Chocolate Truffle Making Class at Alexander's

Lemon Truffles With Candied Lemon Peel.  

I actually helped make these.  The flavor is intensely lemony.

A few weeks ago I had the unique opportunity to be the first to attend a truffle making class at Alexander's Classic Chocolates.  I was the only student so it was the best one on one training possible; a positively excellent experience.  About a year ago when I first discovered this chocolate shop I began asking for a class, not knowing if it would happen, when it would happen or why it should happen.  The why part was mainly for the fun of it, but as it turned out it makes me into a more discriminating chocolate consumer plus MUCH more appreciative of the amazing amount of time and attention to detail that is spent on this art.  I called Alex recently once again to inquire about taking a class and he agreed to do it that very week.  This would be a good time to comment on the importance of importunity.  I spoke with him at least three times hoping he would agree to a class...maybe more.

It turned out to be a two day class though it was supposed to be just one.  I went back a few days later to see the rest of the process.

On day one we made raspberry truffles from scratch and got started on the lemon truffles too.  This included making the ganache from scratch with fresh fruit.  More on this later.  On day two we finished the lemon truffles.  I'm sorry to say I didn't take any photos that first day.  We made the raspberry truffles in the square trays.  There was part of the process I could not do because I don't have the strength in my fingers and wrists to hold the tray straight when turning it upside down at exactly the right time to pour the chocolate out of the tray to make the shell which will soon be filled with the ganache then sealed.

Lemon truffles just finished.

Alexander,  one of the owners  is strong in the area of chemistry and took two years of chocolate chemistry. Only a few people in existence have taken this much chocolate chemistry.  I never knew chemistry could be so interesting.  If ever I was going to relate to chemistry, chocolate would be the reason.  He has a very exclusive food chemistry program available to just a few individuals which he uses to make his truffles so precisely and of course from scratch.

Here are some of the tidbits I learned and found interesting.

Mother's should bring their children up to have discriminating taste in chocolate.

Anyone caught chewing gourmet chocolate will not be given seconds.

Vanilla and chocolate have almost the same chemical structure and are very complimentary to each other.  It was interesting to learn less sugar is required to sweeten chocolate when you bring vanilla into the equation.

Chemical structure of chocolate

Never boil chocolate you will ruin it.

There is not even one molecule of caffeine in chocolate.  There is theobromine and it gives a similar effect to caffeine except it lasts longer and has a more subtle effect.

I learned some things about tempering chocolate.  It is best to temper chocolate when making truffles so you get the hard crack when biting into the outside coating.

Here is Alex dipping a lemon truffle in tempered dark chocolate.  

I think this was 72% cocoa.

Chocolate has a mind of it's own (kind of like a child of about age 2, it takes a lot of attention and time) so you have to heat it up to a certain temperature I think it was 113 degrees  (should have taken notes).  Then let it cool to 88 degrees and then bring it up to 91 degrees.  If you don't get the beta crystals with this process, then you can start over.  That's good that you don't have to throw perfectly good chocolate away if at first you don't succeed.  You can seed it to help with this process.  This is like setting a good example for your children to follow.  There were many good lessons to be learned about child rearing when working with chocolate.

Round truffles filled with chocolate lemon ganache and sealed, just waiting to be dipped:

 Garnishes waiting for the lemon truffles:  The first is lemonade powder at the top, 

second is tiny slices of jelly bellies which we sliced with a razor blade and the last one is candied lemon peel made by a company in Italy.

Hardened chocolate from the drippings after dipping.  

This will be collected and tempered again for some other recipe.

Alex garnishing the dipped truffles on the right.  The truffles on the left are waiting for their coating.

The photos above are all from the second day I attended the class.  The first day we prepared the square shells for the raspberry truffles.  He has cocoa butter prints on sheets that you put in the bottom of the tray and then when you turn it over and take it out of the mold you have these perfectly printed truffles.  Here is an example though these are not the ones we did that day.

So now I want to tell you about the ganache.  When I arrived that first day there was a flat of the biggest, plumpest, most perfectly formed fresh raspberries I've ever set eyes on.  We washed those and put them in a large pot to cook down for 2 hours on a low heat.  After two hours it became syrup; smelling wonderful indeed. Then we made a chocolate ganache using that rare program I wrote about earlier in the post which is only available to a few people in the world.  The recipes are quite precise, measuring to the gram; and use only the best ingredients.  One ingredient of note was the raw honey used to sweeten the ganache.  Only the best will do of course and I'd like to let you in on the virtues of White Gold Raw Honey.  It is such a mild honey and gives such an amazing mild sweetness to these truffles.  It is a truly wonderful ingredient.  I want some for my birthday...it is that wonderful.  Imported from Northern Canada.   http://www.whitegoldhoney.com/

But I digress.  We made the ganache and then when the raspberry syrup was ready it was poured into the chocolate ganache and then left to cool to a very exacting temperature so when it was poured into the shells we had made they would not melt.  Once they reached the right temperature we sealed the ganache in and then all was left to cool.  We hurried the process along on just one tray of raspberry truffles so I could take some home.  It was too fast though and those would not be fit to sell because of the crack where the seal broke because the ganache was not cooled properly.  But that was just my tray and they certainly were wonderful tasting over the next few days.

While the raspberries were cooking down we started on the lemon syrup.  The first step was to wash and zest about 15 lemons.  Then once the zest was saved we juiced all the lemons and cooked it all down for two hours.  Oh man did it ever smell amazing in there.

So when Alex makes wine truffles which are truly wonderful, he makes the syrup out of two bottles of wine.  Other chocolate shops just put a couple tablespoons of wine in the ganache and I think this business of taking the fruit or wine and cooking it down at a low heat for a couple hours makes for some of the most amazing flavors ever.  Now I am beginning to understand why I am drawn to this chocolate shop.  It really is better than any I've experienced.

It was a fascinating time I had learning from this chocolate master, Alexander.