My next assignment was to make a caramel, which was really exciting for me because I love everything caramel. Especially salty caramel. I knew I was going to make a pretty much straight-up caramel, but with smoked salt added. I was given a recipe for caramel in my course, but the Good Eats episode on [...]

Kind of a silly name, yes, but the filling for these chocolates is really terrific – just dark chocolate (Amano Ocumare 70%) and mango puree (I used Perfect Puree). This was my second attempt at making a molded chocolate, and while I saw some improvement, I still was not successful. I first set about tempering [...]

For my chocolatier course, my final assignment was to create five different centers. I was given specifications on what the centers should be and how they should be finished and decorated. My second center is a flavored nut-based center, piped into a mold. I got a lot of great advice from Chocovision on tempering, so [...]

This was my first attempt at actually making a filled chocolate, and I had mixed success. After agonizing and fretting over what sort of center I was going to make and how I was going to create and decorate the truffle, I finally settled on a gingerbread-flavored ganache, enrobed (hand-dipped) and decorated simply with a [...]