Feed: Homemade Chocolate - The Secret Chocolatier's Diary - AggScore: 81.5

Chocolate at the James Beard House

As you can tell I’m still playing catchup from the end of the 2011 holiday season. During which we were asked by Chef Joe Bonaparte of the International Art Institute to help him with a part of the James Beard New Year Dinner.

For those that do not know of James Beard, his foundation and dining experience..

A cookbook author and teacher, James Beard was a champion of American cuisine who helped educate and mentor generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts. Today, the Beard Foundation continues in the same spirit by offering a variety of events and programs designed to educate, inspire, entertain, and foster a deeper understanding of our culinary culture. [...]

To celebrate, nurture, and preserve America’s diverse culinary heritage and future.

Least to say we were very honored to be asked to participate.

Chocolate Foie Grais

Chef Bonaparte wanted to bring a little something special to the attendees of the Beard house and decided upon using Hudson Valley Foie Gras. If you haven’t ever had foie gras (and in this case it’s a duck liver) you should find a chef that can source it and prepare it well.  Chef went with a quick curing with port wine, salt and pepper. A very simple treatments to something which can be a prize unto itself.  If you’ve never had foie grais it may be a love or hate idea, it’s very earthy, very thick, robust, full bodied.  Just a bit at a time will do.

Finding the Chocolate to Fit

Over an afternoon we discussed and sampled a number of dark chocolates ranging from 60-80% to coat the foie gras. Like many of our own chocolates we understand that you don’t want other flavors competing with a presentation, and this was definitely something to present.  In the end we decided to go with our TCHO 60.5% blend, the heart of most of our chocolate ganaches. It brought out the perfection of chocolate but did not get in the way of a wonderfully prepared foie grais.  We then decided that the same sea salt (Murray River out of Australia) would be a great compliment bringing out the sweetness in both the chocolate and foie grais.

Cutting, Dipping, Sampling, Enjoying

A few weeks rolled by our season came and it began to ebb.  Chef Bonaparte’s foie gras was delivered and he gave it the preparations he wanted to. We came together during one of our closed days, prepped a work environment, setup our chocolate tempering machine and began to do something we don’t often do–dip a protein.

The duck was chilled and Chef cut it into exacting shapes, then chilling it again to remain in shape.  When foie gras gets warm it becomes tacky and gooey–good for eating but not good for dipping. We’re used to the process with our ganache but this was even more temperamental.  We got through them all, with a few missing for quality control–a delicious job.

A Toast to Chocolate Truffles

Wrapped and packed we went on to our next job. We’re also going to be sending our chocolate truffles for the midnight toast paired with Shelton Vineyards Blanc de blanc (out of NC’s Yadkin Valley.) With the help of Anita Skogland, a wine instructor and connoisseur she helped us pick out a coconut chocolate truffle and chai tea chocolate truffle to be sent along.

Blanc de blanc’s tend to be light and dry–citrus, floral, clean–made only with a chardonay. Our coconut truffle is made with coconut cream instead of a dairy cream with a little toasted coconut for texture and our chai is an organic masala blend. A light and island sweet and a spicy tea would go great with something so elegant.

The Evening Was Grand

While we would have loved to attend ourselves we could only live vicariously through text messages and a followup with Chef Bonaparte. The evening was a great success and everyone had a very enjoyable meal including our additions. We were glad to be included and set aside time to help with the event. Being something different from our usual routine we learned a lot and it was a joy to work with another Chef in our kitchen.

Simple and Sweet Chocolate Contest

We’re running a very simple, very sweet Valentine chocolate contest.

If You Love Us, Then Show It

We’re looking for fun and creative elements from a photo of you and a sign of your affection or a simple something on your blog that shows you care about what we are doing.

Every day we share our passion with you all. We put many hours into our chocolates and confections and we know it shows from the smiling faces we see day in and day out. This is a small opportunity for you to reflect a little bit of that back our way.

The Prizes

1. The Gifted Box Artisanal Plate & 16 Box of Assorted Truffles & Caramels
2. A 12 Box of Assorted Truffles & Caramels
3. A 9 Box of Enrobed Brownies, Truffles, & Chocolates

Rules of Participation

This contest is run for fun and the love of the craft. If you want to participate all you have to do is show us why you love The Secret Chocolatier:

• Record a video and post it on YouTube or our Facebook Page
• Take a picture and post it on a photo sharing site or our Facebook Page
• Write about us on your blog or tumblog
• Include in any of these a link to thesecretchocolatier.com
• Post a comment here telling us where to find your entry
• You can enter multiple times
• Entries must be in by end of Sunday February 12th

The Fine Print

All entries belong to you, we ask that they be licensable under Creative Commons 3.0 BY CC.  Winners will be picked on Monday the 13th by a round of family viewing and voting. If your entry is selected as a winner we will contact you on Valentine’s Day and depending on locality invite you in to pick up your winnings, or work on shipping the goodies out to you that week.

