Chocolate.
It’s a treat for all seasons, especially the season of love.
But when it comes time to find treats for your loved ones this Valentine’s Day – or Easter or Mother’s Day or Christmas – shouldn’t you take it to the next level by making your own chocolate treats?
Imagine it: Handmade chocolates lovingly crafted, cutely packaged and happily delivered by you.
When you’re done, you’ll end up with a meaningful gift, instead of a box of bonbons made by a stranger or a faceless factory machine.
“It’s an inexpensive way to make an expensive gift for someone you love,” said Cindy Goetz of Marysville, who has learned to make her own chocolates and other confections at Dawn’s Candy and Cake in Lynnwood. “It’s just an awesome, awesome thing.”
Goetz, under the tutelage of store owner and craft guru Dawn Motes, has made everything from simple solid chocolates done in molds to elaborate and elegant truffles – all at a fraction of the cost of buying them.
| Resources
Dawn’s Candy and Cake, 12609 Beverly Park Road, Lynnwood; www.dawnscandyandcake.com; 425-348-9380; offers a wide variety of candy and cake supplies as well as hands-on classes, including sessions led by local, national and international experts. Classes start at $15 for individuals or groups, including supplies. Chocolate expert Hermina Ehrlich of Seattle will teach a special Valentine’s Day-theme class on hand-rolled truffles on Saturday. Call for details.The Chocolate Man is Bill Fredericks, an oceanographer and chocolate expert from Lake Forest Park; www.chocolateman.net, 206-365-2025. He will give a class on tempering chocolate and truffles on March 18 and a class on advanced tempering on March 25 at Dawn’s Candy and Cake in Lynnwood; call 425-348-9380. Olympic Chocolate Festival, now in its second year, will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 22 at the Boys &Girls Club in Sequim. See www.olympicchocolate.com or call 800-942-4042. |
She delights in the thousands of mold designs (more than 8,000 at Motes’ shop alone) ranging from tiny hearts with floral imprints to 3-foot-tall 3D bunnies.
Themes include every iconic holiday as well as baby, wedding, floral, animal, insect, sports and patriotic motifs.
“It’s fun, and it’s so easy, even kids come in and have fun,” said Sundee Jacobson of Marysville, another cake and candy student and a volunteer at the shop.
Redmond youngster Matthew Schramm took a recent Chocolate 101 class at Dawn’s Candy and Cake and used the opportunity to fashion favors for his closest friends.
“I’m making spiders for my Spiderman birthday party,” he said as his mother, Katie, watched over him.
Using a plastic bottle filled with molten chocolate, he squirted red chocolate for the bodies and blue chocolate for the legs before popping the mold in the freezer.
Wait, wait, we know what you’re thinking.
Blue chocolate? Red?
Colored chocolate, of course, is simply dyed white chocolate, which lacks cocoa, but is otherwise similar to regular chocolate.
In this particular case, Schramm and his classmates made their treats with compound chocolate.
Compound chocolate – also known as beginner’s chocolate, melting chocolate, bark or confectioner’s coating – comes in white, milk, dark and dyed varieties.
It is less expensive and easier to use than real chocolate because it doesn’t require tempering.
Tempering – a complicated process of melting, cooling and warming chocolate – is typically required when working with regular chocolate or premium melting chocolate (also known as couverture), both of which contain cocoa butter.
Without proper tempering, cocoa butter crystals can rise to the surface as a dusty beige residue, making the chocolate look old or spoiled, a dreaded state known as bloom.
Compound chocolate is just like regular chocolate except that cocoa butter has been replaced with vegetable oil (typically palm kernel oil) so that beginning dippers and molders can skip the tempering process altogether.
It still tastes like real chocolate and is pretty satisfying, too, but you’ll notice it’s not quite as rich and creamy without that cocoa butter.
Chocolate expert Hermina Ehrlich of Seattle, who teaches regularly at Dawn’s Candy and Cake, recommends compound chocolate for inexperienced candy makers. That’s how she started five years ago.
“I learned how to handle the molds with the compound chocolate and that got me hooked. It’s very creative,” Ehrlich said. “Tempering is another whole layer of technicality and most people really don’t care. If you’re not a science-oriented person, it can be very daunting. It’s like making a souffle.”
