Michael's Chocolate Making

Amazon Here I'd like to talk about the class I took to make chocolate. Chocolate has been a passion of mine and I really like the taste of it. If it wasn't for the face-breakout-post-eating-chocolate effect I would eat chocolate every day. In this class we began by melting confectioner's chocolate, as it has been tempered and is used in candymaking exclusively.

Here are some candy word scramble puzzles:

• GLOMIND
• SPOILPOLL
• EDIOILUCS
• PEIPDD
• ACHAENG
• RTSAET
• FLRUSEFT

For the following questions, you match the description with a candy name.

• A famous swashbuckling trio of old
• Galaxy
• Twin Letters
• Performed by a large orchestra
• A well behaved man
• Two female pronouns

Chocolate originates from the Aztec word 'xocolati', meaning bitter water. A king of Aztec was believed to eat 50 glasses of chocolate a day because chocolate was believed to be some sort of aprodisiac.

It is very easy to make chocolate. Here is a general procedure:

• Melt Chocolate: You can melt chocolate in two ways: microwave or boil in a double boiler. I prefer using a microwave because it is faster and easier. Either way you need to make sure you stir frequently to prevent chocolate from being burned.
• Mix: You mix different ingredients together.
• Make Centers if Applicable: Centers are simply fillings. Whatever you put inside a piece of chocolate is some sort of center.
• Assemble: If you are making chocolate with centers in them, you should get molds first. They are for sale for about $2 apiece. You paste melted chocolate at the bottom, and wait until it sets. Then you put centers in, and fill the mold with melted chocolate. After you are done you put the whole thing in a fridge until it sets. Then you pop them out.

The cake we made was not anything more special than any ordinary chocolate cake, but we added something special to it - chocolate ganache. It is a chocolate paste we made that we poured over the cake, and that's what gave it a special, pleasant taste.

A candy center is a general term for any filling inside it. You can have cherries, almond, nuts, raspberry, mocha, and so on as centers.

We mixed sugar, cream cheese, chocolate, and some hot water until they were well mixed. The trick here is that too much water would ruin the mixture. It needs to look like clay before you can roll them into balls.

I guess we usually refer to this candy as 'marble chocolate'.

Basically we stirred crushed peppermint candies in melted white chocolate, and that was it..

As I kid I really loved rocky road candy. I bet most kids do. It turns out that it's very easy to make. You simply melt chocolate, spread it in a flat pan lined with parchment paper, and stir in marshmallows and nuts and whatever you like. Put it in the fridge until set, and you are done!

When I heard Chinese candy I thought it's got something Chinese-specific. Am I right. We stirred Chinese noodles in melted chocolate, and put it in the fridge until set.

Making chocolate is easy and fun and it doesn't require any big equipment like jewelry making. Best of all, almost everybody likes it. Before a holiday season I can make chocolate with fillings the recipient likes, and I can even do something personal with it. They make WONDERFUL gifts!