Of Chocolate Dreams & Memories

It was only last year when I was in chocolate heaven - a small patch of heaven on the kitchen floor of ISCAHM across Ateneo. It was only last year when I was literally licking off gooey chocolate on my palms after rolling truffles in my hands in the Pralines Course. 

I had lofty dreams before I joined the class -- of becoming a chocolatier myself, whipping up chocolate truffle goodies and making a living out of it, just like in the movie, "Chocolat." But alas, a year later I still find myself dreaming chocolate dreams and still buying ready-made truffles instead of creating them with my bare hands. Part of the reason I haven't become a billionaire chocolatier as yet is the cost of producing these delectable gems is really prohibitive. It also requires great passion to be able to source the best ingredients and I guess, not everyone in Manila is ready to shell out hard-earned money for a ball of chocolate that melts in your mouth in as little as 20 seconds, longer if you let the chocolate linger till it slowly dissolves in your tongue, slithers around and envelopes your mouth in a sweet, smooth sensation that is simply next to heaven. 

At this point, I can only recall the sweet memories I had last year of being in ISCAHM's kitchen with renowned pastry king, Chef Ernie Babaran. Being there last November was priceless and I guess it's not too late to look back, savor the thoughts and feel the sweet rush all over again! 

Here's last year's story behind the closed doors of PRALINES COURSE of ISCAHM.... I'm thinking I can still follow my chocolate dreams....because as we Pinoys say, it's not too late, Chocolate!

I decided to finish the year with a short course in ISCAHM (Intl School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management). After all, I began the year taking the fundamentals in culinary arts course and I finally managed to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for my family (except it wasn't turkey but coq au vin), so what better way to end 2007 than with a bang -- a sweet one.

Day One of ISCAHM's Pralines Course was all about making Truflle Chocolates. You know, like the ones sold in Leonidas for 80pesos a piece. I thought 80 bucks for a ball of chocolate with a quick shot of gooey, slurpy, liqueur inside is rather steep. But after Day One, the uninitated among us in the making of those truffle chocolate jewels discovered why the stuff costs more than a cup of coffee in Starbucks.

It takes a millionaire to invest in making really good chocolates that you would want to give your very best friends. It requires a tempering apparatus costing P31,000 (and that's the one made in China, which makes the Swiss version of the machine even more expensive), an infrared thermometer to monitor the correct temperature of the tempered chocolate (P3,500 for a really good one), specialty forks and ringed spoons, and for those who wish to make a living doing this, a good cutting machine that will set you back P80,000. AND, that's not even including the marble slab which you must have (to spread the chocolate mix on for the tempering method) that you should keep inside a CHOCOLATE ROOM where you have to spend on expensive chillers to maintain the right temperature for your chocolate. WHEW.

Those of us who enrolled thinking that we could make fancy chocolates for gifts this Christmas could only shake our heads after taking in all these bits of info. They should have included them in the pre-requisites for enrollment. BUT, since we already paid good money for the short course, we had no choice but to relax and just enjoy the experience. I could only wonder to myself how the poor family in the movie "Chocolat" was able to make those marvelous goodies without all these costly gadgets. Oh well, so much for watching too many movies and taking them for real.

So, Day One went really well. We first learned how to make the fancy fillings with the different liqueurs that you want inside the truffle shells. We had Baileys, Kirsch (cherry liqueur), Brandy, and of course, Grand Marnier, mixed with different varieties of tempered chocolate couverture. After doing the fillings and setting them for a day, they had to be piped into the truffle shells and depending on the kind of chocolate gem you're making, you can use three of these pre-made shells: milk chocolate, white and dark.

Piping the fillings into the shells is a skill in itself. You can't pipe in too much of the fillings as if you overfill the shells, they will be too moist and the truffle shells would break. Then there's the whole task of covering the shells with more chocolate couverture and letting them set first before either coating them in Bianca dusting powder or rolling them over wire (for those spiked effects on the truffles).

Looking at the chocolate baths, I was tempted to dip my fingers and licking the chocolate off. BUT YES! I got to do just that after Chef Ernie Babaran (yes, the great pastry chef of Dubai royalty), asked me and my groupmate to dip three fingers into the bath and spread the chocolate onto our palms for rolling the chocolates before coating them in dusting powder! After the rolling task, we had our fill of eating the "rejects" (haha!) and then licking the milk chocolate off of our hands. It was then that I realized why the course was that expensive! You could eat all the chocolate you want and you have a really good excuse to eat melted chocolate from your palms! The course offered sheer pleasure and the realization of every childhood fantasy, short of being locked up in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and scooping chocolate from the river!

And the final moment, of course, was in eating the delectable treats that passed through our hands. Unlike in the fundamentals culinary arts course where students had to muscle each other out for food to bring home, we all had boxes of the pralines ready to bring with us to sample and brag about to our friends and family. I brought my box of goodies and proudly told my husband, our househelp, my kids and some of our staff that I made them! And they couldn't get enough of the chocolates.

So now, we all know why those truffles are more expensive than a cup of Starbucks. They are made with the most sophisticated ingredients, requires the most expensive tools, and not to mention, a whole lot of patience and love. But the sheer pleasure of each bite is way worth it for what kind of world would this be without chocolate