A Tribute to the "Apple Capital of the World"

I recently moved up to the Wenatchee Valley area this summerfor a job, which didn’t exactly go as planned due to an injury, but I fell inlove with the area nonetheless.  So muchso that I would really love to open my shop here (see post “Where to Locate??”)

One of the thingsthat Wenatchee is famous for is all the apple orchards in the area.  Wenatchee has even been dubbed the “AppleCapital of the World”.  Quite a strongstatement, but having seen all the apple orchards and fruit stands sellingapples this fall, I would have to believe it.

So naturally because of this desire to set up shop in the“apple capital”, it would be sacrilegious if I didn’t have an applechocolate.  Therefore, I made it one ofmy missions this fall to come up with a chocolate that screams appledeliciousness.

One of my favorite things when I was younger to indulge inwas the caramel apple pops made by Tootsie Roll.  I remember especially around Halloween my Momwould buy a bag and I would always try and grab the one with the most caramel.  They were so delicious!  To celebrate the enjoyment in that childhoodpleasure, I decided that I wanted to try and recreate that same yummy flavor ina chocolate.

I got the idea from a fellow member of egullet who mentionedmaking a dry caramel (which means to melt sugar in a pot without any water) andthen add butter and apple puree to it, then reduce down the apple puree/caramelmix, making the caramel apple base.  Themember then suggested just adding white chocolate to it to create the caramel appleganache.  So that’s exactly what I did.

When I made the caramel apple base, the flavor was prettyamazing, caramel apple goodness. However, when I added the white chocolate tothe mix, the apple flavor was masked a bit by the sweetness of the white chocolate.

Originally I thought the ganache was going to be stiffenough to slab and that’s how I let it set up, but it was quite a bit softerthan I expected.  This ended up workingto my advantage because I decided to purchase some apple schnapps to boost theappleliciousness of the chocolate.  So Itook the soft slab and reheated it and added the apple schnapps.  And there is was again, the caramel appletaste I was looking for.

I recently purchased some new colored cocoa butters andmolds for this chocolate season to experiment with some different molding andfinishing techniques, so I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to tryit out.  I took the opal and green cocoabutters and swirled them inside the mold with my finger to create a swirled effect.

I decided to shell the molds with dark chocolate, since Ialready had the sweetness of the white chocolate trying to mask the caramelapple flavor, I did not want the shell to also dull the flavor.  I have to say that they turned out quite nice.  I think the “Apple Capital” would be proud to have this chocolate represent the cash crop of the valley!

Molasses Caramels!

I love molasses.  My Mom used to make molasses crinkle cookies when I was a kid that I just couldn’tget enough of.  I do however believethere is a love/hate relationship with molasses.  There are some people (like me) who couldjust eat it straight out of the jar, and then there are those who try it and want to gag.  I also think it’s become one of those flavorsthat people rarely eat anymore, so they really are unsure of whether theytruly like it or not.  I ran into quite afew of the latter folks when I was handing the semi-finished product out forpeople to try, most said, “Well I don’t know whether I like molasses or not.”So I told them to give it a try, 9 out of 10 liked them.  Well for that matter, everyone did…(or they were just being nice)

I’m currently a member of an online culinary society calledegullet that is just full of helpful information in the culinary world.  If you’re ever curious about anythingculinary you should check it out.  Youhave to be a member in order to post anything, but just to browse through thethreads you can be any Joe Schmoe on the block. I just recently became a member this year, though I have been browsingthrough the threads since 2006.  Imention the society because one of the members just posted about recentlymaking some molasses caramels.  Whatcould be better than my two favorite things paired together…caramel andmolasses.  So I decided to tackle theingenious creation, as I’m always looking for new caramel ideas.