When Ehrlich, a landscape architect by trade, doesn’t have time to temper her own chocolate, she adds flavored oils to compound chocolate.
“You could add a little bit of lemon oil,” Ehrlich said. “Orange oil is really good with dark chocolate.”
You can also punch up your compound chocolate bonbons with rich fillings – such as peanut butter, caramel or ganache – and your love ones likely won’t know the difference.
Motes said new candy makers should be wary of cheap chocolate, compound or regular.
“Some of them are awful,” she said of some low-grade compound chocolate. “Some of them taste like wax.”
Motes and her staff have taste-tested nearly every version of beginner’s chocolate, but they ultimately settled on chocolates from Guittard, a California-based chocolatier that produces compound as well as premium chocolate.
Another way to skip tempering is to make chocolates that don’t require perfectly smooth exteriors.
Ehrlich, for example, teaches classes on hand-rolled truffles. Though the ganache fillings are made with melted real chocolate pieces, they are mixed in with heavy cream and flavorings, rolled into a ball and then covered with cocoa powder or nuts (and therefore don’t need to be tempered).
If you’re a true chocolate snob and want to go all out with the richest, creamiest, cocoa-butteriest stuff for all types of candy, you can take tempering classes and open the door to a world of amazing chocolate varieties from the all over the world.
High-end chocolate is sweeping the nation the way gourmet coffee drinks did 10 years ago, said Bill Fredericks, an oceanographer and chocolate expert.
Fredericks, also known as “The Chocolate Man,” lives in Lake Forest Park and teaches classes at Dawn’s Candy and Cake and elsewhere in his spare time.
“Chocolate is becoming the new thing,” Fredericks said. “A lot more people are coming into premium cooking these days.”
Remember, even if your candies don’t end up looking picture perfect, you can always eat them yourself or pretty them up in cute boxes and bags.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s ugly,” Ehrlich said. “It’s still good to eat.”
This original recipe by Patricia Federinghi and Hermina Ehrlich does not require tempering, unless you want to coat the truffles in melted chocolate instead of cocoa.
Patty’s white chocolate cherry walnut truffles
14ounces premium couverture white chocolate
1/3cup heavy (whipping) cream
1tablespoon glucose syrup, light corn syrup or honey
2tablespoons kirsch (cherry brandy)
1/4 cup dried cherries, cut into quarters with scissors
1/4cup finely chopped walnuts
Cocoa or tempered bittersweet chocolate for the coating
Candy cups sized to fit the finished truffles
Chop the white chocolate very finely with a heavy serrated knife or chef’s knife and place in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, heat the cream until it comes to a light boil. Mix in the glucose syrup, corn syrup or honey. Pour the cream mixture over the chopped chocolate and stir until the ganache is smooth and thoroughly blended. Be sure all the chocolate is melted. Stir in the kirsch. Mix in the cherries and nuts. You may want to use more of each as your taste dictates.
Pour into a 6-by-8-inch glass baking dish, cover and refrigerate until firm enough to scoop into balls, about one to two hours. Different chocolates set at different rates so the time may be shorter or longer.
With a melon baller or very small ice cream scoop dipped in cornstarch, scoop out balls. Roll each ball between your palms to form a round truffle. Roll the balls in cocoa or tempered bittersweet chocolate. If using cocoa, place in a candy cup. If rolling in chocolate, place on a parchment covered baking pan, sprinkle with chopped walnuts and let set before putting in the candy cups.
Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to a month.
Makes 50 to 55 truffles.
Kirsch rolls
16ounces couverture milk chocolate
2/3cup heavy (whipping) cream
1tablespoon glucose syrup, light corn syrup or honey
2ounces fondant
1/4cup kirsch (cherry brandy) or other fruit brandy
Tempered bittersweet or semisweet couverture chocolate for coating the rolls
Tempered couverture milk chocolate for decorating the rolls
Candy cups sized to fit the finished rolls
Chop the chocolate very finely with a heavy serrated knife or chef’s knife and place in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, heat the cream until it comes to a light boil. Mix in the corn syrup or honey. Pour the cream mixture over the chopped chocolate and stir until the ganache is smooth and thoroughly blended. Be sure all the chocolate is melted.
