NEWS COVERAGE

It has been a busy 2 weeks. The Deseret Morning News did a big article on my toffee.http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705267581,00.html and the SL Tribune food editor dubbed me Utah's Chocolate Queen. The Standard Examiner did a small writeup on gift ideas and mentioned Chocolot.

This Week

Booth at the start of the show.

The Best Daughters-in-law

The Best Dark Chocolate Award

My two best helpers!!

The Medals

The Help

Small box ($9.00)

Shoppers

What a week I have had!! Monday, I had to have my chocolate entries submitted for the chocolate competition for the Utah Chocolate Show. I entered dark chocolates, milk chocolates, truffles, toffee, caramels, molded, dipped/enrobed. Wednesday, I was on local TV-see photo below. On Thursday, we(very supportive family members) set up for the Utah Chocolate Show in Salt Lake City. Son-in-law designed the booth as well as my wonderful packaging. It took several hours to get everything the way we wanted it. The shelves were stocked with more than enough product for the 2 days of the show. The aprons were hung and the stools cleaned off from baby's sticky hand prints. We covered it up and went home. Thursday morning, Mel and I opened for business. What a business!! I thought we might sell a little popcorn and toffee, but no one was going to buy my chocolates. I don't know why I thought that, but I guess I didn't know that others really appreciated the work and art that goes into them. Just before the show started, the competition judges gave the awards. Imagine my surprise when Chocolot won 8 Medals!!! I felt like Michael Phelps walking around with 8 medals around my neck. We won in every category we entered plus a special Artistic Merit award and 2008 Chocolate Champion. It was great fun! I taught a hands-on tempering class for 2 hours and Mel manned the booth. After the class, I taught a demo on the stage on making toffee. By the time I got back to the booth, Mel was exhausted and about out of candy. There was a crowd around the booth the whole day. Everyone commented on how great the booth looked and how beautiful the chocolates were. It makes it all worth while when your work is appreciated.
Left the booth at about 8 to come home and box more chocolates. I took down more than the first day, stocking heavy on the larger sizes. We sold out again on the second day. We had more help in the booth and we had double the attendance from the day before. I taught the tempering class again, but the kids handled the booth just fine. At close, we were out of product and energy. The kids tore down the booth and hauled it all out. Couldn't have done this show without them.
One of the highlights was that many people commented on the Candymaking book that my mother co-authored with me. Many commented on fond memories of taking classes from her.
Oh, I forgot to tell you--the Deseret Morning News was there taking pictures and writing a little story about the toffee and the show. Check them out on Wednesday. I'll have some photos to down load in a little bit. Thanks for all your support.

Next event is coming up the first weekend in December. It is in Logan Utah at the Bullen center. Entry is free. It is a juried artisan show. Should be lots of fun.

TV appearance

Wednesday, I had the opportunity to do a cooking segment on Good Things Utah on channel 4 ABC. It was a fun experience and they asked if I would come back and do more. Ryan and Mel came to help. Ryan took this photo of the girls and me and Mel.
Thursday we set up for the Utah Chocolate Show. A very busy week!!

Web site is up

We have been really busy getting orders out for November. We produced 2000 containers of toffee, 1000's of bags of popcorn and bark and lots of chocolates. I will be on Good Things Utah tomorrow-Wednesday November 19. I'll be making dark chocolate ganache and dipping. Friday and Saturday is the Utah Chocolate Show and we will have a booth and I'll be teaching a class each day on tempering.
We sold our chrome plating business in October and that gave me the freedom and time to get my candy made. It is a lot of work, but work I enjoy. Check out the web site. www.sweetchocolot.com and let me know what you think.

Website is coming

My website is under construction so I thought I would give you a preview. Please give suggestions and corrections to my About Us info:

Chocolot is an artisan chocolatier located in Ogden Utah. Ruth Kendrick has been making candy and using chocolate for more than 50 years. She is a second-generation chocolatier, having learned at her mother’s (Pauline H. Atkinson) side. Ruth and Pauline co-authored HP Books Candymaking, including all their favorite recipes and helpful hints. They have both taught classes in candymaking for many years, both together and separately.
Ruth has made traditional chocolates for years, but in the Spring of 2008 she attended the Callebaut Chocolate Academy in Montreal, completing the course work for a certificate in the Advanced and Expert levels. That experience changed her way of making chocolates. Instead of hand dipping chocolates, she now uses molds and colored cocoa butters to enhance the taste and appearance of her chocolates. She still fork dips some pieces with a thin shell of couveture and uses cocoa butter transfer sheets and texture sheets. Everything is made by hand in very small batches. The finest ingredients are sourced from around the world bringing the exotic as well as the traditional flavors to her confections.
This summer she has been working on chocolate covered popcorns. This is a new area for Ruth and she has come up with some great flavor combinations that make you want more. English toffee has always been a favorite treat and Ruth has included that in her offerings.
Her personal philosophy is that her candy must be the best tasting, freshest, and most exciting chocolates available. She is passionate about her chocolates and hopes you enjoy them as well.
Ruth has been a guest presenter on a Chocolate Cruise with Princess Cruises, and has appeared on the Food Network with Bobby Flay and Al Roker.

