chocartist

I'm not teaching quite as much as I used to, especially here in Chicago (though I did teach a class at Fox & Obel recently). On my schedule right now are the following classes: the RCI/Pulakos Candy School in Erie, PA, a private class at the Les Dames d'Escoffier annual convention in Chicago, the Paginini Cooking School in Chesterland, OH, and the Southern California Gas Company in Downey, CA. I will also be appearing at the Philadelphia Candy Show in Valley Forge PA (where I'll be giving two seminars), and at the Atlantic City Bakery Show. I will also be giving the chocolate presentations again at the CIA's annual March trip to Oaxaca, MX. I, too, hear from many budding chocolatiers who want to get into the candy business. Unfortunately, many of them are in a hurry to do so and think they can jump right in, feet first. My advice is to take as many classes as you can, read everything about chocolate that you can get your hands on, and never pass up the opportunity to observe someone working with chocolate. Embarking on a chocolate career is a lot like constructing a house: you must first build a strong foundation and then continue building from the ground up. And whatever you do, don't try to build a skyscraper until you've built a bungalow. In other words, don't bite off more than you can chew. When I started (way back in the Middle Ages), there weren't many chocolate classes so I had to learn on my own, making lots of mistakes, and working without molds and any kind of specialized equipment. In retrospect, the experience was worth it for me because it forced me to improvise. Doing so fueled my creativity and gave me a passionate intimacy with chocolate that is still with me today. Still, if I had had the opportunity to take classes, I would have jumped at the opportunity to do so. If you can't find a class in your area, get yourself a good book--mine, perhaps. Please forgive my lack of humility, but I know that the information in my books are valid; unfortunately not all chocolate books are created equal. I owe a good deal of my success to people in the chocolate industry who took me under their wings and shared invaluable experience and information with me. They are truly the most generous professionals that I have ever encountered. That's why I strongly recommend attending as many candy trade shows as possible. There you will meet chocolate manufacturers and be able to talk directly with people who are actually in the chocolate business. And lastly, my best advice is to take every opportunity to experiment with chocolate and practice, practice, practice. Doing so will improve your skills and enhance your stature in the community.

Here are some of my favorite candy books: The Complete Wilton Book of Candy, 1981 Out of print but available www.bibliofind.com and other sites I love the chapter on Continental Chocolate Candies for Connoisseurs. Antoinette Pope School New Candy Cookbook Antoinette and Francois Pope MacMillan, 1967 Out of print but available on the internet Per usual, Antoinette's recipes are meticulously written. Belgian Chocolates Roger Geerts Chocolate World, Antwerp, Belgium In English Available Tomric Plastics (I don't have their website handy) 716-854-6050 Swiss Confiseur Richemont Craft School Technical candy books: Sugar Confectionery and Chocolate Manufacture Lees and Jackson Chemical Publishing Co., NY 1975 Available through Manufacturing Confectioner Magazine www.gomc.com Choice Confections--Manufacturing Methods and Formulas Walter Richmond This is the classic candy industry book. Manufacturing Confectioner. See ordering source above. The Science and Art of Candy Manufacture Claude D. Barnett Magazines fod Industry, Inc. Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishing Co. 1978 Confectionery Problems Stroud Jordon National Confectionery Association

I'm so pleased to know that Chocolate Artistry is in your candy/chocolate library. Even after 21 years, the information is still valid--though, as you suggest--some of the novelties are somewhat dated. Still, the techniques are as timely today as they were then. I no longer decorate my chocolates with Royal Icing, but if you do, you'll want to check out my recipe. People often tell me its worth the price of the book. The chocolate novelties in Chocolate Artistry represent the things that I was making for parties all over Chicagoland in the late 70's and early 80's. Eva Myers at Cora Lee Candies would sometimes call me to help when somebody ordered something a little fancier than she was accostumed to making. I was happy to help but always did so anonymously. The company is now owned and operated by Eva's son. And their English Toffee is still the best! Though I did a number of special events for Long Grove Confectionery over the years, I never supplied them with chocolates. At one time I did most of the special orders for Northbrook's Candy Depot (now closed) and for many local party/wedding consultants. I stopped taking orders when Chocolate Artistry was released in 1983 and since then have devoted my time to teaching, lecturing, and writing. The Art of Chocolate, my current book, will be my last. As for candy books that I like, there is the Wilton Candy book (now out of print, but available on the internet, I'm sure) which contains a marvelous chapter of recipes by Chef Lutz Olkewicz. When I taught the chocolate course at Wilton, I often used recipes from that book, including the one for making hard candy dishes that look like "cut-glass" and dipped, fondant-covered maraschino cherries. Old-time Chicagoans may remember the Pope Cooking School--now long gone. Antoinette wrote a candy cook book that I like very much. I'm not sure what it's called--The Antoinette Pope Candy Book, perhaps. I'll check my library for more recent titles and get back to you with them later. Unfortunately, I know of no definitive candy book.

