Chocolate making class

This weekend I treated myself to a pre-birthday gift and something I have been wanting to do for ages! A chocolate making class! The class was held at my favorite restaurant, the Palisades in Eggleston. The food is amazing and they have their own pastry chief and chocolatier, Devon, who ran the class. We started off with caramels. We didn't make these as they take a while (~6 hours!) but we did benefit from Devon's hard work and got to take these home! (The plan was to dip them in chocolate but we didn't get time in the end.)

Caramels (2 different recipes give the different colors - both super tasty!)

Caramel goodies!

Then we moved onto the best bit: the chocolate. She had a huge tub of it, melted and ready to go. It smelt amazing!

Deliciousness!

There were 8 of us in total in the class, on 2 different tables/workstations. We all got on well and had great fun.

Hard at work

It was all really nerve-wracking! We all wanted to make amazing chocolates. We put glitter at the bottoms and them painted the molds with chocolate. We were all being so careful and exact. (This was actually the easy step.)

Painted molds

After that we had to put in a shell which is where it really started to get messy! The chocolate has to be tempered (between 31.5C and 32C) so was thick. 

First you pour it over, hit the mold to get out the air bubbles, and scrap off the excess.

Pouring onto the molds.

 And then turn it upside and hit it to get the excess out.

Removing the excess form the shells.

This is where is got really messy!!!

After we had all taken turns, we had to wait for them to set so had lunch which was provided by the restaurant, so therefore amazing! The only weird bit was the view from the window. There are  loads of vultures on the trees outside. Apparently they figured out where the dumpsters for the restaurant where a few years ago. Now they have made it their home!

Vultures. 

After lunch, we got to pipe in the ganache. We had pomegranate, passion fruit and a small amount of maple and brown sugar. 

Ganache bags

Piping demo

I really enjoying this bit. It felt so fancy! And we all had to take a taste of the different sorts at the end. Sooooooo good! 

The last step is putting the bottom on. Again, messy!

Adding the shell bottom.

They were flashed in the freezer for a few minutes before being removed from the molds. I was so happy mine came out first time (as they should). And I was amazed how awesome they looked! I love the blue glitter.

My chocolates - pomegranate ganache. 

We spilt up all the chocolates between us so we all got some of each to take home. (Another reason for being so nervous - I didn't want to screw up if someone else was getting them!) I know have a lot of chocolate to eat. :-) Now I want to buy all the stuff to make more!

My chocolates 

After the class I got changed (it was very messy) and headed into Salem and Roanoke with Steve. I found a wine and beer shop called Barrel Chest in Salem which do tasting samples of different wines. I wanted to try different price wines next to each other. Is it really worth spending more money on a really good bottle?

My wines

I had wines between $20 and $60 a bottle. And honestly, the $60 was the best but I wouldn't spend the money (on that one anyway). It was really nice (a Californian) but the others were also good (very drinkable) and much nicer on my bank account! I guess if you have the money, but at least in the case of these, you aren't missing much. (Buy the $20 on half price!)

Champagne tasting

They also did a side-by-side sparkling tasting, a rose champagne and a USA rose. I preferred the Champagne as the USA one was too bubbly. But really shouldn't have anything with bubbles (alcoholic or not). I get bad hiccups.
After the tasting, we found an awesome Brazilian restaurant, one of the top 5 in Roanoke. We spilt a carafe (the bottles were crazy expensive) of white wine. I had lobster and Steve got scrim/prawns. I have never had really good lobster and didn't know what all the fuss was about. But this was really good! I still prefer crab, but I get all the fuss now.

Dinner.

Then we headed into Roanoke town centre to a bar Steve had read about. He wanted to dance. But nothing gets going at that time (~9pm) So we went to a Hookah bar first. Steve had never been to one so as a bit nervous but he got into it. I think.

With my Hookah

Steve started talking to the group next to us. Which was fine. Until we moved and talked to the girl at the end. Leaving me with the guy sitting closest to me. Who started talking about how his dad was in the Hell's Angels and he was in the legacy. (There was no way this guy was even close to Hell's Angels - complete hipster - they would have kicked his ass!) And then how he sold drugs for them, but wasn't into the whole "voom-voom thing". (Again kicked his ass!) He most likely sold drugs. And took more than his share. At that point I paid the bill and indicated (probably not very subtly) to Steve that we were leaving. Now!

We headed to the bar he had read about and got some drinks and he started dancing. Unfortunately this is when the Champagne bubbles really hit! I got serious hiccups! So I people watched. It was a fascinating crowd! 

I got home at about 1.30am. I am so too old for this! I spent today working (and taking naps) and doing a little baking, as I have been reminded that the baking production has been very low recently. So I made cupcakes with homemade chocolate frosting. And felt silly so decorated them. (There were 18 but one didn't make it to this stage. I had to taste test!)

Cupcakes 

Happy weekend!!!