Valrhona Caramel Class

Special Guest Blog by Chloe!!
Thursday was Valrhona Caramel and Chocolate Day-a full day of instruction on working with chocolate and caramel by a Valrhona certified patissier. Originally I had planned on attending the same class a year ago however Alex decided to make an early appearance and nixed that plan (going into labor was a good enough excuse to warrant a full refund at least!).

After an hour and a half drive Franck, Chantal, and I arrived at the Valrhona factory and cooking school. It was a surprisingly discreet looking building-no huge neon signs proclaiming VALRHONA, only a simple logo on the side of the building. We went into the school and were immediatley led to a cafe for espressos and chocolate (Valrhona, of course). Our instructor arrived and after introductions (which I vaguely followed) we went into the laboratory- an incredibly well equipped kitchen with marble countertop, multiple freezers, refrigerators, convection ovens, and a temperature controlled "Chocolaterie" (16 Celcius) for chocolate making, tempering etc.




Sebastien, our instructor, had us introduce ourselves and recount the Valrhona recipes we had made (everyone else was a repeat participant) and whether or not we were successful. I felt out of my league right away as everyone discussed the various entremets, macarons,and other pastries I had never even heard of. My baking chocolate chip cookies sounded rather lame in comparison (although they are pretty good).

We quickly plunged into the caramel making after a quick explanation from Sebastien. Caramel is not hard to do, but requires some nerves-sugar is melted dry in a pot and quickly turns a golden brown color and needs to continue cooking without burning. Cream is then added, bubbling and hissing violently as it comes in contact with the hot sugar (do NOT peer into the pot as the cream is added), afterwards butter is stirred in to achieve the creamy texture for a good caramel cream filling. After tasting our caramel cream it was onto the next caramel concoction-a chocolate caramel ganache filling for macarons. The principle was the same but with the added deliciousness of chocolate stirred into the caramel. Again, the recipe was verified by extensive tasting (including by Sebastien who told us the Valrhona pastry chefs put on about 5 kg a year. This was confirmed by Franck and Chantal who were very surprised to see the Sebastien had put on at least this much weight. A hazard of the job....)



We continued in this way until lunchtime-everyone taking turns making the caramel, using the pastry "poche" to lay out the macarons, tasting the various pastry doughs, chocolate ganaches, and caramel creams. Making pastries is exhausting work and after the combination of caffeine and sugar I was ready for lunch!