Thank you for mentioning my book, Chocolate Artistry. It's been out of print for some time now but is available on www.bibliofind.com. As mentioned, Eva, at Cora Lee Candies in Glenview, IL, was the person who turned me on to chocolate's creative side and I will always be grateful to her for that. But to suggest that the book is full of her chocolates is not at all true. Eva and I had a a very warm relationship and I supplied her with my line of novelty chocolates periodically over the years. Some of the chocolates that you attribute to her may actually have been mine. The cashew and pecan baskets are similar to those she sold but other than that, there are hundreds of other novelties in the book that I created and sold on the North Shore to Cora Lee and many other outlets for many years. Sadly, Eva passed away a year or so ago and will be missed by many of her old friends.

Setting up chocolate at room temperature is the preferred method--provided the room is very cool (68 degrees or cooler). If your room is that cool you won't need the refrigerator at all. If it isn't, set up the chocolate in the refrigerator first--at least until it dries--and then at room temperature (provided the room isn't warmer than 70-72 degrees). Or, let it set up completely in the refrigerator (which is what I normally do). The time it takes to do this will vary considerably depending upon whether the chocolate is a thick molded piece or a dipped truffle. Normal refrigerator temperatures do vary somewhat, so you'll have to be vigilante until you've done it a few times. If you're moulding a hollow piece of chocolate, such as an Easter egg, you shouldn't leave it in the refrigerator beyond the time that it takes to set up or the thin shell is likely to crack. There's no need to worry about a dipped truffle cracking. One word of caution when using the refrigerator: Avoid bringing cold chocolate directly into a warm environment because condensation may form on the surface of the chocolate, resulting in sugar bloom.

Oops! Regarding my previous post: The ideal temperature of the room for MOULDING should be 75 to 80 degrees so that the chocolate in the bowl doesn't set up too quickly. However, whatever you mould must be promptly removed to a cool environment to set--in many cases, the refrigerator is the best bet.

Where are you setting up your dipped truffles? Even properly tempered chocolate will bloom if it is allowed to dry slowly in a warm room. The rule of thumb for dipping is: the first dipped piece should begin to dry by the time you dip the fifth one. Ideally, the room you temper in should be about 80 degrees (so that the chocolate doesn't cool down too quickly) and the room you dip in, about 68 degrees. If you don't have a cool environment in which to dip your centers, dip a few pieces at a time and refrigerate them while you continue dipping the rest. Also, are your centers cold when you dip them? For best results, your centers should be no more than 20 degrees cooler than the temperature of the chocolate. Therein lies the dilemna. Most delectable truffle centers remain too soft to hand or fork dip unless you keep them refrigerated. If you dip a very cold center into tempered chocolate, the chocolate will set from the inside-out. As a result, the temper is broken slightly and you'll never get a good shine on the finished piece. Most importantly, though, when the center warms to room temperature, it will expand and crack the hard shell in which it is encased, causing small fissures. To get around this problem, you can double-dip the centers, or--pipe the filling into a pre-molded chocolate shell (which is my preference).

Hannah, I feel your pain. Let's temper a bowl of chocolate together. (It will probably take you longer to read these instructions than it will to actually melt and temper a bowl of chocolate.) Since melting is the first step, let's start there. As Steve suggests, chocolates have different viscosities--some melt more fluidly than others. Chocolate chips, for example, have less cocoa butter (and more lecithin) than bar chocolates because they're meant to hold their shape in a cookie. If forced to melt, the mass will be as thick as mud. You want to use a bar of chocolate. Chop 2 pounds of well-tempered chocolate (shiny, with no signs of bloom) into almond-size pieces. Cut an additional 8 ounces of well-tempered chocolate into two-inch chunks. Set the chunks aside. Many of the problems attributed to chocolate's cranky disposition are really the result of improper melting procedures. To melt chocolate in a hot water bath, I recommend filling the bottom pan with enough hot water (130-140 degrees) drawn from the tap, or heated briefly, to touch the top bowl when it is in place, but not so much as to allow it to float. If you heat the water on the stove, be sure to do so before the top bowl is in place, never while it is over the water. Always melt chocolate slowly, at a low temperature. Since a piece of chocolate will melt in your mouth (at 98.6 degrees), it doesn't make sense to risk overheating the chocolate by putting it over boiling or simmering water that may be 212 degrees. Overheated chocolate becomes thick and unmanageable. Place 1/3 of the chopped chocolate in the top bowl and position it over the hot-water bath. Let the chocolate begin to melt before stirring it with a rubber spatula. Stirring prematurely actually slows down the melt. Add the rest of the chopped chocolate gradually, allowing each addition to melt before adding the next. If the water cools before the chocolate is completely melted, set the top bowl aside while you replace or reheat the water and continue the melting process. Lift the bowl from the water bath as soon as the chocolate is nearly melted, dry the bottom, and place it on the work surface. Stir until it is smooth and shiny. Ideally, the chocolate should be about 100 degrees at this point. If it's warmer than 110 degrees, set it aside until it cools to about 100 degrees. One of the simplest ways to temper chocolate is to drop those reserved chunks of tempered chocolate into the bowl of melted chocolate, stir them, and watch what happens. It doesn't take long for the chunks, which are full of stable cocoa butter crystals, to begin to melt, flooding the bowl with the same kind of crystals that the chocolate needs to regain its temper. Those crystals act as "seed" to produce a bowlful of melted chocolate with stable crystals. In chocolate work as in gardening: you reap what you sow. Once you add the chunks, stir them around gently until you see the chocolate begin to thicken and lose its high shine. Take the chocolate's temperature. Dark chocolate is in temper when it reaches about 90 degrees or lower (milk and white chocolates are in temper at about 88 degrees). To achieve the proper tempering results, chunks of chocolate must be present in the bowl when the chocolate reaches those temperatures. If you see that you're running out of chunks, add more. Scoop out what's left of the chunks and place them on a sheet of waxed paper, refrigerating them briefly until the chocolate sets. They're reusable. Don't overlook any of the pieces in the bowl or they will continue to cool the chocolate and cause it to become lumpy. (This is why I prefer to seed with chunks, which are easy to retrieve, rather than with shaved chocolate.) To test your tempering prowess, smear a thin sample of the tempered chocolate on a small piece of waxed paper and refrigerate it for 3 to 5 minutes. If, after that length of time, the sample is dry to the touch and evenly glossy, the chocolate is ready to use. If not, add another chunk of chocolate and stir gently to lower the temperature a degree or two. There is a good deal more I could tell you, but I suggest you check one of my books for more information: The Art of Chocolate or Chocolate Artistry (out of print, but available in many libraries). I hope this helps. Remember, chocolate is forgiving. If at first you don't succeed, remelt your mistakes and try again.