Thank You to The Gifted Box

The Gifted Box is a wonderful Charlotte boutique gift shop where you can find the most lovely and decorative gifts. Blown glass and artisan crafted works surround you in the shop and we are thankful for their donation to our giveaway. If you are looking for something unique and beautiful look no further than The Gifted Box.

The Secret Chocolatier Thanks Twenty Degrees

In Charlotte the chocolate community is still in its infancy.  There is good and bad to that. The good side is of course first mover advantage. We path find for the rest of the community to come in behind the wake as we set the bar higher for chocolates (and confections.)  The downside is as we grow we need to keep an eye out for new equipment options and sometimes we have to travel far to see just what this or that machine can do for us.

Enter the Sweet Casey Hickey of Twenty Degrees

I’ve known Casey for at least a few years now. We both ran into each other on our chocolate peer network, The Chocolate Life, and I’ve visited her on a number of occassions to just talk shop and ideate about the future.  She’s a wonderful lady and I can say hands down I respect her chocolate creations above many.  Someone who understands what a real ganache should be is King, or in this case Queen in my book.

Guitar for Chocolate, Isn’t that an Instrument?

For our recent visit Chef Bill and Robin visited Casey to experiment on her guitar cutter.  A guitar is often misunderstood as the playing instrument, and while it does have a lot of “strings” they aren’t for playing, they are for cutting that sultry sweet soft chocolate ganache.

As many know we’ve done everything by hand for years.  However we have to become more efficient or we run the risk of injury.  Scooping so many truffles started leading to carpel tunnel in the shop, we cut our squares by hand and that can lead to accidents of their own.  I’m trying to introduce new tools which allow us to keep our artisan creations without sacrificing on the quality.  A guitar would allow us to cut our ganache quicker allowing for us to produce more without working harder.  As always work smarter, not harder.

At the end of the day Chef was impressed by the tool and added it to one of my many “to-purchase” lists. If he’s good maybe we’ll be able to get one after Valentines day. *grin*

Thanks to Casey for lending her time and shop a moment for us to play. If you’re in the Selwyn area in Charlotte stop by her shop for some great chocolates and pair it with a glass of wine while you’re there.  You will not be disappointed.

Wrap Up of Bridal Open-House in Charlotte

On Sunday afternoon we hosted an open-house to introduce Charlotte brides to what The Secret Chocolatier was all about.  Enjoy a moment to bend our ear, talk their desires, and dine upon our wedding cakes, chocolates and confections.  As well they got to see some demos of our work and myriad of ideas for edible wedding favors that we can do.

It went off amazingly well.

You Do Wedding Cakes?

We’re asked a few times a day, ‘You do cakes?’, ‘You do birthday cakes?’, ‘You do wedding cakes?’, yes–yes–yes.  I know we’re not your traditional chocolate shop that might pair ice cream or gelato with their sweets, we have a veteran pastry chef in our ranks, we can do a lot of things–and they all taste great!

This event allowed us to showcase a few concepts and talk about what we’re capable of.

Wedding Cake Ideas

From the basic, elegant, sophisticated, or whimsical–we have lots of thoughts that we can do and we’re happy to sit and talk about what you need, what you desire.

Charlotte Brides, Regional Brides Welcome

We had roughly 20 tickets RSVP’d and another 5-10 people dropped in without notice. Fine by us! It got a little busy but we had a lot of fun entertaining.  Every family and couple has a different story and take on who they are. It was great to spend a few minutes with each and learning about them and their interests.  Some are having weddings in town, while one is getting married in Miami–that brought up thoughts, challenges, and what could we excel at that could be shipped easily.  We can handle that.

We also met a few wedding planners that wanted to stop in and see who we were and we always love to network within the industry.

Until Next Time

This event was a lot of fun and we’ll do more of these in the future. It’s great to have an intimate setting where you can connect with us.

We’re always available to schedule a private tasting or consultation so if you missed us let’s find time to talk, give us a call at 704-323-8178.

