Flammen & Citronen Chocolate Masterclass

Whilst perusing groupon I discovered a course for chocolate truffle making.  I could always learn more about chocolate. Flammen & Citronen hosted their truffles course here:

The Blacksmiths Arms

The course was held on the top floor up a spiral staircase :( Directly above a pub :)

Here I had many a pint during intermittent breaks which were taken whilst chocolate was being tempered. I'll do stairs for beer and chocolate.

The set up.

The goods.

The course began with chocolate tasting (almost my favorite part.) We were instructed to break pieces of chocolate and listen/feel for the differences in snap. Tasting the  chocolate entails closing your nose with your fingers, placing a square in your mouth, and then inhaling sharply before releasing your nose in order to incorporate oxygen and fully "taste" the chocolate.  This grew tiresome after a while as I was more prepared to stuff the chocolate in my face at my usual pace and this exercise "slowed me down." But it was worth learning. Other more reasonable students seemed to enjoy it.

We were prepared hot chocolate and instructed to place our remaining squares into the hot chocolate to intensify the flavor.  It was very good, but not quite hot. I finished mine and walked down to the pub for pint. 

Here we have white chocolate being tempered. We saw immediately as the cocoa butter started to separate from the white chocolate.  Though it looked a bit like adipose tissue I realized chocolate in all forms is beautiful to me.

After we cooled our chocolate we broke it into equal pieces and rolled the pieces into balls. These balls were then dipped into melted chocolate.

Garnishes: Raw cocoa nibs, pink peppercorns, barberries, a curry spice and a cajun spice.

We had a truffles made from white, dark and milk chocolate. Also a few different garnishes for our truffles in order to experiment with unusual flavors. This was my favorite part as you had to decide which spices you wanted to go on which chocolate.  I tried my hardest to get an even spread of flavors but enrobed in chocolate it was hard to remember which truffles were which. A lot of people just piled an assortment onto each truffle and hoped for the best. 

Our babies went home in tupperware we had been instructed to bring and I'm glad I chose something large. Mine weren't completely set when I took them and stacking them on top of each other would have been disastrous.

All in all the course was worth while.  By the time I left I was fairly buzzed and high on chocolate/caffiene.  I learned how to make delicious truffles and taste a variety of spices with different chocolate which saved me from having to do all the buying and testing from home.  I also learned how to "taste" chocolate properly which I like will never do again.   Time is money.  Money is chocolate.

Muah.

Ganache Chocolatier

Ganache Chocolatier

I stumbled upon this little spot after picking up some Shoryu ToGo Ramen in Soho.  It sells sugar free truffles as well as baklava. 

Assorted baklavas

Halwa: A dense tahini based confection.

Sugar free Truffles

After purchasing a piece of baklava for dessert I place it into my takeaway bag from Shoryu, and promptly soaked my baklava in ramen broth all the way back home :( But it looked delicious. 

Liberty London/Hoxton Street Monster Supplies

 After a few pints at the Shakespeare's Head Pub in Soho we felt ready for some desserts.

A few feet from Regent Street we discovered Liberty.  We have seen many people with bags from this store so we popped in for a look around.  Turns out, Liberty is a department store the majority of the sweets area had fairly standard packages of treats perfect for gifts or souvenirs.

  I was interested in more of a singular cookie or some toffee pudding and turned to leave when I saw the back wall.

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies
~"Bespoke and Everyday Items for the Living, Dead, and Undead!~

"Impacted Earwax"

"Zombie Fresh Mints"

"Cubed Earwax"

"Thickest Human Snot"

"Escalating Panic"

"Granny's Gnashers"

There is apparently a storefront at 159 Hoxton Street.  I will be making my way there shortly.

Spun Candy Confectionary Making Masterclass

The day started off pretty rough.  
I'm new to London and do not yet have a sim card for my phone. Whenever I am traveling somewhere I locate a coffee shop with wifi and write down the directions.  The night before I was to take my Spun Candy Confectionary Making Masterclass I wrote down what I thought was simple and easy directions. I arrived at the Enbankment stop on the tube and in typical London rain began walking down Strand.

Slowly I approached an area that did not look as though it held very many commercial businesses. With only a few minutes to decide whether to turn around or keep going, I instead hailed a cab and explained my situation to the driver.  He plugs Spun Candy into his gps and we are stuck in traffic for about 15 minutes longer than I expected. I arrived at the Covent Garden location 10 minutes late and apologize to the woman behind the counter and let her know I am here for the masterclass. She explains that I have unfortunately gone to the wrong location.

The look on my face prompted her to ask if she could call the correct location to let them know I was on my way.  It took me well over and hour and a half to find the Wentworth Street shop.

When I finally arrived a gentleman walked me over to a back room with which to deposit my belongings. He offered me a glass of wine which I enthusiastically accepted.

I was then greeted by my instructor who then offered me another glass and eventually just brought the whole bottle over when I told him about my day.  His day was similar in that he was late for work that day because someone had attempted to jump in front of the moving train.  That news immediately put my problems into perspective.  I was the only person in this class and he and I started talking about the difficulty of learning the trains, the political systems of our home countries and our love of halloween :)  I was immediately in a better mood.  We were to make a flavored fudge (I chose peanut butter) and honeycomb which is a brittle, biscotti like candy that is very crumbly and delicious.

Peanutbutter fudge

Delicious

Honeycomb

Me and my true love

It took nearly and hour and a half to finish both candies. We broke up the honeycomb and cut the fudge into inch long pieces.  We then packaged them in cellophane bags and tied them each with a Spun red ribbon.  My instructor advised these would make great gifts for friends back home.

My mom loves candy crush so I also picked up a jar of candy inspired by the game.

...And I got a free sucker! As well as a piece of experimental chicken flavored candy.  I felt like i was in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

A great day.