The recipe was pretty simple, put all the ingredients exceptthe vanilla in the pot (molasses, dark chocolate, sugar, whole milk (I didn’thave any, so I mixed 50% skim milk and 50% half n half), and butter), on mediumheat until chocolate is melted and ingredients are all combined.  The mix will then start to boil, and you willcontinue to boil the mixture until it reaches 248°F.  The problem with measuring the temperaturewith caramel, is unless you have a “candy thermometer” which hooks to the sideof the pot, which I don’t, it’s really hard to measure the temperature with asmall little digital thermometer.  Thesteam that comes out of the pot is quite hot (of course it is its steam forgoodness sake) and so holding this baby thermometer in the pot to measuretemperature is quite difficult.  I triedusing an oven mitt to buffer the heat a little bit, but the thermometer endedup slipping out of the mammoth mitt and straight into the molten caramel.  What an effing mess it was working with thatstupid thermometer.  I’ve pretty muchgiven up on measuring temperature for caramels and just go by the look of the stuff.  As the caramel gets hotter, it starts tothicken, and so I just monitored the thickness, until it was where I wanted itto be (my Mom would always do the same thing), then pulled it off the stove andpoured it into the 8×8 baking dish I had prepped (after adding my vanilla ofcourse).

Once the caramel cooled (I let it cool overnight), I cut itinto squares.  The consistency isperfect, just the right amount of chew. However, it is a bit soft, and so has a tendency to spread if left toits own devices.  I decided that I wasgoing to go outside my normal comfort zone of dipping in dark, and actually dipthese babies in milk chocolate.  Myreasoning behind this is that I usually dip in dark to cut the sweetness of theganache I’m enrobing.  However, as we allknow, molasses is pretty bitter all on its own, so I decided to up thesweetness ante just a tad and dip them in milk. Once the caramels were dipped I scored the top with a little filigreedesign, and added 3 dots of dark chocolate for decoration.

 

These little guys are quite delightful I must say, so much,that I’m in a dilemma of whether I should add them to the Holiday menu and takesomething else away.  The question is:which would I swap?

Kitchen Design

When I was in college I decided my Junior year that I wanted to go to culinary school, so to beef up my food knowledge and skills I decided to tack on a Food Science Minor to go along with my Classics Major (they fit together perfectly, right?). In one of the classes I took we had to come up with a small food service business design a logo, menu, and more importantly a kitchen layout which also diagrammed the work flow to make sure we were being as efficient in our design as possible.

This summer I started using those tools I learned in the class to start brainstorming how I want my “dream” chocolate kitchen to look like. Only this time I did a lot more research into the equipment I wanted to use, dimensions, price, etc. (I apologize that some of the images are hard to read, they scanned in rather light!)

Kitchen Design #1 (Not to Scale)

The first design was not to scale, though I was being all precise with straight-edges and whatnot. However it was not quite right, the flow was a bit off.

My second draft was a bit more on track, but I just did a rough sketch. So then I decided to get some graph paper, look at all the equipment on a multitude of websites to get the correct dimensions, then figure out based on where things are placed, how big a room I was looking at needing, just for the back end of my shop.

Kitchen Design #2 (To Scale)

It started out being around 1050 sq. ft. Which isn’t massive, but isn’t tiny either. I also noticed with my second design, there was a ton of open space in the middle of the room, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if I needed to reduce the size of my back room, I would want to utilize that space.

Kitchen Design #2 (Drafted)

I then decided that instead of taking the time to draft my design on paper (which I enjoy, but gets time consuming if I’m constantly plan on making changes), to the computer and started drafting my design. I made a computer copy of my second design, then took it and created a 3^rd design by utilizing more of the open space in the middle which decreased the square footage to around 800, which is by quite a bit.

Kitchen Design #3 (Drafted)

One thing I did discover through the course of my research of kitchen equipment is how darn expensive it all is. I will strive to get most of my equipment used or refurbished to go along with my “green” mantra, but even used I think I’m looking at $25,000-$30,000 easy just based on bare bones equipment in the kitchen.

It’s a bit tricky to try and draft a kitchen design when you have no idea what the space you’re going to get is going to look like, or how much space you’ll actually end up with, but I just wanted to get down all the equipment I would like to have and where I would want it if I could build my back end from the ground up.

This is just one more stepping stone in the path to Business Plan nirvana, and I feel the future is bright and ripe for the taking.

Holiday Chocolates!

Christmas is right around the corner right? Well, we do have Halloween and Thanksgiving to celebrate first, but I’ve decided this year to get a jump on the game and start thinking about my holiday menu a full 2 months beforehand.