Fall in Love with The Secret Chocolatier

The seasons are really moving by us here at The Secret Chocolatier.  We raced past Thanksgiving and many of the Christmas holidays. Now looking ahead, a mere 3 weeks out is Valentines. Wow!

Christmas is often a think-ahead holiday where Valentines we often find ourselves insane the week of. If you have any pre-order or business orders you need to get placed now is definitely the time to work with us.

Corporate Valentines Gifts

Over the years we have handled some very novel corporate gift orders with themes like ‘Fall in Love with…’  to woo new customers, thank the ones you have, or maybe even reward those who are working with you.  It’s always a good time to share the love.

Let us design an enrobed brownie pop, custom labels, custom boxes, special chocolate or confection selections to cakes in a jar that we can ship to those you want to express a little extra care for.  We make you look good for your VIP’s.  Let our fantastic flavors and quality impress for you.

Check out our PDF on ways that we can show the awesome that you are:

http://homemadechocolategifts.com/downloads/Corporate-Gifts.pdf

Chocolate Valentines Party

Build a platter from our greatest hits for friends, family, co-workers alike. We’ll dress it up and you can eat it up. If you know us then you know quality and taste is where its at so order a platter of delicious chocolate and caramel morsels for your next party.

http://homemadechocolategifts.com/downloads/TSC-Chocolate-Products-Platters.pdf

We’ve got a few new offerings and boxes rolling out early next week so stay tuned for more new treats from our family.  It’s hard work doing R&D in a chocolate shop!

SCORE Awards Ceremony, Sea Salt Caramels

I meant to get to this wrap-up much sooner than now but time waits for no one.  Especially the busy.

When we were developing our business plan, pro forma, and just generally looking for advice.  One place we turned to was SCORE.

SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses start, grow, and succeed nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and has been mentoring small business owners for more than forty years.

Aligning with your SCORE mentor is important.  We were lucky when we were introduced to Chuck Sawicki in that he was able to understand who we were and even had some good ideas on where we could one day be.

SCORE Awards Ceremony

We were asked for the 2011 SCORE Awards to produced a boxed set of dark chocolate sea salt caramels for the 500 attendees. Least to say we were very honored to have been chosen to share our confections.

We all brainstormed for some packaging concepts and settled on a nice octagonal box with hot-stamping of the SCORE Awards logo.  Then I came up with a neat little idea to have a fortune-cookie-eske slip of paper that would have a number of notable quotables and on the backside have our information and a little QR Code for the savvy.

1000 Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels

Chef Bill produced and dipped caramels for 3 days to create the 1000 units required. His recipe for these gems was still in the firming up to memory stage so this allowed him a lot, and I mean a lot of repetition for the amount of small batches that had to be made.

The Littlest Chocolatier Helps Too

Then it was Logan and my turn to get to work.  At this time he was such a light weight I could hold him for hours while I folded boxes.

I learned to do a lot with just one hand. Next time I’ll make sure he pulls his weight more often. *grin*

With it all complete we excitedly loaded up our 50+ lb of confections, iced down, and shipped to DC.  It was funny because we were all a little giddy.  It is always exciting sending out a big package of our chocolates or confections, you just know they’re going to be well received.

A few days later phone calls and emails came in telling us how much the attendance loved our confections and that they had even put a few of our images like the ones here on a big screen showing the family at work.  It did our hearts good, always does.

We’re happy to have been a part of SCORE’s celebration and appreciate their helping us.  We look forward to how we can continue to use such services like SCORE and the SBA in the future as like Logan, we grow up.

If we can help your next function be even better, contact us and lets talk about it!

Charlotte Brides, Open House at The Secret Chocolatier

Charlotte, NC on February January 29th, 2012 from 2:00pm to 4:00pm meet The Secret Chocolatier family, see and taste our work at our shop between South Park and Cotswold.

http://tsc-bridal.eventbrite.com/

Bridal Open House at The Secret Chocolatier

We are a family of chocolate and pastry artisans and we want to meet you.

Shows are often so busy and convoluted that it’s hard to make a connection with someone that can support your desires.  We’re opening our doors for you to come in during a nice Sunday afternoon and get to know us.

