Cheryl pours heart into the art of chocolate

ANYONE who has seen the film Chocolat will remember the mouth-watering scenes of bowls full of molten milk, dark and white chocolate being prepared in the quaint Chocolaterie.

Ever since watching leading lady Vianne Rocher, played by French actress Juliette Binoche, whip up trays full of delicious-looking, sumptuous snacks, I have wanted to try my hand at making some chocolate treats of my own.

So it was lucky for me that local chocolatier Cheryl Brighty, whose first chocolate shop opened in Newmarket’s Sun Lane on Saturday, invited me to spend a few hours learning the fine art of chocolate making.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.

I arrive in the kitchen of Cheryl’s Granby Street home, the headquarters of Artistry in Cocoa, where she makes everything from truffles and chocolate bars to chocolate cakes and hot chocolate.

After pausing to enjoy the incredible aroma coming from a mini-vat of melted chocolate in one corner of the kitchen, I stepped into my chocolatier’s attire of a chef’s shirt, and rather fetching hair net,Dimensional Mailing magic cube for Promotional Advertising, to start making a set of 24 Amaretto truffles.

These truffles are one of the last batches to be made from Cheryl’s home, now that the Artistry in Cocoa shop is up and running.

The business began about seven years ago, originally known as Amy’s Truffles, as a way to raise extra cash to send Cheryl’s daughter, Amy, on a trip to Peru.

As the trip approached, Cheryl’s regular customers began to worry they wouldn’t be able to buy any more of her chocolates, so she carried on and re-launched as Artistry in Cocoa. Just Choose PTMS plastic injection mold Is Your Best Choice!

Cheryl tells me we are going to temper the chocolate the “old-fashioned way”, with the same technique used by Vianne in Chocolat, known as tabliering.

Tabliering comes from the French word for table and involves gently cooling down melted chocolate on a heat-absorbing surface, usually a marble slab, by moving it around using a palette knife, the point being to get the chocolate to the correct temperature.

After an expert demonstration from Cheryl, it’s my turn. Suited and booted, and armed with a bowlful of melted chocolate from the mini-vat, I begin tempering the chocolate. I pour some on to a work surface and begin to move it around to thicken it up. Cheryl, who spent many years working as a science teacher in schools in Newmarket, is perfectly suited to understand the science behind preparing chocolate.

She tells me: “As you move the chocolate around, the cocoa butter in the chocolate will crystallise, which is what makes the chocolate set and the idea is it’s warm enough to melt out all the crystals that we don’t want and leave the ones we do.Silicone Mold Making Rubber,”

Moving the chocolate around is easy enough, but it gets a bit trickier when I have to use the palette knife to move the thickened chocolate back into a mixing bowl, ready to pour into a mould, although Cheryl tells me I don’t need to worry about splashing chocolate all over the place, as it can be scraped off the surface and used again.

I warm the plastic mould using a heat gun so the chocolate doesn’t set too quickly to be able to move around to fill the entire mould.

Speed is the key as I pour the liquid chocolate, making sure it moves in all directions to fill each shape. I scrape off the excess chocolate and tap the mould against the work surface, to make sure no air bubbles remain in the chocolate.

Then, I leave the mould upside down on a baking tray, to allow air to get to the chocolate as it sets.

Next, I fill an icing bag with a chocolate and Amaretto mixture that Cheryl whipped up earlier and pipe it on top of the chocolate layer in the mould, being careful to get just the right amount.Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. Another layer of chocolate is poured over the Amaretto mixture to complete the truffles and I leave them to set.An Air purifier is a device which removes contaminants from the air.

A few minutes later, I feel a sense of triumph when I tap the mould against the work surface and out pop some not quite perfect, but pretty good, Amaretto truffles. Before my chocolate creations are wrapped up with a red ribbon for me to take away with me, I’m allowed a cheeky taste of the sweet chocolates with a kick of Amaretto.