Confections Galore!

I am sorry to write that my chocolate class has ended-it was my favorite lab so far!  I spent the last 3 weeks developing more skills in chocolate and candy making and would just have to stop for a second to realize "I am making chocolates at 7 am-how many people can say that right now??!!"  

First in very exciting news...  my chocolates from the first part of my class got put in the case at The Sweet Spot (our school's bakery) and were for sale to the public!  Here they are on the top shelf in the middle...

Here are some pictures of what else I was lucky enough to make...

Pistachio fudge with 2 different chocolate garnishes

My first time playing with pulled sugar!  Besides slightly burning my hands working with sugar syrup at about 300 degrees, this was an awesome experience!  I am now obsessed with making my own candy canes for Christmas =)

I learned a really cool technique of spraying frozen chocolates with colored cocoa butter which leaves this elegant velvety texture.  Then, I garnished with beads of corn syrup that give the look of jewels on the top

Here are some green ones (they were mint flavored).  For some reason they remind me of 1970's couch cushions!

I made these slender chocolate bars (flavored with toasted almonds, thin cookie pieces for crunch, cinnamon, and a pinch of cayenne pepper).  At first I thought they were ruined (the discoloration is from fat bloom which happens when the chocolate gets out of temper), but I was able to save them...

Here is a platter of everything I made during week 3 (from left to right): Pistachio fudge and hard candies, chocolate dipped mint bars, my chocolate bars that I dusted with fine gold powder (no more ugly bloom!), buttercrunch-like heath bar toffee with chocolate on both sides and then finished with chili and lime spiced peanuts, cocoa powder sprayed mint bars

After all those sweet confections, I needed...a sushi break, of course!!  Totally hit the spot...

With week 4 underway, I was determined to master this next confection.  Can you tell what this will turn into??...

...Orange slices!!

A decor option that I attempted: chocolate cigarettes!  First start with milk (or white) chocolate spread thin on a marble surface, then use a comb to create a pattern.

Then, pour a thin coating of dark chocolate over the design and before it completely set, use a knife and scrap small segments and they should form a cigarette shape...

Mine ended up more like chocolate shaving pieces, but would still look really cool on top of a cake!

Here are my final products from week 4:

Orange slices

Coconut marshmallows garnished with finely chopped coconut (first time making marshmallows-sticky, but fun!)

Chocolate dipped truffles.  Flavor: dark chocolate ganache flavored with port wine and balsamic vinegar reduction, rolled, dipped in chocolate and garnished with dehydrated pulverized strawberry powder

Raspberry hard candies rolled in cute wraps!

Box of goodies that I got to take home!

So, next up... finals week!  The requirements were: a bonbon, a dipped truffle, and layered confection, and something of our choice (I chose another bonbon because I love them!)

Here was my final platter I presented for grading

Here are the details of each piece...  I gave each chocolate a name and called my "store": A. Studios Chocolate Shop

My first bonbon: "Triple C"  (curry, coconut and cashew) Milk chocolate ganache with curry and coconut finished with a cashew and chocolate crunch layer

Second bonbon: "Tribute to Mexico"  Dark chocolate ganache with 3 chili blend with a toasted/salted pepita (pumpkin seeds) crunch layer.  Decor is a take on the Mexican flag

Close-up of "Triple C" on my serving platter

 Close-up of "Tribute to Mexico" on my serving platter

Here is a close-up of each bonbon cut in half

My layered confection: "Candy Bar" truffle.  Salted caramel with toasted almond base topped with fluffy chocolate nougat, dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with fleur de sel (a French finishing salt)

My dipped truffle: "Mom's Favorite"  Mint meltaway center, dipped in dark chocolate garnished with mint powder and chocolate dot decor

Here is my class with Chef Luis!

So, now I am done for the quarter-so sad!!  I plan on coming to school to keep up my chocolate skills as much as possible and make some holiday treats!  The rest of my time will be dedicated to work and the Knowledge Bowl team (a competition team I am trying out for at school... jeopardy-style trivia on various topics in baking and culinary) so I will be keeping busy.  I am looking forward to seeing family and friends for the upcoming holiday seasons and a quick trip to Las Vegas later this month with my sweetie!!

That's it for now...  I will leave you with the carved pumpkins we made for Halloween-had a great time passing out candy to little ones!  Happy Fall!!

"... you never know what you're gonna get."

My second fall quarter has begun!  It is hard to believe that I have been in Muskegon over a year and how far I have come personally and in school...  I know that pastry school is exactly where I want to be because I am still excited for each day of class (even if it IS at 7 am!!)

So, I am now in Advanced Confectionary Arts II, which is all things chocolate and confections (candy, caramel, jellies, marshmallows, etc), and I am lucky enough to have the department chair of the Baking and Pastry program as an instructor.  He is an extremely talented pastry chef and a great teacher.  The past two weeks we have been concentrating on bonbons (molded chocolate), truffles (hand rolled or cut chocolate), and pate de fruit (French for fruit paste).  Here are the pictures!

Day 1 of class: learning and tasting some of the world's best chocolate (breakfast of champions!)

This is a tempering machine.  When making chocolates it must be properly tempered or precrystallized so it dries with shine and that snap that great chocolates have.  Each type of chocolate will have guidelines on how to temper properly, but basically you change the temperature 3 times to form the correct crystal structure and this machine will maintain that last temperature so it can be used for several hours.  As you can see, it is a messy process, so being clean is a great quality to have (and I am for sure still trying to master that one!)