The reason? Well other than it’s better to pre-plan than procrastinate and then get angry when the box order you need isn’t going to arrive until 2 days before you need to ship out your orders if you’re lucky…though this is a very important reason to pre-plan, it was actually a phone conversation I had with my sister last Sunday.

It’s funny because my sister and I can get on the phone and talk for hours, literally, and never run out of things to talk about. She is really one of the few people I really enjoy talking on the phone with, but I digress. During our conversation, she mentioned that she had a booth registered for the Christmas bazaar that is being held in my home town the first weekend in December, and wanted to know whether I would like her to have order forms available for people to order holiday chocolates. It got me thinking, “Well, why don’t I just go and sell some chocolates early, give away some samples, and possibly drum up some more business for the holiday season. So I told her that and she was all for it.

Therefore the idea was born, I’m going to feature Yeti Chocolates at the Christmas bazaar in Troy, MT the first weekend in December. And so I really need to get on the ball and have my Christmas menu nailed down by then.

This lead to a frenzy of trying to decide what supplies I was going to need so that I could start the laborious task of ordering supplies and get them on the way, so I could start test batching potential new flavors.

So far the tentative menu is this:

Huckleberry Creme – Homemade huckleberry jam made by my lovely sister Jamie layered with a white chocolate vanilla bean ganache.

New! Orange Marmanier – Dark chocolate meets orange marmalade and Grand Marnier. Need I say more

Smith ‘n Wesson – All time favorite. White chocolate Kahlua and milk chocolate espresso layered.

Masala Chai – Dairy free delight, homemade masala chai infused into a dark chocolate coconut milk ganache.

New! Nutty Fluff – Here’s one for the kids (or the kids at heart!) Peanut butter filling and marshmallow creme meet in a dark chocolate shell. My version of the “fluffer-nutter”.

New! Nibby Bite – Dark chocolate with cocoa nibs. Simple yet divine.

Candy Cane Bark in Milk, White, or Dark

And either Pumpkin Caramel or Egg Nog as the holiday selection.

Which, if you would like to put in your two cents on which one should be crowned “holiday selection of 2011″ please cast your vote!

Pumpkin Caramel – A milk chocolate pumpkin caramel ganache, quite popular in 2010, and the current leader in the polls.

OR

Egg Nog – Homemade egg nog is paired with white chocolate to create an irresistible combination. I would have to say it’s my personal favorite of the two, but I don’t want to sway anyone’s opinion. I just really love egg nog!

Some other options I’ve been tossing around adding to the menu are some “sweet spicy nuts” and a peach vanilla pate de fruit (jellies). That will probably be decided either sooner or later, so stay tuned!

I’m looking forward to chocolate season making it’s entrance, as fall is definitely upon us in the Wenatchee Valley. But I welcome it, it will be a nice break from the sweltering heat of summer.

Next order of business…in search of the elusive commercial kitchen!

Life Block?

Even though I haven’t come close to neglecting my blog as much as I’ve done in the past, I do feel as though my blog hasn’t received the TLC it deserves.

It’s not that I haven’t wanted to update the blog, it’s just that I’ve developed a bit of writer’s block, or more appropriately “Life Block”.

It’s amazing how much life tends to get in the way of pursuing goals, projects, passions. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s ever wished to independently wealthy, but now more than ever that wish would be pretty helpful.

There seems to be more than a handful of things on my plate that seem to scream for my attention, and it gets tricky at times to decide what takes priority.

Unfortunately because Yeti Chocolates is still just a project, it seems to fall through the cracks, when things like family conflict, worker’s comp, when am I going back to my current job, where I’m spending the winter, going back and forth on whether or not to buy a house, etc. seem to take precedence. When did life get so complicated?

Though I’m still doing research here and there about LEED standards, cost analysis on my truffles and planning this winter’s menu, I’m still not quite where I want to be with my business plan. That is why I haven’t kept up on the blog like I’ve wanted, because I felt I had nothing interesting to report.

Hopefully things will get ironed out with a lot of stressful entities of my life in the next month, and then I can focus more effort into more important things, like test batching dairy free fleur de sel caramels, and whether I can locate a commercial kitchen to make chocolates in this winter.

