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Read MoreStarterKit from Chocolate World
Chocolate World has done it again. They’ve developed a StarterKit for the beginner chocolatier that has everything you need to make molded chocolates. The kit includes their top-of-the-line professional chocolatier tools and utensils: pallet knife digital thermometer chocolate world mold disposal pastry bags scraper And there’s more. The kit also includes a booklet with two recipes and...
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Read MoreCouture Chocolate: A Masterclass in Chocolate by William Curley
Couture Chocolate: A Masterclass in Chocolate by Willam Curley Aurum Press (November 1, 2011) Fine artisan chocolates should look as beautiful as they taste. Willam Curley’s Couture Chocolate: A Masterclass in Chocolate takes it a step further moving artisan chocolates from culinary creations to five-star food artistry. From the first page to the last, the exquisite photographs are a rare treat...
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Read MoreChocolate Therapy Workshops Begin
Valentines Day Chocolate Therapy Class Scheduled – I will be having a Chocolate Therapy Workshop on Feb 14th. Come give yourself the gift of making your own chocolate at INOVA’s Life with Cancer Center. ======== Last week I had my first Chocolate Therapy workshop at INOVA’s Life with Cancer center in Fairfax, Virginia. This was a hand-on workshop where cancer survivors made custom...
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Read MoreTempering Tip Tuesday Heating it Up – Two Ways to Safely Melt Chocolate
The first step in tempering chocolate is to melt it. Chocolate melts at 45˚ c / 113˚ f. Because chocolate is sensitive to extreme heats and burns easily, one needs to melt chocolate gently away from direct heat. There are two simple and safe ways you can melt chocolate in your kitchen. The first is with a double-boiler (what the French call a bain marie) and the second is with a...
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Read MoreTempering Tips Tuesday – The Seeding Method
The process of tempering consists of three tasks: 1) melting the chocolate, 2) cooling the chocolate, and 3) stirring the chocolate. However, it is how one cools the chocolate that seems to define the methods for tempering. This week we are going to address the most common and easiest method for cooling chocolate, the seeding method. This is where after the chocolate is melted, you add tempered chocolate...
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Read MoreFrankenstorm Cookies
If you’re stuck inside while Frankenstorm brings high winds and pounding rain to the east coast, why not make some Frankenstorm cookies? When I woke up this morning I looked outside and decided that I needed something sweet and something chocolatey. But in all my preparations for the storm–I bought water and cat food and tried to buy batteries (sold out everywhere I went)–I forgot to buy...
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Read More“Fun with Belgian Chocolate” Class at Cook a Chocolately Delight
Thursday night I had my first “Fun with Belgian Chocolate” class at Cook in Ashburn, Virginia. For 2 plus hours we made chocolate, tasted chocolate, and even packed and wrapped chocolate. We started the evening by learning to make ganache Who knew making ganache could be so easy and fun. Once the ganache was made, we piped it into mini cup...
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Read MoreLaunching Tempering Tips Tuesday
I’ll admit it. I’m obsessed with tempering. Tempering is that all important process of melting, cooling, and stirring chocolate so that its crystal structure breaks down and then reforms with the beta crystals being dominant. This is serious chemistry in the kitchen. And this chemistry can be intimidating. But, it doesn’t have to be. Once you know the how and why of tempering,...
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Most Recent Articles
Flavonoid in Chocolate Increases Memory
Chocolate is not only good for you, but it may help your memory too. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology found that the flavonoid epicatechin (epi) in chocolate helped snails improve memory function. The benefits of chocolate just keep getting better.
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Guilty Pleasure of Chocolate
Once again science is pointing out that chocolate is everyone’s favorite guilty pleasure.
A new study reported in Prevention via NBC’s Health on Today (the article did not link to the original study) found that feeling guilty actually enhances pleasure. As if we needed a study to tell us that. To conduct the study researchers had one group scaned covers of health magazines and the other group look at magazine covers of non-health related publications. Afterwards both groups were given a piece of chocolate. Did I mention that all the study participants were women. The women who had spent time looking at the health magazine reported enjoying the chocolate more than the women who looked at other magazines. What did the researchers find out? The write-up quotes Kelly Goldsmith, PhD, an assistant professor of marketing at Northwestern as explaining “If guilt and pleasure are repeatedly connected, either by others or by ourselves, over time our brains may start to expect pleasure when we experience guilt,” she says. So go ahead and embrace the guilt with another piece of chocolate.
Read MoreABOUT
I originally started Writing with Chocolate in 2008 to blog about Belgian chocolate while living in Brussels. You can read my reviews of artisan chocolate shops in Brussels and check out my chocolate-themed walking tours by clicking on the "Belgian Chocolate Resources" button on the top navigation bar.
Now that I’m back home in Alexandria, Virginia, I have a new focus that brings together all that I learned in Brussels. As the saying goes, build the web site you want. In late 2012 I revamped Writing with Chocolate to address the needs and concerns of the home "do-it-yourself-er" chocolatier like me.
Cheers and chocolate,
Robbin Warner
robbinwarner@gmail.com UPCOMING EVENTS
- February 14, 2013 – Chocolate Therapy
2:00 pm, INOVA "Life with Cancer" Support Group Workshop