So, I used the tempered chocolate to fill these molds.  I dumped chocolate all over then flipped them over and pounded out the excess.  A loud and messy job (and really hard to get a picture of, but I will try before the end of class!)

My first filling idea: chai ganache.  I used the liquid chai used in many coffee shops plus I ground spices (cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, star anise and a few others...) and added that to milk chocolate

Here is another mold (it is a cacao bean) with a passionfruit ganache filling (I actually DIDN'T make this filling, chef did a demo on fruit ganache and I took some, but I did enrobe the molds with chocolate which is the hardest part!!

So, here is my production from week 1.  On the left, the cacao bean mold with passion fruit (yes, that is purple!), the gold dusted shapes and squiggly design are the chai and all the red colored mold are my second flavor idea: cinnamon and cayenne pepper ganache-it kind of tasted like red hots!

So, before pouring chocolate in the molds, we are painting them with colored cocoa butter in a variety of ways (spray gun, finger painting: the possibilities are endless!!)  With the chocolates below with the squiggly design I used a transfer sheet (thin plastic with the design painted) and I laid it on the bottom of then mold, then as the tempered chocolate dries, it will pick up the design.  Easy and really impressive!!  Notice how the colored bonbons are so shiny?  That's from the cocoa butter colors (the natural fat in cocoa beans) and when at room temperature really reflect the light.

So, that was week one!  Although the above pictures are pretty sweet, wait until you see week 2!!  The whole class got exponentially better with the entire process and made some really great looking products!

I did take a little break from chocolates to enjoy some amazing art in Grand Rapids for a contest called Artprize.  It is an open art competition and the pieces are spread out all over town in different venues (might be a bank, restaurant, or outside).  The public votes and the 1st place winner gets $250,000-whoa!!  Click to see the winner of artprize 2011!  Here are some pictures of other great pieces!

This is made from little crocheted squares-it was huge!

Hard to see, but it's Barrel O' Monkeys on one of the bridges!

Sweet octopus table (functional art: love it!)

We also stopped at San Chez (check out there awesome menu!) for some tapas and a beverage (looking at art really takes it out of you, ya know?)  We tried not to overindulge and picked only 4 "small" plates... everything was SO good!!

Michigan beer (the size of a wine bottle!!!) and a yummy cocktail with lime and cucumber!

Pesto hummus with crazy chips!

Dates stuffed with pork belly, goat cheese and caramelized onions in a spicy romesco sauce

Cheese casserole with corn, poblano peppers, black beans, sun-dried tomatoes

Lamb, beef, and chorizo meatballs with artichokes

Start of week 2:

Here is the start of a ganache.  It is basically chocolate and heavy cream in different ratios depending on how thick you want it.  Other liquids can be partially substituted (like the chai flavor from week 1) but some fat is needed to create an emulsion of fat in the chocolate so it has that creamy texture.  So, I have just added my hot heavy cream to chocolate and started incorporating it together.

Here it is fully incorporated: beautiful and shiny!

So, now I am playing food scientist and adding 3 different Mexican chili powders to my ganache for flavor.  I ground them up from dried, whole chilis: chipotle, ancho, and guajillo.  All have different heat and smoky properties.  My goal is to have a nice warm feeling in your mouth after eating one.

I also made pate de fruit for the first time ever!  Here are the ingredients to put them together: mango puree, glucose syrup, sucrose, pectin, lemon juice.  That recipe is from our class book which is seriously beautiful!

Once all ingredients are added, it boils away until reaching 233 degrees

The mixture is then quickly (before the pectin starts gelatinizing) poured into a mold or some kind of form

Once it has set, it can be cut however you want!  I did little strips since they are REALLY sweet and I don't want to be shoving my face with a big piece of jellied fruit!!

The final step is coating them in a blend of sugar and powdered citric acid (this also helps to cut the sweetness, think: sour patch kids).  They were SO good, plus mango is one of my favorite fruits!

Here is the start of a caramel I am making bubbling away!

Starting to lose moisture and cook down

Just getting to the proper temperature

Here it is poured out in a mold.  It was supposed to be a soft caramel that I was going to cut and dip in chocolate, but due to some humidity issues in our classroom, it cooked past that stage and was hard as a rock!  It is still delicious, though!  I will have pictures of what I ended up doing with it on my next post!

At the end of class on Saturday, we presented our chocolate to chef and the class.  Here are my 3 bonbons, from left to right: same purple mold, but filled with lavender ganache, my Mexican chili bonbon, and a curry and coconut bonbon.  I used a variety of cocoa butter coloring techniques: the purple ones are sprayed, the red and white I used my finger, and then I splattered the yellow and orange colors. These were awesome to make!!

I cut each bonbon in half so you can see the fillings.  The left is the coconut and curry, middle is lavender, and the right is the Mexican chili.  It is important with filling the molds that the chocolate layer isn't too thick and it is uniform.  These aren't too bad for my second week!

Another cool technique is making spheres!  I took 2 of my coconut curry bonbons and "glued" them together.  At the right angle you cant even see the seam!

Here are the trays of all of our work!  Some of the best went to the Sweet Spot, our school's bakery to be sold to the public!

What I am loving about chocolates is how visually appealing they are!!  I am looking forward to experimenting with some other funky flavors and showing you my work soon!