Order form

In case any of you are interested in ordering, here are my selections. I won't put my email. Call me 801-479-5806. Thanks





Chocolot artisan chocolates My unique confections are handcrafted from the finest ingredients. I use only E. Guittard or Callebaut couveture chocolate with a high cocoa butter content. Each piece is selected for flavor combinations with the particular chocolate, whether dark, milk or white. Colored cocoa butter is applied to some pieces. My popcorn is a moreish treat. You always want more!! I make it with real white chocolate, cinnamon and almond toffee bits. I also make almond toffee covered with chocolate and sprinkled with almonds.
My chocolates can be towered together for an impressing gift, or use any of my confections in your own gift baskets.
Please order as soon as possible so that you won’t be disappointed. I personally , hand make all my confections and I have a limited production.
I hope you enjoy my offerings. I am passionate about my confections and want them to be the best available.
Chocolates
small box (6 pieces)______@ 9.00=_____
medium box (12)________@ 15.00=____
large box (24)___________@ 25.00=____
Popcorn
small (4 oz)______@ 3.00=_______
large (16 oz)_______@ 12.00=______
Toffee
12 oz container_____@ 14.00=_____
Name
Phone
Company
Date needed

Chocolot

More photos

Professional photos

My large box with the full assortment.

All three boxes.

I don't have all the photos yet, but should have them by the end of the week. We are working on my website but don't have it ready yet. I have entered the world of chocolate popcorn. My favorite flavor is Cinnamon Toffee. Everyone tells me it is great.

My boxes are here!

The brightly colored bands/labels are a fun addition to the boxes. If you look closely, you will notice that the boxes do not have the Chocolot printed on them. These were mock-up boxes to test for size. The bands are just samples also. We are still working on them.

This is the "introductory" size. 6 pieces of lusciousness. This box is the real box with the foil stamp. don't you love it?

These are the three sizes of boxes. They hold 6,12,& 24 pieces.

These are my new-to-me melters. Each holds 50# of chocolate. I had no idea how much that really was! I should NEVER run out of chocolate now.

Large order

I have a large order that needs to go out Monday morning early. I have them ready to go. Here is a picture of them before putting them in the box. Each box has 9 pieces: Molten caramel, Marcona almond caramel, Gianduja, Lemon, Mayan, Hazelnut, Root beer, Beehive, & Fleur d'sel caramel. They look pretty good to me!!

More experimenting

White chocolate triangle mold with a lemon curd ganache

The "Beehive". A touch of wildflower honey topped with a honey ganache.

These are Orange and Strawberry ganaches in the shell mold.

Hazelnut ganache in the hazelnut mold with a dark chocolate stripe

You have seen these before, but they are multiplying. These will be my signature piece. A mint infused white chocolate ganache.

Molten caramel in the farfalla mold

Cinnamon ganache in the Maya mold, sprayed with a touch of yellow. One is in dark chocolate, the other milk.

CHOCOLOT

I have my domain name. www.sweetchocolot.com I don't have the page up yet, but that will be coming along soon.

Green Ones

Here is todays effort.

Swiping colors

No, I didn't steal them, just used a gloved finger to wipe or swipe the color in the molds. I used white and topaz yellow. I think it worked quite nicely, thank you. The mottled ones I used a cotton ball to apply the color. Tell me what you think.


This is my "Norman Love" impression. You will have to google him to know what I mean:-)


I am thinking I really like these.


These were made with the cotton ball. Different effect, but kind of cool.



I made these because I was filling some molds for a wedding order and I had extra filling. I didn't want to waaste it and I didn't have any shells ready, so I hurried and made these. I didn't have time to get the compressor running, so I just melted the color and swiped the molds, made the chocolate shells, filled them and closed the molds all in about 20 minutes.

Marcona almond caramels

Yesterday I made Marcona almond caramels. It is a new recipe where I caramelize the sugar and glucose before added the cream. It seems to make a very nicely flavored and textured caramel.




I don't dip the entire caramel because the nuts make the top irregular and it is hard to put a transfer sheet or texture sheet on it. If you look close, you will see that I dip the caramel up to the top, then just drizzle chocolate on top. I think I like the look. By dipping the bottom, it keeps the caramel from spreading.

