Sunday, December 5, 2010

Buried in Chocolate

I know that I haven't posted much about my new class and honestly... that's because it's pretty boring. I'm definitely into more physical areas of baking (rolling, mixing, getting things in and out of ovens). The majority of our lab time is spent melting and tempering gigantic bowls of chocolate, then re-melting and re-tempering them once they get the slightest bit hard. Usually I'm sweating and exhausted by the end of class, but since we don't even use the ovens, the whole class is freezing.
Exhibit 1: Gigantic bowl of chocolate.
I will tell you one thing, though -- we make a BOAT LOAD of chocolates. The chef told me that I should be eating 20-30 chocolates every day and then just a salad for dinner. He guarantees that I will lose a pound a week. Um. I had 8 on Friday and almost had to make a hasty exit to lie down on the floor of the hallway. Also, I needed to eat some nachos immediately when I got home to counteract my blood sugar levels. Chocolate diet = failure.

Here are some photos of chocolates we've made:


Apricot Butter Truffle. Tastes like apricot brandy.



Mocha Sticks (very delicious). I did a pretty bad job of making them all the same size. I was told this at least seven times.

Soft Ganache Truffles. It's a chocolate explosion in your mouth!!!

What I will say, though, is that the chocolates we make in class taste a million times better than your everyday Russel Stover's, Whitman's, etc. One thing that I've learned in school is that the tastiness of your end product relies SO HEAVILY on the quality of ingredients that you use. Also, that grocery store stuff is filled with nasty, fake-o ingredients and shortenings to make it cheaper, so next Valentine's day, spring for the higher quality stuff (might I suggest visiting the Davidson Chocolate Company here?)

I'm now hard at work designing the blueprint for a chocolate sculpture that I have to make this week. My dad will be happy to know that I used the Pythagorean theorem just now. More on THAT disaster later!!

No comments:

Post a Comment