Make your own chocolates

I started my Wednesday by turning up at The Royal Exchange shopping arcade in Bank to meet Paul A Young, master chocolatier, for the first time.
This delicious smelling event was all about making your own chocolates.

Paul A Young talked the assembled crowd of, mainly, women about making truffles.

Mixing chocolate

First off he poured nearly a full tank of melted chocolate onto a stone slab, assuring us that it would not spill on the floor – amazingly it stayed put.

Then got about mixing the cooling liquid chocolate in on itself.

Once the chocolate had cooled to the point of forming ripples, he poured it into the remaining chocolate to finish. 

Rolling chocolate

Now for the tricky bit, he took a small ball of ganache and placed it on his still cocoa covered fingers, taking the other hand to roll the ganache into a perfect ball.

Now for some real fun, he smeared his gloved hand with chocolate and repeated the rolling process on the prepared ganache and turned the finished chocolate in a bowl of cocoa to finish.

Our turn

Making my first chocolate turned out not to be as hard as I had envisioned.

And smearing my hands with chocolates is very messy and extremely fun.

I found my later chocolates decided to squash slightly, but my over all effort was a good one and I even got a compliment. 

The verdict

Hand made chocolates are worth the money and Paul A Young is a chocolate rock star in the making. 

Check out my interview.