So stay tuned, though I currently have a “Life Block” set up at the moment, it too shall pass soon and more interesting things to report will be posted!

Where to Locate???

The process of trying to decide where you want to set up shop can be tricky. There are many factors that come into play:

1) Is this somewhere I want to live?

2) Am I ready to settle down for awhile?

3) Will there be enough “traffic” to support the business?

4) Is the area diluted with the same goods?

5) Is my product unique and desirable enough to succeed?

Those are 5 of many questions that float through the head of anyone who wants to start their own business.

Since I started this venture back in 2006 I have moved to a few different places, each very different from the last, but none that really fit the criteria I was looking for.

Portland, OR: This was my #1 place to set up shop for a time. What a great city, so much diversity, has everything you could ever need or want, bike commuting, super eco-conscious, close to the coast and the mountains, Mt. Hood…the list goes on. The biggest set back is there are so many chocolatiers and chocolate companies in that place that I don’t feel I could successfully break through in the market.

Bend, OR: Would have been a decent place; affluent population, decent tourism, and no real artisan chocolatiers that I’m aware of. Unfortunately the high desert never really appealed to me, other than having the beauty of the Cascade mountains in stark contrast to the surrounding landscape. I just never really felt at home in Bend, so the search continued for my niche.

Detroit, OR: (not Michigan, though that’s what everyone thinks when I say I work for the Forest Service in Detroit). There’s no way I would start a business in Detroit, OR. As beautiful as it is, to be completely surrounded by amazing Doug Fir forests, on the west side of the Cascade mountains, for those who’ve never been to Detroit, OR, the place is tiny…blink and you’ll miss it. The chances of having a successful chocolate business are pretty much nil.

Wenatchee, WA: I originally came up here this summer for a detail to rappel with the Wenatchee Valley Rappellers. Unfortunately due to an untimely hip stress fracture, that went by the wayside. However in the small amount of time I’ve spent in the area I’ve fallen in love. I can’t exactly pinpoint what it is about this place, but I’m mesmerized by it. I can definitely see myself staying in this area for awhile and setting up shop here. That being said, I’m in a bit of a dilemma because there are 3 potential places I would be interested in having a chocolate business, Wenatchee, Cashmere, and Leavenworth. Wenatchee has potential, decent population, influx of people in the summer/fall due to the agriculture in the area, no artisan chocolatiers in business, and I like living here so far. My only hesitation is that though there is a decent population, it’s not a very affluent population, so could the city support an artisan chocolate shop?

Cashmere, WA: I love this little town. It’s about 6 miles outside Wenatchee, and I feel it has great potential as an artsy fun place to set up shop, and there has been a lot of development in the area in the last couple years which is promising. There isn’t an artisan chocolatier here either, and the “Aplets and Cotlets” factory is based here, so those who like them (amazingly there are a lot) bring in a decent tourist population. I could definitely set some roots down here as well. I spoke with a woman who just recently opened a little cafe/eatery and said that things were going really well for only having been open for 2 weeks. That was promising. Finding a place to set up shop I feel would be my biggest hurdle, as well as having enough “traffic” to sustain a storefront.

Leavenworth, WA: Bavarian Village in Washington. The place makes me giggle a little bit every time I drive through it. Murals on all the walls of the buildings, all the writing is in “Old English” style font, right down to the McDonalds. It’s in a beautiful location, set right up against the east side of the Cascade Mountains. And the tourism is out of control all year round. I went to get my bike fixed on a Monday afternoon and it felt like a Saturday in town, there were just loads of people milling about. I’m sure this would be the safest/smartest place to set up shop. Plenty of “traffic” to keep the storefront busy, there’s one other artisan chocolatier, “Schocolat”, I’ve had their chocolates and they rival mine, but they have a very different approach to their business than I do so I feel it would be a nice balance. I guess my reservations with Leavenworth stem from how the city is set up, as a Bavarian village. I’m sure having a mural of a big ol’ Yeti handing out chocolates to little children in lederhosen would work, but would my business concept really draw the type of people who come to a faux Bavarian village? And though I would need to research this so I don’t have the answer of whether my eco-friendly concept would even be allowed…with regards to zoning and building laws of the city?

