Chocolate Making Class for dr.com members

[hillvalley]

Chocoholics take note!

We have a special opportunity to learn about the art of chocolate from chocolate specialist and DonRockwell.com member Jason Andelman of Artisnal Confections

The class will take place Tuesday, October 3rd at 7pm. There is room for 7 people. The cost will be approximately $55 including paypal fees. I’ll know the exact amount once we determine how much interest there is in the class. The price is a special rate Jason is offering just for our members. Depending on the interest we may be able to add a second class.

If you would like to join us please PM me. Due to the limited amount of space this event is open to DonRockwell.com members only.

Below is more information about the class and all that it entails. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Hands-on Artisan Chocolate Making

Class Schedule

Two hours of hands-on instruction and demonstration of artisanal chocolate making.

Major highlights include:

* Tasting and discussion of chocolate varietals

* How to make ganache

* How to make molded chocolates

* Using an enrober

* Samples throughout the evening and light refreshments

* Make your own original confections to take home

* Fun and informal environment

Class dates and times:

DonRockwell.com class is scheduled for October 3, 2006

Classes start at 7:00 pm.

Artisan Confections is located at 4815-B Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22207 between Columbus Street N. and Buchanan Street N. near the intersection of Glebe Road N. Parking is available.

Special thanks to porcupine for her great idea and help!

[hillvalley]

Due to popular demand we have been able to add a second date, Wednesday the 4th. I have room for three or four more people so PM me if you would like to join us.

Once I know that we were able to fill both classes I'll announce the final price.

[hillvalley]

I have room for a couple more on both days. I need to have 20 people in order to get the reduced rate and there are a few spots left to fill.

Due to tonight's dinner at CB, the holiday tomorrow and this paying job that gets in the way I probably won't be able to determine final nights for each person until later this weekend.

[hillvalley]

The details have all been worked out and thanks to Jason's generosity the price of the class will be $50 plus paypal fees. I will send out the paypal email in the next day or so.

Below is the list for each night. There are still a few spots available so if you are just discovering this thread please PM me by clicking on the PM button at the bottom of this post.

Tuesday

porcupine+1

mdt

pete+1

V.H.

goldenticket

waitman

Wednesday

Buckinghamilton+1

Asl

gary tanigawa

dcdavidm

cooter+1

[hillvalley]

PayPal emails have been sent out to everyone unless you received a PM from me requesting your email address. Given the short turn around time for the course I am asking everyone to pay by Thursday. Thanks.

[hillvalley]

Have a great time tonight! We want a full report while you are still on your sugar high

[mdt]

Lots of fun!

[porcupine]

Big thanks to Jason Andelman for suggesting this and very big thanks to hillvalley for arranging. It was a fun evening and those going tomorrow will have a great time. Now I am going to try to sleep off my sugar buzz...

[V.H.]

Thanks to Jason for being so generous with his time, his chocolate, and his equipment! I'd like to say that I'm going to share my goodies with dear friends but frankly, I don't think they'll make it to the weekend.

I think that one of the most enlightening things about the evening was learning that Jason doesn't infuse his flavors for very long. I've always been afraid to make flavored truffles for fear that the flavor might be too strong or too weak but am looking forward to trying this now.

[goldenticket]

Thanks Jason! This was a fun couple of hours and we even got to use the enrober - cool! I felt like the guy in my avatar

Very interesting to see the many steps (and TIME) that go into making those beautiful chocolates.

And thanks to Hillvalley for setting this up for us!

[dcdavidm]

Just got back from a super, theobromine-filled evening in the chocolate factory. A wonderful experience, thanks to Jason's artistic and teaching skills, and hillvalley's patience and work. We will savor every one of those take-home bites and look forward to trying to make a few things ourselves.

[Andelman]

Many thanks to all of those that attended the classes, it was nice to meet everyone in person. I had a lot of fun and hopefully we can set up something again in the future. If anyone has any chocolate related questions please feel free to contact me via DR.com or by email at jason@artisanconfections.com. Big thanks also to Hillvalley for setting everything up.

Regards,

Jason

[hillvalley]

I'm glad to hear both nights were a success! For those of us who were stuck at work the past two nights, would someone go into more details about what you did, what you made, the mysterious enrobing machine, what you brought home, what you'll do at home, etc?

[goldenticket]

I'm glad to hear both nights were a success! For those of us who were stuck at work the past two nights, would someone go into more details about what you did, what you made, the mysterious enrobing machine, what you brought home, what you'll do at home, etc?