Another experiment

Today I tried some different molding techniques. I made the shells yesterday, today I filled them, not as full as usual. My thought was to close the molds with extra chocolate and then cover the wet chocolate with caramelized hazelnuts. It turned out ok, but not as spectacular as I had hoped.



My other experiment was with the wiping of cocoa butter in the molds. I first used aztec orange and came back with white. I think I like the look, but need to work some more on technique.

New chocolates

This is a new flavor I came up with yesterday---SMOKED SEA SALT. Save it Ryan, I know what you are thinking:-) It is a bit out there, but it isn't too bad--in fact, it is interesting. Ron actually likes it!



My new favorite--ROOTBEER FLOAT. You can try it out on Sunday.

Chocolate tiles

Today, I made some chocolate tiles out of a thin layer of tempered chocolate over a transfer sheet. I cut them with an expandable roller knife.
They are far from perfect, but they have possibilities. I dipped some strawberry-balsamic and placed the tile on top.



I have been having issues with my chocolate. I did a big "no-no" and mixed dark and milk chocolate together. I had milk in the melter and didn't want to clean it out, so just added dark to it. I have done it for years, but this time it messed up. I had to re-temper it several times. I took it to 45 C, dropped it to 32, added Mycryo and stirred until it crystallized, which took until it was 25c. I rewarmed to 27 and that is when I finally was able to get a good gloss. I have got to stop experimenting!! It should have been ready at around 30, but it wasn't. These are the rum briquets I learned in class in Montreal.

Notes from class

Here are a few of the things Patrick and Barbara talked about.
Patrick Peeters June 28, 2008
All ingredients should be at room temperature.
Don’t have to boil UHT cream. Just bring to simmer and pour over callets.
He always uses a Robot Coupe for ganaches. He says they are much smoother than by hand.
He likes to use European butter. It is 82%. US butter is 72%.
You can add butter with cream but he prefers to add it last for better mouth feel.
You must know the cocoa butter percentage in your chocolate to calculate your formula.
You can freeze your finished bon bons, but follow the normal freezing guidelines—thaw in stages and don’t unwrap for 48 hours.
Invert, honey, and glucose all help water activity. Sorbitol is a sugar that binds water, but we are afraid to use it here, but it is normal in Europe. Greatly increases shelf-life. It also is a laxative if too much is used.
You don’t have to table a ganache if you have prepared it properly.
He used a can of Badger compressed air? and a little Badger siphon feed air brush.
Don’t mix milk and dark chocolate. It throws off the melting point and messes everything up.
Mycryo was developed as a substitute for gelatin during the Mad Cow scare. It is an insulator? Vegetarians like to use it. If it is past its due date, use it 2 degrees warmer—it has changed to beta 6, from beta 5 crystals.
When using a transfer sheet with a layer of chocolate, first spray counter top or sheet pan with Pam. Smoothly roll out the transfer sheet. This makes a smooth area that won’t slide around. Spread with tempered chocolate and smooth to a thin layer. When just starting to set, use a toothpick to “cut” the chocolate. Top with parchment and roll up transfer sheet, chocolate and parchment. Put in fridge until set. Remove plastic and parchment and you have some fun designs in chocolate.
When molding, don’t over-work the colored cocoa butter or it will over crystallize and not release. Vibrate the filled mold on the table top to release air bubbles. When you dump it out, keep it horizontal or the shells will be uneven.
You only have to wait to close the molds until the filling is firm enough to cover. There is no reason to wait over night. Hit the filled molds very gently with a hair dryer to soften the chocolate and make it adhere better to the bottom. If you over melt it, it won’t release from the mold.
Infusing tea in hot cream for more than 10 minutes leads to bitterness. Cold cream refrigerated over night is better.
JPW designed the Mold d’art melter

CALLEBAUT WORKSHOP

I attended a great class yesterday at Gygi's in Salt Lake City. Patrick Peeters from Callebaut was the instructor.

He talked about tempering-an outdated term. Should use crystallization in reference to chocolate. Met Barbara from Callebaut who is the sales rep for this area.

They showed and we sampled several new chocolates from Callebaut. Some origine and some plantation. He showed a new confection--Turona--and demonstrated how to make it. It is VERY tasty. He showed molding and ganaches. He prefers to use a Robot Coupe to make his emulsions.



Patrick is showing how to do molded shells. He said to keep them horizontal when emptying the shells. This will keep the shells from being too thick on one side.










Barbara helping Patrick with a ganache



Brad McDonald and Patrick Peeters before class started.




Finished confections