Of course I have to do a lot more research and figure out how to understand the trends of each city to know where the safest/smartest place to have a business would be. Of course I’m not planning on making a solid decision for a little while, but honestly my gut is saying Cashmere…what do you think?

Yeti Chocolates Cafe Design

I don’t know how many people have ever attempted to write a business plan, but it’s a pretty overwhelming, and mostly dry but important process. Once I figured out it was pretty much the only way to get financial backing, I went to the SBA (Small Business Association) website http://www.sba.gov/to get some ideas of what needed to go into the business plan and how to go about writing it. However, by going through bits and pieces on the website my brain felt like mush and thoughts of throwing myself off a cliff in despair came to mind.

Luck had it though that I was perusing the business section in the Barnes & Noble in Bellevue, WA and stumbled upon “The Right-Brain Business Plan” by Jennifer Lee, and my spirits raised a bit. It’s a creative way for those who aren’t completely analytically inclined to tackle writing a business in a more creative way. You can check out the book at http://www.rightbrainbusinessplan.com/. Jennifer Lee give you exercises to explore where you are with your business and where you want to go with it. It has been immensely helpful in the business plan writing, and I recommend it to anyone who is thinking of starting a business and needs more of a creative perspective.

One of the exercises is to take 15 minutes and listen to this recording (or have a friend read) this passage talking about what you envision the future of your business. Thinking about the type of customers you will be drawing in, the surroundings of your business, where you fit into it, and essentially what you feel the future holds for your business.

In doing this exercise it gave the opportunity to really explore what direction I want to take Yeti Chocolates. And here is my idea…

I’ve always eventually wanted to have a store front, but I also think it would be really fun to have not only a “chocolate shop” but a “cafe style” shop. When people come to the “Yeti Chocolates Cafe” they will be able to not only order chocolates, but enjoy them with a cup of espresso, or in house made hot chocolate with in house made marshmallows. There will be menus on the tables that outline all the chocolates that are currently being offered. There will also be a wine/beer cooler so you can pair a nice wine or beer to take home with your box of chocolates.

To tie in with my last blog post, the place will be quirky, and mismatched, with lots of little nooks and crannies for people to have intimate conversations without feeling the whole place can hear them. The wooden furniture will be painted in either dark brown or powder blue to go along with the Yeti Chocolate theme colors. The walls will either be dark brown or powder blue with the “Yeti” footprints stenciled on the walls in quirky ways. I also want to have local artists bring in art to hang on the walls that can be for sale, changing artists every month or two.

There will be one of these three possible scenarios:

1) A window that allows customers to see into the chocolate production area to give them an idea of the operations

OR

2) An area set aside behind the counter that will allow me to do chocolate making demos 1-2 times a month

OR

3) Once or twice a year set up chocolate tours at the shop so people can pay a fee to go into the chocolate production area and check out where the chocolates are made and get a box of chocolates, coffee voucher, or some special gift for paying to take the tour.

One of the bigger components to the whole place that is very important to me is to make the place as eco-friendly as possible. I want to either build my shop from the ground up or renovate an existing building to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, learn more at http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19) compliant. Since I’ve fallen in love with the Wenatchee Valley area, this place would be really easy to set up for solar/wind powered energy. I want to have a recycling and composting program set up in the front and back of the house. Offer compostable packaging (as much as possible) and compostable “to-go” coffee cups and silverware. For the smaller chocolate boxes (single or 2-3 chocolates) I intend on taking old greeting cards and making them into boxes, and just having a stamp with my logo that will be stamped onto the top of the box, just making sure the chocolates are in “food safe” containers to remain compliant with the FDA. All the furniture and rugs would be second hand to tie into the whole “reduce, re-use, recycle” and “quirky/mismatched” concept. Another idea I would like to implement would be using collected rainwater for wash water, or at the very least for the toilets, though I need to look into the regulations.

It has become a very passionate interest of mine to reduce my impact of the planet as much as possible, and I feel that the number of people who are also interested in that idea is growing and so they will appreciate the steps I’ve taken to make my business as “green” as possible.

What Makes a Coffee/Chocolate Shop Successful?