Oh, Hannah, if I could only take you under my wings for 15 minutes I could solve all your tempering problems. Please refer to my earlier post. It may sound like an incredibly simple method, but it works. I have taught thousands of students to temper chocolate that way and they do so now fearlessly--and successfully. So you want to be able to temper a bowl of chocolate in less than 2 hours???? How would you like to melt 2 pounds of well-tempered chocolate in a microwave in about 2 minutes--without breaking its temper? Chocolate's tempermental reputation is grossly exagerrated. Trust me.

Chefette's tempering instructions were very accurate and describe a simple way to melt chocolate without breaking the temper. Just remember that this method can only be used when the chocolate to be melted is in good temper, since you can't maintain the temperature in chocolate that didn't have it to begin with. I do not believe that tempering chocolate is the monster that many believe it is. Don't get caught up in worrying about what kind of thermometer to use and lots of confusing temperatures. Use any thermometer with a range of 80 to 130 degrees. Never heat chocolate over 120 degrees. If the chocolate you're melting is in good temper (shiny, unblemished) it is not necessary to melt it to any specific temper; just melt it until it's fluid. The only time you must melt it to any specific temperature is if it is out of temper (blemished, etc.). In that case it is important to melt the chocolate to 115 to 120 degrees to assure that the bad crystals that it contains are completely melted before you attempt to retemper it. Use whichever tempering method you prefer. The important temperatures to remember are 90 degrees for dark chocolate and 88 degrees for milk and white chocolates--give or take a couple of degrees. Once you've tempered the chocolate, it is not necessary to keep taking its temperature. You'll know when it gets too cool because it will become increasingly thick and difficult to handle. Yes, I know that there are ranges within which the chocolate is in its best temper, but few people would be able to discern that in the finished product. Relax when tempering chocolate. Don't get caught up in all of that scientific mumbo jumbo--unless you are responsible for tempering a vat of chocolate in a factory. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to temper a little bowl of chocolate. All you need is a little common sense and a basic understanding of the parameters within which you must work.

There are many ways to temper chocolate. Since most people are only going to be tempering a bowlful at a time, it is not necessary to go to the complicated extremes most often described in books and chocolate articles. If the chocolate to be melted is in good condition (i.e. shiny, with no signs of discoloration) simply warm it until it is fluid. (I do this in a microwave oven using a plastic bowl.) If using a water bath, remove it from the heat source and add 1/3 or 1/4 the weight of the melted chocolate in chunks of chocolate that are also in good condition. Stir until the melted chocolate appears to be thickening. Insert the thermometer into the center of the bowl to verify its temperature. If the chocolate is less than 90 degrees (88 degrees for milk or white chocolate), the chocolate is ready to be tested and used. Scoop out what's left of the partially melted chocolate chunks and place them on waxed paper. Refrigerate the chunks for about 10 minutes and store them at room temperature for future use. The chunks are reusable for the same purpose, or you can melt them down (or eat them). To test your tempering prowess, smear a thin sample of the tempered chocolate on a small piece of waxed paper and refrigerate it for 3 to 5 minutes. If the sample is dry to the touch and evenly glossy, it's ready to be used. If it isn't, stir the chocolate gently, adding another chunk and check the temperature again. Please note that this method is only applicable when using chocolate that is in good temper (shiny with no discoloration). This and other methods are described in simple, but complete, instructions in my book, The Art of Chocolate.