tooo much, otherwise you're over agitating the chocolate and it'll fold it's hands and say 'uh uh'...I don't WANNA play nice and it'll bloom. Blooming is a whooooole other topic that I'll address in a minute. So, you got low heat and you're not over agitating it, but you can't just leave it to melt....greeaaaat!


Next up....being poured on a marble or granite slab. Don't ask me why, I forgot! Something about the temperature again - LOL. If the slab is too cold, the choc won't get the chance to be agitated correctly and the cells won't align the way they need. What happens in that case? Bloom! That's what happens! If the room is too warm, the choc won't do what it needs and You Know What'll happen again! Ok...so now you're agitating away and it get's down to the temp you need (between 76-78)...now it gets poured back into the pot to re-join the small amount you should've left. After all that heating and beating, it needs a rest. So...you let it cool down to Mid 80's - 85 - 86 and now you can pour it in molds :-).



The loverly chocoloate gets poured into molds and allowed to rest briefly before being inverted to leave just a shell of chocolate. Once they're completely cooled, they can be filled; ganache, caramel, fruit puree...etc. They get to rest again to allow the fillings to get used to their new homes. This can be a short or long rest, depending on the fillings you use. Now to cap them off and that whooooooole tempering process occurs again. After they're capped and excess choc. wiped away, the'yre FINALLY ready to pop out of the molds and into my...I mean someones mouth! Pray they pop and most importantly, PRAY THERE'S NO BLOOM! The goal is to have beautiful shiny chocolates.





In this case of this box, there actually WAS some bloom...but no one will ever know! I performed majic on the little dears and no one was ever the wiser - LOL. As frustrating as this process can be, I REALLY do look forward to playing with chocolate. In the end, it's extremely rewarding to know that people enjoy them and even better that they're asking for more :-)