So I recently posed a question on my facebook wall, asking my friends which coffee/chocolate shop setting they would feel more at ease in, a “Starbucks” style of uniformity, or a quirky more mismatched setting. I only got 10 responses, but it was 100% in support of a quirky mismatched setting.

This of course poses many questions, such as probably the biggest, why is Starbucks so successful then if people would rather (I realize 10 people is a pretty small percentage) enjoy a cup of jo in a more “homey” setting? Is it because they are literally on every street corner of America these day, and therefore convenient? I mean I would be a hypocrite if I said I didn’t buy Starbucks coffee…but honestly, if there were Thump coffee houses in a plethora I would ditch Starbucks in a heartbeat to get my coffee fix. But would having a chain of Thump coffee houses all over the US make Thump not as special or make it lose all the charm that makes it great? I don’t really have the answer to that, but maybe the key to a good coffee shop is that it’s unique enough so that when you have the choice to go to one or the other you will choose the only you really love, and when they aren’t available, you’ll go back to the more “convenient” one. And you also really enjoy those moments when you get to enjoy that delicious cup of coffee from your favorite place because they aren’t everywhere, so if you don’t live in the place where you’re favorite shop is (like me Thump is in Bend, OR and I’m in Wenatchee, WA) it makes it that more magical. And that’s probably why both of these coffee shops are successful, one in their mass production of stores all over America, and one for being so unique and by providing such an amazing product, that people will keep coming back (as I go back to Thump for coffee literally every time I visit Bend).

However, I sort of digress…I’m sure you’re wondering “what the heck does Starbucks and Thump have to do with chocolates?” Well one of the big things you have to think about when you are trying to decide how you want to run your business and when writing a business plan, is how are you going to set yourself above the competition? What is going to make people choose your business over another? For me this has been a bit of a debate, do I continue this as a part-time seasonal operation, or do I just bite the bullet and go into a full-scale operation? And if I go full-scale, what will separate me from the competition?

There are many ideas I have floating in my head on what I want to do with my chocolate shop that I feel people will feel passionate about and support. The number one of course has to be a good product. And I feel I’m well on my way to (and in some ways already have) a fabulous product. But I feel it extends beyond just the product. Is it a place that makes people feel welcome, and a place that when they leave will make them want to tell their friends about it? And to bring it full circle, that is why I posed the question to my friends and got the response I got. Maybe this is because I attract a certain personality type, and maybe that’s true, but I feel it goes beyond that. I think more and more people in my generation are looking to go back to those same “local” places that make us truly enjoy why we chose to live in that place, or that area. Buying local, recycling, being “green”, reducing your carbon footprint, all seem to be important issues a lot of people are in support of, and it’s something I’m also passionate about and want to bring forth with my business. I’m sure there are many people out there who still want to feed the beast that is corporate America, but I think there’s enough of people around who support the idea that I’m trying to create that it’s worth pursuing. Hopefully my financial backers (when it comes to that) feel the same way

Yeti Chocolates Update

Hello All!

Well it’s amazing what limited Internet access and time will do for a blog, but I did not realize it has been two years since I posted anything. I realize that part of the appeal of a blog is to update it frequently, like my friend Rachel Breeding does with her blog “The Life of Mountain Pie”, but I guess time just got away from me. However, I have been given an opportunity and time to do a bit of personal reflection and to catch up on things I’ve neglected, so I’m dusting off the dilapidated blog and breathing new life into it.

Though you wouldn’t know it from the lack of blog posts, Yeti Chocolates is alive and well and has been the past couple years. Through all the moves, the new clientele, the old faithful customers, new chocolates, more chocolate failures, overall it has been a great learning experience for me. Yeti Chocolates even has it’s own Facebook page! You can view it at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yeti-Chocolates/244706083691, if you have Facebook that is.

Through all my travels to new places while working for the US Forest Service, and pushing my delicious chocolates onto new people, the one thing I’ve discovered is that people really like my chocolates. And I truly don’t feel that people are saying that just to be nice, I’m really getting the impression that I have a really good product that I need to get on the market, for real.