Wedding Cake

Try three of our favorite cakes and see some mock cake setups.  You can ask questions about what you might like to see in a cake of your own–for you or your groom.  Learn about what makes our cakes special and find out what others have done for ideas of your own.

http://tsc-bridal.eventbrite.com/

Chocolate Truffles and Confections

We’re also one of the regions best chocolate and confection shops.  Experience chocolate ganaches that do not compromise on quality. Using American craft chocolate without fillers or additives. Creamy textures and wonderful whole food infusions make our flavors better. Check out these delights and more on our chocolate confection tree which could be a great alternative to a cake or a showpiece for your reception.

Wedding Favors and More

Signature chewy, chunky brownie pops to personalized favor bags full of our treats.  See what we’ve got going on in an effort to make your day the best it can be.

Tickets Are Free & Available Now

http://tsc-bridal.eventbrite.com/

Tickets are free, cake and samples are free. Our smiling faces, free too.

You’re also welcome to order a bridal gift pack and take home some of our treats including chocolate truffles, caramels, brownie pops, and mousse for a discount.

We hope you’ll join us!

Correction: Earlier this post mis-stated the date as February, the ticketing site was correct in that it is Sunday January 29th.

Chocolate Shop Metrics 2011

Each year I comb our sales data and try to create a picture for the family of their hard work for the year.  We thought it would be fun to share with you all since this was our largest year ever, and of course it is because of people like you.

The Secret Chocolatier Production 2011

26,000 Chocolate Truffles (or 1/4 mile of truffles)

When you combine all of our truffle infusions we grew over 330% over 2010. That is amazing to us. If you’re the visual thinker if you put all of our truffles together for the year they would extend about 2100 feet or 1/4 mile. In sheer weight it’s over 800 lbs of chocolate ganache.

3,900 Enrobed Brownies (975 feet of brownies)

These chunky chewy brownie bars have traveled far and wide. We’ve decorate them for parties, anniversaries, the seasons, and even made spooky Franken-Treats for Halloween.  We get to have a lot of fun with these dunkable delights.

3,800 Caramels

Our caramels only came out a few months ago and quickly took off like a rocket ship. It took us about 5 iterations to make them the right consistency. Our first batch almost pulled our teeth out! They’ve come a long way and the dark chocolate sea salt versions are definitely the hit of the party.

1,300 Peanut Butter Porcupines

Another new entrant late in the year for those who need to have their peanut butter and chocolate fix. We use our 60% to coat them. Chef Bill then teases a few “spikes” off the tops to make them our Porcupine.

800 Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows

When we moved into our new shop these gems fell off the kitchen table for a while. Remembering that we had forgotten (like that?) they were reintroduced with a thicker dipping and were well received.  I only wish we had brought them back sooner because they are what I call my “diet pills.”

210 Chocolate & Caramel Sauces (or 121 lbs)

Our sauces are delicious. Some of our fans just buy the chocolate fudge sauce and eat it with a spoon. I can’t do that, it’d be gone in one sitting and that would make me feel so guilty.  Our caramel sauce goes great over ice cream, cakes, and more. You can check the households fridges and you’ll find a jar in them I guarantee.

200 Cakes

A combination of our shoebox, circle, specialty cakes, and tortes–we blew the records off our cake orders. From anniversary cakes, wedding cakes, baby shower cakes, and a myriad of life events in between we were happy to celebrate with you.

220oz of Chocolate Dipped Fruits

I have a love affair with chocolate covered ginger and orange peels.  It didn’t take much convincing to get the family to fall in love with me.  We candy our own ginger in house and dip all our fruits in Taza’s 80% dark chocolate.  Scrumptious and satisfying.

Our First Year, Wow

All in all we had a great 2011. It is my desire to grow these numbers by leaps and bounds to firmly put The Secret Chocolatier in stable orbit.  To think of how much of these numbers were generated after our opening in May is just astounding.  We thank everyone who has worked with us, shared the news, given hand holding and hugs when needed.

Now let’s continue having fun and working hard towards further great ends.

2011 Chocolate Year in Review

2011 was an amazing, turbulent, extremely hard working year for us at The Secret Chocolatier. Every year is a hard working year for us. There are only 4 of us (well +1/4 if you include Logan.) 2011 though was a monumental shift for us.  Beginning in January our little shop was more tangible than ever with chocolate shop dreams becoming a reality. Like every construction project we were delayed and delayed and delayed some more with the added bit of blowing budgets, cost overruns, unexpected requirements slowly eating into our running capital.  Hey, who needs to get paid. /chuckle

Chocolate Construction Delays

If it weren’t for a great team we had assembled we might have cracked our shells through the process but we’re happy we hung in there.  We opened silently May 16th much to the chagrin of Chef Bill who thought we were going to have some time to get comfortable and ramp up slowly. Who needs to test their kitchen, let’s sell some chocolate!  Then in mid-June we held our grand opening party.  Still the busiest time we’ve ever had.  With all of our friends, patrons, followers, family, and people seeking what the commotion was about it visiting..it was simply fantastic.

