Cook’n with Class, a cooking school in Paris’ 18th arrondissement, is relaunching its Chocolate Class in Paris next week. To celebrate, it invited several bloggers to attend a prelaunch workshop to raise anticipation for what awaits the general public.
Chef Christian Labrosse and Chef Sarah Tyler were the dynamic duo that taught the class, which was held in a room gaily decorated with rose-colored walls and a patchwork of mosaic tiles. There was plenty of table space for working the chocolate, lots of cooking utensils and equipment – including an induction cooking plate and a mixer, and a small refrigerator for chilling the chocolate.
More importantly, there were five enthusiastic students in attendance ready to dip their hands into the gooey and sugary ingredients that were essential to creating decadent chocolate confections.
Our own Monique Y. Wells, co-founder of Entrée to Black Paris, happily accepted Cook’n with Class’ invitation and showed up at 9:00 a.m. on November 8 to begin her chocolate adventure. During the following three-and-one-half hours, she and four other bloggers learned how to make bonbons, truffles, tablets (chocolate bars), and chocolate mousse.
The students learned the critical skill of tempering chocolate for creating tablets and bonbon shells and prepared four types of filling for their bonbons: caramel, coffee, passion fruit, and praline. They crafted dark, dense, satisfying truffles laced with a touch of Grand Marnier and learned how to roll them in cocoa power for an extra touch of texture and flavor. And they learned how to whip up a perfect chocolate mousse (without making too much of a mess).
Chef Christian and Chef Sarah explained that they had premeasured and grouped all ingredients for all recipes prior to the students’ arrival for two reasons: 1) to save time during the lesson, and 2) to prevent accidental overcooking of ingredients while searching for the next ingredient to be added to the pot.
The students watched as Chef Christian prepared the base for the chocolate truffles and put it in the refrigerator so that it would be ready for use at the appropriate time during the class.
The first hands-on lesson was the making of chocolate mousse. Chef Christian talked about the importance of creating a French meringue of just the right consistency before preparing the additional ingredients for this classic chocolate dessert – he said that the meringue should form a peak like a bird’s beak at the end of the beater. He even held the bowl of meringue upside down over Chef Sarah’s head to show that it had attained the proper consistency to receive the sugar and egg yolk mixture, followed by the melted chocolate/butter combination that comprised the remainder of the recipe.
Once the ingredients were mixed (by hand) to the appropriate consistency, Chef Christian demonstrated how to put the mousse into a piping bag and fill the clear glass serving bowls in which it would set. These were popped into the fridge and space was made on the table for the next lesson of the day – making ganaches (fillings).
The passion fruit ganache was the simplest to prepare and was the only one that used white chocolate. The caramel and coffee ganaches were the most challenging because the ingredients required cooking.
When each filling was finished, it was covered with plastic film and allowed to set at room temperature.
Next, the class turned to chocolate tempering – the heating, cooling, and reheating process that produces chocolate that is smooth and shiny, hardens appropriately, and has a longer shelf life. Chef Sarah and Chef Christian explained that precise temperature control is required for this all-important step for making bonbon shells and chocolate tablets.
Having been impressed by the critical nature of this task, the students carefully and dutifully watched numbers rise and fall on digital thermometers they inserted into a bowl of dark chocolate and a bowl of milk chocolate that they were stirring in preparation for making the shells and tablets.
Several students decorated the molds that would hold the bonbons. A red-orange dot of food coloring was chosen for the dark chocolate-passion fruit variety, while white stripes were chosen for the dark chocolate-hazelnut praline variety. Golden sprinkles were selected for the milk chocolate-caramel bonbons. The dark chocolate-coffee bonbons would go proudly undressed.
Once the chocolate was appropriately tempered, Chef Christian showed the students how to ladle it into the molds, tapping the side of the molds to coat each compartment evenly. He then dramatically turned the mold upside down over the bowl of chocolate to allow the excess chocolate to drain. Using a spatula, he scraped the flat surface of the mold tray to remove the last of the excess and turned it upside down on a tray to allow the chocolate to set.
The students then had a turn at doing the same.
The ladling procedure described above was also used to create chocolate tablets, but instead of turning these molds upside down, students were invited to sprinkle the surface of the melted chocolate with one or more toppings. A lovely spread consisting of candied ginger, cranberries, dried lavender flowers, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, golden raisins, and minced cherries provided an embarrassment of riches from which to choose.
Once this task was completed, the tablets were also set aside to harden.
Chef Christian reached for the ganaches and put them into piping bags. Each student tried her hand at piping the ganaches into their pre-prepared chocolate shells. Then, Chef Christian demonstrated how to seal the shells with additional chocolate and gave each student a chance to do the same.
The last lesson of the day was devoted to making truffles.
Chef Christian removed the truffle paste from the refrigerator, placed it into a pastry bag, and demonstrated how to pipe individual truffles onto a sheet of parchment paper. Chef Sarah explained that she prefers to create square truffles cut from a pan.
Each student piped several individual truffles onto the paper and then, wearing latex gloves, had a turn rolling them into balls. To finish, each student coated truffles with cocoa powder using a tiny, three-tined fork.
Chef Christian took the last of the milk chocolate, spread it paper thin, and dusted it with gold powder to create a decoration for the chocolate mousse. Students took turns breaking the “chocolate paper” into irregular shards and placing them into the bowls of mousse.
The chocolate tablets and bonbons were turned out of their molds with no resistance, and the students began organizing the table for the tasting.
Everyone was amazed at the beautiful work produced during the class. Chef Sarah, who has mastered the art of food styling, arranged all the students’ creations on the worktable for a photo op. Then everyone got to eat a bowl of chocolate mousse and take home a box of bonbons and truffles along with their personal, custom-made chocolate tablet.
The class was fast-paced, super informative with lots of opportunities for hands-on experience, and FUN!
Cook’n with Class
6, rue Baudelique
75018 Paris
Website: https://cooknwithclass.com/
Chocolate Class: https://cookinwithclass.com/course/chocolate-class-paris/
Booking Calendar: https://cookinwithclass.com/cooking-class-calendar
Cook’n with Class has been in operation since 2007. It held its last chocolate workshop in 2017. Up to seven participants will be welcome to participate in upcoming workshops.