We started off with a taste test - and I really mean a test - of the full line of chocolates Jason uses. We were challenged to match the various samples with the written descriptions. I failed miserably ; some did better, but none of us got them all correct.

Next, Jason was kind enough to indulge a special request from a special fan of his salted butter caramels (ahem...V.H.... ) and showed us how he makes the salted butter caramel filling. The actual process of making the chocolate shells in molds, filling them, and then capping is spread over several days to allow for setting times, etc, so it wasn't possible to actually make any to take with us. We all did walk out with a nice little cup of caramel to be used on ice cream or whatever we dreamed up.

[A totally cool appliance - induction burner - was used to make the caramel. I want an induction burner ]

Again, due to the time required to make, form, cut, etc., the ganache, Jason had prepared several dozen of his Tahitian Vanilla and Raspberry Pate de Fruit fillings, along with some of the Orange Hazelnut pralines. We each took turns setting up a few rows of them on the conveyor belt, then sending them through the enrober, and finishing by decorating them with preprinted cocoa butter artwork.

The enrober is a fairly compact machine that has a reservoir (somewhere) that contains melted chocolate that is poured down a spout, into a trough, where it runs off in two directions, creating a double chocolate waterfall through which the fillings pass. The conveyor belt shakes off excess chocolate and a pass by a stream of air is the final part of the short trip down the belt to becoming a (nearly) finished product. The artwork is applied by placing a sheet (transfer sheet?) that is screenprinted with the cocoa butter pattern and gently rubbing it onto the top of the freshly applied chocolate.

We all took home a couple dozen samples of our work, which, if I do say so myself, didn't look too bad for a bunch of amateurs . I'm not sure what I'll try at home, but it was very interesting and (as I said above) gave me a much greater appreciation for all that goes into making each little bite!

eta: Oh yeah, I forgot the bark! As mdt mentioned we made that too - super easy as Jason just ladled out the melted chocolate from the enrober, spread it on acetate sheets and we got to be creative with a variety of toppings.

[mdt]

I'm glad to hear both nights were a success! For those of us who were stuck at work the past two nights, would someone go into more details about what you did, what you made, the mysterious enrobing machine, what you brought home, what you'll do at home, etc?

First off we popped two bottles of wine!

Then Jason briefly discussed how chocolate was made and we tasted 6 different types of Valrhona chocolate. He had us try and match them to our handouts and I don't recall anyone doing all that well, at least I know I didn't.

Jason did a demo on how to make the salted caramel filling (recipe was graciously provided to us) that he uses for one of his treats. This was greatly appreciated by one of those in attendance.

He discussed the general process that he goes through in making his chocolates, ganache making, molding in forms, cutting, enrobing, etc. Throughout the process he also fielded questions. Nothing mysterious about the enrobing machine, it tempers the chocolate which is then poured out into trough that allows for two thin bands of chocolate to flow out and coat the pieces as they pass underneath. He showed us how to use it and we all got a shot or two at running some chocolates through and then putting the cocoa butter prints on them.

The fillings (already made and cut) that we enrobed were the Tahitian Vanilla Bean, Raspberry, and Praline Crunch which can be seen here. We also made some chocolate bark with various toppings.

I think I ended up taking home something like 40 pieces along with a couple of bags of bark.

[dcdavidm]

I'm glad to hear both nights were a success! For those of us who were stuck at work the past two nights, would someone go into more details about what you did, what you made, the mysterious enrobing machine, what you brought home, what you'll do at home, etc?

Wednesday evening was pretty much the same pattern as Tuesday, with the wine, chocolate tasting quiz, chocolate history, feeding the wonderful enrobing machine, bark, and lots of stuff to take home. Instead of the caramel, however, Jason walked us through a batch of lemon-scented ganache that he needed for the next day's commercial production. In addition, we did a lot of tasting of ingredients (to-die-for Valrhona milk chocolate, and a white chocolate that actually tasted good) and of some of Jason's creations (an enrobed ancho chile powder/red chile/orange/cinnamon ganache that was among my favorites, chocolate coated almonds, and his experiment in bedazzling-colored chocolate hemispheres filled with a variety of liquor-flavored gelees).

As for home projects, now that I finally understand the mysteries of tempering chocolate, I am inclined to try making some flavored ganaches, cube them up, hand dip them to coat, and play with decorations. Some chocolate truffles may be in the cards, too, hand-enrobed as Jason described to us.