Newborn During the Chocolate Doldrums of Summer

The Summer began to sink in and our slower time of year let us get more comfortable with our new location and equipment.  Robin and I thought it was a good time for Logan Ciordia, our littlest chocolatier, to make an appearance. We have been so lucky to have a son who tolerates being in the shop for 10 hour stretches and enjoys watching us dip truffles or make cakes.  His favorite activity seems to be watching the mixers go round and round.  When he needs a nap he goes to Grandma who bounces him gently and sings a song that knocks him out cold.  As I write this he is napping behind me in his bassinet.  We are very lucky for this time with him.

Falling Chocolate Leaves, Halloween & More

The foothills of Fall snuck up on us and I was pulled out of the shop at a rather critical time, October.  Not only is it one of the most fun times to play with confections–I mean really, you get to make things look spooky, crazy, insane even and get to sell them as edible treats? How much fun.  No, I was sucked away into Federal jury duty on a case that ran over 3 weeks.  I really didn’t want to play in the shop, or go out and work on corporate gifts for the upcoming holiday season.  Listening to prosecutors and defense attorneys go round and round was much more entertaining (/sarcasm.)

The Chocolate Gauntlet of the Holidays

Before we knew it we were in a pitched chocolate battle of the holidays.  November came and went and the gauntlet of the December rush was overtaking us.  We had friends and family pitching in to help fold boxes, wait on customers, handle deliveries. It was a fun insanity that is bittersweet to see go.  We haven’t worked that hard or had that much fun in all of our time.  We shipped hundreds of boxes and sold thousands of truffles in such short order.  Knowing that each person who received our confections would enjoy them did our hearts good.

The Past is Past and the Future is Bright

2011 is done, it’s gone, and many parts of it are fading rapidly as we look ahead to the next chocolate storms on the horizon.  Our hard work in 2011 will be nothing compared to what we hope to accomplish in 2012.  We’re hungry for success and I am ready to see the family firmly  planted in the Charlotte scene.  It’s time to anchor ourselves for the journey ahead and I’m excited that my family is being powered by our passion.

Next Article, Chocolate Metrics

I was going to put it all here but this article has run long enough.. In my next upcoming post I go over just how much of our chocolate, cakes, and confections we produced for the year.  It’s always a fun metric to go over within the family but it gives an outsider an interesting view into how much work it takes to pull off what we do, even if it is just a beginning.

Easy Chocolate Fudge Recipe Revisited

Recently I was asked to share our easy chocolate fudge recipe for an upcoming magazine article.  I thought sure, then paused.. well we haven’t made that in a while so maybe I should do it again just to make sure it still was quality enough to share.  It was just as easy as I remember Bill teaching me and I forgot how chocolate creamy delicious it was.

Great for Kids

If you’re looking for an easy chocolate fudge recipe that the whole family can handle this is it.  Guardians watch the pot and let the kids measure ingredients and help stir. Kids are also easy taste testers and it is rather safe since once you’ve removed the heat and stir in the last ingredients (which are cool/room temp) the temperature drops to a very safe touchable, eat-able degree.

Easy Recipe for Chocolate Fudge

Prep time is 3m, Cook time 5m, Cool time 10-30m (depending on batch size.)

• 6 oz Evaporated Milk
• 1 & 3/4 cups Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 cups Marshmallows Note: if you make your own marshmallows, add a 1/2c more or the fudge will be a little soft. You can leave it exposed for an evening and natural evaporation will solve this “issue” 
• 1 1/2 cups Semisweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Optional Add-ins

• 2/3 cup Chopped Walnuts, or Tart Cherries, or Coconut.. You get the idea. It is very flexible in what can be added–just take it in a direction that your palate would enjoy!

Directions

1. Combine evaporated milk with sugar and salt
2. Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer for 5 minutes
3. Remove from heat
4. Add chocolate & vanilla
5. Stir until marshmallows melt
6. Pour mixture into buttered square pan (9 inches)
7. Let Cool

Makes 2 pounds and the recipe scales so double it up for more, half it for just a personal treat. It really doesn’t get much easier than that!