We had a chocolate truffle making class to go to in Boston today, so we decided to stop by
Winsor Dim Sum Cafe in the Chinatown area of town for some Chinese food first, getting the Steamed Pork and Peanuts Dumplings, Steamed Rice Noodles with Dried Shrimp and Scallions,
the Steamed Shrimp and Chive Dumplings,
the Pan Fried White Turnip Cake with XO Sauce,
the Shark's Fin with Pork Dumplings
and the Sweet Tofu.
The food was pretty good, although I did not take to most of the dumplings because of the veggies in them. The turnip cake was the best dish though, being really flavorful.
From here, it was on to the
Elephant and Castle Pub and Restaurant in the Financial District area of town, a bar restaurant where our class with the
Boston Chocolate School was to be held.
When we arrived, a tray with blocks of ganache was already laid down on tables before us,
and the class started shortly after, with an introduction to the history of chocolate making itself,
before telling us that we should never buy Hershey's or Nestlé Chocolate products as they do not contain real Chocolate, and not to buy most cookbooks except for "
The Joy of Cooking" and Julia Child's books, as they are written on purpose for people to fail at them.
He started by making some tea flavored ganache, steeping the tea in heavy cream that was being heated up, and at the right temperature, chocolate bits were added in to mix to make the ganache.
He then coated moulds with tempered dark chocolate,
leaving a thin layer on the bottom to set.
After setting, he poured the ganache in,
then added the second layer of chocolate to cover the ganache, putting the cleaned result in the freezer to set for us to eat later. As for us, as the ganache blocks had been sitting at room temperature overnight, they were ready to be moulded by hand into balls,
then either coated with the powders or coconut bits in front of us,
or coated with the tempered chocolate, which involved dipping the rolled balls of ganache into the liquid chocolate by placing them on a holder,
It required some skill to not let the balls fall into the chocolate, whereupon we would have to fish it out or the chocolate would be ruined when the balls melted into it, but we soon got the hang of it,
placing the coated balls on the tray to set.
We could also be lazy and dip the entire block of ganache into the chocolate to get a chocolate bar, but I wasn't very good at it, as you can see.
With that, we all made our own box of truffles to bring home.
I don't think I'm giving my ugly ones as gifts any time soon though.
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