Last year, Dave got Berta a 10-pound bar of Ghirardelli chocolate for Christmas.
I'm not sure what provoked this selfless giving of confection, but 10 pounds is a whole heck of a lot of chocolate. It came in a large cardboard container, shaped like a candy bar. I would guess that it is about two feet long.
Berta decided that she would use this chocolate to make chocolates (odd how that meas two different things) for everyone we know as Christmas gifts. There are a good 20 people on this list, I think.
She got tins from JoAnn Fabrics, which is somewhere I would never expect to find tins. They're very holiday oriented. Snowflakes, snowmen, snow... Very festive.
There were other supplies from AC Moore like chocolate molds and dispensing bottles with nozzles. These would be required for some of the fancier chocolates that she intended to make.
She also got all of the fillings from the grocery store. There are cherries and strawberries and nuts (peanuts and cashews). She got caramel and syrups for flavoring, and confectioner's sugar to make filling.
Last week we did a test run on the chocolate production using a couple of chocolate bars she got from the store. The books say that chocolate spoils quickly, so we didn't want to open the big bar until we were ready for it, which meant waiting until closer to Christmas.
The original chocolate production went well. We closed up some of the candies we made into a tin to take with us to the Kornaga's party last Saturday. I didn't ask anyone what they thought, which I probably should have. Feedback on this sort of thing is always good.
Anyway, last night Berta started mass producton using the large chocolate bar. She didn't even make a dent in the bar, and we have a ton of chocolate covered stuff. Two shelves in the fridge are covered with wrapped chocolates.
I think she made a few chocolate covered chopped cherry things, since I saw the molds in the fridge. There are a ton of chocolate covered peanuts and cashews, and she used the last of the melted chocolate on chinese noodles. She started with a raisin recipe that didn't turn out as well as she would have liked. I think she might have made a few chocolate cups, but I'm not sure what is in them.
There are a few lessons to be learned from this chocolate making experience:
- Concentrate on one candy at a time. Don't squirt chocolate on top of everything then try to spread it. Squirt chocolate onto one candy, spread it, then move on to the next.
- Melt more chocolate than you need and keep "junk" fililngs around to clean out the bowl. If you just keep bags of nuts and stuff around, you don't have to worry about complicated fillings when you're tired and you still have a pound of chocolate in the boiler.
- Chocolate melts in the microwave. Fill the dispenser bottle full, and gently reheat it when it starts to get firm.
- Don't ever give anyone 10-pound chocolate bars for Christmas. Unless they're maybe a chef. A 1-pound bar is plenty if you feel the urge.
Perhaps soon I will steal into Berta's chocolate-making notes and gather intel on working filling recipies. Getting the filling you want can be difficult if you haven't done it before, and it might be good if I get some pictures of the fillings and posted them with the recipes. Especially that mint concoction that tastes just like York's Peppermint Patty. Stay tuned.