Melt the fondant over hot water with the kirsch, but do not allow the temperature to go above 89 degrees.
Whisk the cream and chocolate mixture with an electric hand mixer and stir in the fondant a little at a time.
Put the ganache cream into a pastry bag with a to C\, round tip and pipe in rows onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Refrigerate the ganache cream rows until set. Using a warm (not wet) knife, cut into 1-inch long pieces.
Dip the rolls in tempered chocolate and pipe on milk chocolate decorations using a pastry bag with a fine round tip.
Place in a candy cups and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to one month.
Makes 50 rolls.
Recipe courtesy of Hermina Ehrlich, adapted from “The Chocolate Bible” by Christian Teubner
Classic chocolate truffles
Ganache
6ounces bittersweet or semisweet couverture chocolate
1cup heavy (whipping) cream
1tablespoon glucose syrup, light corn syrup or honey
Coating (see below)
Candy cups sized to fit the finished truffles
Suggested coatings
1cup sifted cocoa powder
1cups skinned toasted hazelnuts, finely chopped
1cups toasted shredded coconut
Chop the chocolate very finely with a heavy serrated knife or chef’s knife and place in a large bowl.
In a small saucepan, heat the cream until it comes to a light boil. Mix in the corn syrup or honey. Pour the cream mixture over the chopped chocolate and stir until the ganache is smooth and thoroughly blended. Be sure all the chocolate is melted.
Pour into a 6-by-8-inch glass baking dish, cover and refrigerate until firm enough to scoop into balls, about one to two hours. Different chocolates set at different rates so time may be shorter or longer.
With a melon baller or very small ice cream scoop dipped in cornstarch, scoop out balls.
Roll each ball between your palms to form a round truffle. Roll the balls in a coating (below) and place in a candy cup.
Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to one month.
Makes 60 to 65 truffles.
Recipe courtesy of Hermina Ehrlich, adapted from “The Chocolate Bible” by Christian Teubner
Compound chocolate candy in molds
1/2pound compound chocolate
Plastic molds
Plastic bottles for detail work or small molds
Melting compound chocolate: Fill a paper bowl with a half pound compound chocolate. Melt in the microwave for 30 seconds on high, stir. Melt another 30 seconds, stir. Melt for a third 30 seconds and stir until completely melted.
Molding: Do detail work with squeeze bottles, paint with brushes and toothpicks first. Then fill the mold just to the edges, remembering that under filled looks better than overfilled. Tap the mold on the table to eliminate air bubbles if they occur. Do not get water in your chocolates. Water breaks down chocolate.
Freeze or refrigerate: A quick temperature change must occur from warm to cool to avoid bloom. Set time varies depending on the mold. A good average is small candies, 4 to 7 minutes; medium candies, 7 to 12 minutes; boxes, 15 to 25 minutes.
Remove from mold: Remove candies immediately. Do not touch candies until they return to room temperature. Package candies so they look professional.
Fill candies: Fill mold 1/2 to 1/3 full. Brush chocolate up the sides to create a shell. Freeze shells for about 5 minutes. Add filling and push it into place. Fill in the remaining space of the hold, starting with a ring around the edge to create a seal. Freeze about 5 minutes to seal the back.
Storing chocolate: Ideal storage is 65 to 70 degrees in a dark spot. To ensure freshness, store your chocolate in an airtight container. Store mint-flavored chocolates in a separate area or all your chocolates will be mint flavored. White chocolate is good for 9 to 15 months. Milk Chocolate is good for one to three years. Dark chocolate is good for one to five years.
Most candies with pre-made fillings are good for 3-6 months
Caring for candy molds: Wash molds in hot soapy water. Do not wash in the dishwasher. Dry the molds with a soft dry towel. Store the molds in a cool dry place. Molds can also be used for soap making, butter pats, candles, paper casting, clay, rolled fondant, recycling crayons or butter mints.
Recipe from Dawn Motes of Dawn’s Candy and Cake in Lynnwood
Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
