Culinary School - Week 4 (Chocolate and Sugar class only)

Last Saturday in Chocolate and Confectionary we learned how to color chocolate. We had to add oil-soluble colors to the cocoa butter and then stir that into tempered white chocolate. We then swabbed the plastic mold with the colored chocolate using our finger. Then we filled the mold with chocolate and different ganaches. I was assigned a Raspberry ganache with dark chocolate shell. Here's what mine ended up looking like. They were delicious!!!



Here are some of the other chocolates produced by my classmates. The flavors included Madagascar Vanilla, Whiskey Ganache, Cinnamon Hazelnut, Salted Caramel, PB&J, and Vanilla Expresso.



I don't have any pictures from sugar class but we learned all about Pastillage. Pastillage is made of powdered sugar, cornstarch, water, and gelatin. It is totally edible, but it is not meant to be consumed; pastillage is tasteless and very hard once it dries. Pastillage is usually used for making display pieces for dessert buffet tables and pastry competitions.

We spent three hours making about 7 different batches of pastillage, rolling them out, and cutting out different pieces that we will work on over the next 3 weeks. We had to make a small batch each time and work very quickly because pastillage dries out very quickly! One of the projects we are working on will be a picture frame that will hold a cocoa painting and the other will be an artsy clock that we are going to airbrush. I will post pictures once those pieces start to come together.