So since I’ve been given this opportunity and time for “personal reflection” for the next 2 months, I’m going to start the laborious task of writing my business plan for Yeti Chocolates. So that hopefully by the time I’m 30 (which is closer than you think) Yeti Chocolates will be an online/storefront sensation. I think I’m finally ready to make this dream a reality, and hopefully this time I’ll do a better job of keeping this updated so those of you out there who do read my blog will be in the know on where Yeti Chocolates is and where it’s going.

Smith ‘n Wesson Chocolate Process Part 3

The final installment of the Smith ‘n Wesson Chocolate process is making the Espresso Ganache, filling the mold, tempering chocolate, capping the mold, and unmolding the chocolate.  

Espresso Ganache

Step 1: Melt milk chocolate (I get my milk chocolate in discs, so no chopping is required) over double boiler until melted, then set aside.

Step 2: Scale milk in a pot; grind Stumptown Hairbender Espresso coffee beans and add to scaled milk. I get my Hairbender Espresso from my favorite coffee place in Bend, Thump Coffee.  If you are ever in Bend and you love a great cup of coffee, you should definitely check them out.

Step 3: Heat milk/espresso mix on stove and heat until it just reaches a boil.  Pull off the stove and cover with aluminum foil to steep.

Step 4: After about 5 minutes, strain the espresso from the milk, scaling the amount of milk left over, in order to replace the amount of milk loss with cream.  Then add corn syrup and reheat to just a boil.

Step 5: Add milk/espresso mix to chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes to cool.

Step 6: Create emulsion with chocolate and milk mixture.  

Step 7: Add coffee paste to emulsion and mix to combine.  Now ganache is ready to pipe into the molds.

Time to make espresso ganache: 25 minutes

Piping Espresso Ganache into Mold

Since I already explained this concept in the last post, I don’t want to repeat and bore you with the same details, therefore I will just add a few pictures to hit home the idea.

Time to pipe espresso ganache into mold: ~5 minutes

Again the wait time before these chocolates can be finished is around 4-8 hours.  I usually let them sit overnight to give them extra time to set unless I’m in a hurry, then I will only wait the minimum amount of time before I finish them.  Once they are ready to be “capped”, which is simply sealing them with tempered chocolate, the process of chopping, melting and tempering chocolate will take place again.

Time for chopping, melting and tempering chocolate: ~2.5 hours

Capping Chocolates

Step 1: Ladle tempered chocolate onto the mold, covering all the cavities with tempered chocolate.  Using either a bench scraper or a painter’s scraper, spread the chocolate over all the chocolates and scrape away most of the excess.  Then set aside in order to let the chocolate begin to set.  

Step 2: Once the chocolate loses it’s shine take the scraper and scrape away all the excess chocolate so the bottom layer of chocolate in the cavities is flush with the mold.  If small holes appear from air escaping the cavity, use a small spatula to spread a small amount of chocolate on the cavity to fill the whole.  Now the chocolates are ready to be unmolded.

Time to cap chocolates: ~15 minutes

Unmolding the chocolates

Unmolding the chocolates is generally the easiest thing you will have to do when making a batch of molded chocolates.  The cool thing about chocolate is that it contracts when it cools, and therefore it shrinks away from the mold and easily falls out when the mold is flipped over.  However, sometimes the chocolate doesn’t always contract entirely away from the mold and won’t just drop out of the mold when flipped over.  To solve this problem, the mold will just go into the refrigerator for ~10 minutes or so as chocolate contracts even further when it cools.  That’s why you don’t want to keep your artisan chocolates in the refrigerator as prolonged exposure to cold will cause cracking and imploding by the chocolate shell.  Once the chocolates are released from the mold, the mold is simply flipped over and the chocolates will drop out.  Now the chocolates are ready for packaging and sale, or simply to be “sampled” by the chocolatier.

Time to unmold chocolates: ~5 minutes 

This is the conclusion of the Smith ‘n Wesson chocolate making process.  I hope it was an informative set of posts to give you an insider perspective on what it takes to make a batch of chocolates.  I also hope you enjoyed the time breakdown to give you a more accurate picture of how much time also goes into a batch of chocolates.  And though they are a labor and time consuming process, they are an amazing chocolate, worth every bit of effort that goes into them.  

Total time to produce a batch of Smith ‘n Wesson chocolates: ~20 hours or at least 2-3 business days time.