Finally, Winter Break!

Winter break! Finally!

During this last week, the excitement for winter break was definitely palpable. On Monday, we all came into class with the hope that Chef would give us Thursday off. Chef waffled. He doesn't have the authority to give us a day off, but by Tuesday, he gave in saying that as long as we finished everything and cleaned up the classroom by Wednesday, he'd cover for us. :D

Monday entailed more enrobing. This time the filling was piped onto disks of chocolate before being dipped. My partner and I made a peach butter ganache filling - buttery and rich with a smooth peachy flavour running through it. The key to properly piping them was to start 1/2" above the disk and don't move! Just apply constant pressure so the filling would form a fat base and come to a point at the top.

We also dipped some round chocolates and then rolled them on a metal screen to give them a spiky appearance.

Tuesday was practical day. Remember the chocolate box from last week? Well this time it was for real, plus 14 salted caramel chocolates on top. I didn't get any pictures during the process because I was trying to be fast and efficient. We will be remaking these for our capstone at the end of the year and Chef recommended getting the box done in 2-3 hours.

Overall the box went fairly well. No broken petals this time! I did struggle with the individual chocolates. I found that while pouring the final layer of chocolate onto the moulds, it would often push the filling out making holes where the caramel could escape after they were unmoulded! Frustrating. It was only during my evaluation that Chef revealed a better approach to finishing the chocolates. Thaaaanks. :P

So with the curriculum in this class done, what did we have left to do? A showpiece of course! We use up the leftover chocolate that has been colored or tempered and make something nice with it. However, by Wednesday, most of my classmates, myself included, were just not in the mood.

A paint sprayer we used to spray chocolate onto our base board.

Gluing on the reindeer's legs

The class was divided into two groups, each deciding their own variation on the theme. The theme was a sled with at least 2 reindeer. I was just so tired of school by Wednesday that I really didn't contribute to the final piece, as sad and terrible as that is. I covered the supporting base board with white chocolate, pieced together some presents, and helped move things around. But other than that, I stayed back. The one time I did try to contribute, my team mates got a little snippy. (We had a few controlling members on our team so there was some passive-aggressive tension going on.)

Nevertheless, our class turned out some nice looking pieces. I was very impressed by the sculpting abilities of the other group. Of course, the Santa on ours is just as impressive, but he's hidden by the reindeer and sub-par sled.

Awesome Santa - all hand sculpted!

The other group's sled. Very cute!

But, I am not going to end this post on such a negative note. We all cleaned up, cheered that we were done, and feasted on pizza! While I wasn't too helpful with the showpiece, I did help make pizza for the class. And what good pizza it was!

We all needed a break and we finally get one! Come January, I'll be ready to tackle the rest of this year and push through. Merry Christmas and have a wonderful New Years! :D

Dipping and Flowers

This semester is almost over! One more week and it'll be winter break. Is everyone enjoying this seriously cold winter? :)

This week we moved onto enrobing chocolates. Enrobing is like the opposite of moulded chocolates. Instead of filling a cavity of chocolate, you take the filling and dip it in chocolate. It is actually pretty tricky to dip the bonbon and put it down without getting a "foot" of chocolate.

Making a transfer sheet to decorate my chocolates

Dipping a cherry marzipan filling

Here are some pictures of a method of tempering called tabling, or marbling. It is much faster than the usual seeding method, but requires a cold surface such as marble. Wood or steel tables heat up too fast and hold the heat. Tabling involves melting all your chocolate to 45C then pouring 2/3 of it onto marble. Using a palette knife or paint scraper, you spread the chocolate out then scrap it all back into the center. Continue this until the chocolate starts to get thick. Scrap all the chocolate back into the bowl with the remaining 1/3 and when stirred together, the resulting chocolate should be, ideally, at its proper working temperature. Tabling can be a bit messy, but I like it for its speed. And its a lot of fun.

Spread

Scrape

The final in this class is to make a chocolate box and 12 chocolates to fill the box. We had the chance to practice the chocolate box this past week. The box itself is fairly simple - cut out the top and bottom pieces then wrap a piece of chocolate covered acetate around the base to create the walls. I found it hard to make the petals uniform and nice but I think it turned out fairly well. Just after taking this picture, I broke off a few petals trying to package it. Frustrating!

So fragile!

In the upcoming week we'll finish up enrobing fillings and other confections as well as make our chocolate boxes. This time, I'll be sure to be more careful with my flower. I do not want to be attempting to mend it on the fly. :P

So many chocolates!