Chocolate Making Class at ChocoLee
Through the years, I’ve baked a lot of cookies and brownies and macaroons. I’ve rolled a lot of cake balls and truffles and bonbons. I’ve made fancy-sounding desserts, and easy no-bake ones, and even my own birthday cake. But I’ve never – in spite of my chocoholic title – made chocolates.
You know what I mean, those chocolates in a box that Forrest really likes. The ones that look like those candies on my blog masthead (see upper right portion of this page). The ones that are filled with ganache, with a thin, smooth, shiny coating.
So I was so happy to learn how to make chocolates at the chocolate making class at ChocoLee.
ChocoLee is a little chocolate shop in the South End, and they offer chocolate making classes on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings.
I was there a couple of weekends ago and we made bark, truffles, and filled candy, and left with a box of our handiwork. I learned so much in the three hours, like how to temper chocolate, what’s the best kind to use to coat truffles, how to use those pretty printed designs, and how to work with molds (and that no one wants air bubbles). Look how a couple of the chocolates below have teeny holes – those are from the air bubbles. Just because they don’t look perfect though, doesn’t mean they didn’t taste sublime!
Lee Napoli, ChocoLee proprietess, was a joy to work with – she made each and every one of the students feel at ease. We had a mix of talents and experience in our group, and it was really fun working with so many fellow chocolate fans.
We used Callebaut chocolate for our “projects” – I really loved the plain milk chocolate. I worked with it a lot that day (and had my fair share of samples), from chopping it up to really small pieces, to making the chocolate ganache, to making the chocolate molds, filling them, making the base/bottom. This adorable pear-shaped one was my favorite, because I worked on it from start to finish.
I am very proud of the chocolates we made, and I can’t wait to try making my own at home soon!
Have you ever attended a cooking/baking class? What’s your favorite?