If you love food and live in Yorkshire you will probably have visited one of the six Bettys Café Tea Rooms. Bettys was founded in Harrogate by the Swiss confectioner Frederick Belmont in 1919 and since then grown to be one of the most highly respected and admired establishments in the country. It remains a family run business and over the years I have got to know the company quite well.
When I was teaching food product development and in need of inspiration for student projects, Bettys kindly allowed me to come and work in and around the company for six weeks where I learned how to make bread, decorate cakes and turn out a quiche or two. I also learned a huge amount about new product development. I spent a wonderful couple of weeks with Lesley Norris who designs and makes so many of the new and beautiful seasonal products.
Now I write about food and remain in touch with the company who generously allow me to contact them if I need specialist help.
Last week I picked Robin Kendall's brains about tempering chocolate. Robin has been working with the company for just over 40 years and has in depth knowledge of how to make all the chocolates in the Bettys range. I spent an afternoon making the chocolates in these pictures with him using a standard 24 hole chocolate mould.
Robin explained how to hand temper chocolate the way Frederick Belmont did in the 1920's before tempering machines.
What is tempering?
If you are going to make chocolate into shapes such as Easter eggs or chocolates, the chocolate should be tempered which makes it sleek and glossy when set and gives it a “snap” as it breaks. Tempering makes the molecules in the cocoa butter line up into the right kind of crystal for this to happen.
To hand temper chocolate
You will need a temperature probe or cooking thermometer, a bowl scraper and chocolate moulds
Ingredients
- 500 grams of 65 to 75 per cent dark chocolate
Chop the chocolate into small pieces about the size of half a walnut. Set aside about 50g which you should grate. Place the 450g into a metal bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
Slowly let this chocolate melt, giving a helping stir every now and again. Scrape down the sides and along the bottom and into middle to distribute the chocolate thoroughly and to achieve an even temperature throughout.
When the chocolate has completely melted, give it one more stir and measure the temperature. It should be about 45 to 48C. Be a little careful at this point because if you let the temperature rise above 50C, there is a chance that you will burn it.
Take the bowl off the heat and add the grated chocolate. Stir thoroughly as this helps to stabilise the cocoa fat crystals.
Pour the molten chocolate onto a cold worksurface and using the bowl scraper mix the puddle of chocolate until the temperature has fallen to 28C and return it to the bowl. Continue to stir the chocolate and the residual heat in the bowl will bring the final temperature back to 32C.
The chocolate is now tempered and ready to make chocolates or shapes such as Easter eggs and leaves. It can also be used to “enrobe” cakes and chocolate with a crisp, dark shiny coat.
To make your own chocolates
Pour the chocolate into a polished chocolate mould (polish with a soft lint free cloth to ensure the surface is smooth and clean). Swirl the chocolate around the mould and pour off any excess. Allow the chocolate to set in the fridge and then fill with ganache.
Ganache filling
Ingredients
- 100ml double cream
- 100g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
Method
Place cream in a saucepan and gently heat the cream until it begins to boil. Place the chocolate in a bowl and pour the hot cream over the chocolate pieces and stir until the all the chocolate has melted. Cover with cling film and cool in the fridge. The ganache is ready to use in about 2 hours when it is solid.
Take nut sized pieces of ganache and place in the chocolate moulds. Retemper chocolate and back fill the filled chocolates in the mould. Leave to set in the fridge.
To turn out chocolates
When the chocolate have set inside the mould, invert the mould and bang sharply on a clean work surface. The chocolates will fall from the mould. The chocolates are then ready to be packaged.
To store chocolate
Remove the chocolates from the fridge and store between 18 and 20C.
NB Any left over chocolate will store indefinately and can be retempered.
Spring Flower Fondant Chocolates Swiss Grand Cru dark chocolate fondant creams, decorated with hand-cut sugar flowers. Photographed on 'feather and egg' fabric
