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Paulie and the chocolate factory

April 16, 2010 8 Comments Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

Paul A Young tempering chocolate
Paul A Young tempering chocolate
Couverture
Couverture
tempering chocolate, Getting thicker
Getting thicker

tempering chocolate, Scraping it off the marble

Scraping it off the marble

tempering chocolate, Scraping it off the marble

Scrapings
tempering chocolate, Scraping it off the marble, palette knife
Palette knife
Making shells... paul a young chocolate
Making shells…
Making shells...paul a young chocolate

white chocolate being heated up

White Chocolate ganache

Using a 'trigger' funnel to fill the shells

Using a ‘trigger’ funnel to fill the shells

A few weeks ago I had a go at ‘tempering’ chocolate; trying to get a professional shine and smoothness of texture … when you break off a piece and it has a satisfyingly crisp ‘snap’ sound. I followed the instructions in Paul A Young‘s book ‘Adventures in Chocolate’, currently the world’s number one chocolate book which has won the Gourmand book award in Paris.

There are two methods of tempering; on a marble slab and ‘seeding’. As I don’t possess a large marble slab, I tried ‘seeding’ which is introducing tempered chocolate to already melted chocolate and controlling the temperature so that it crystallises. Here is a great explanation of the science bit.

Although the tempered chocolates that I had made were ok, I realised that there is nothing like watching an expert to get a true idea of what to achieve. Paul kindly allowed me to come to the kitchen atelier of the Islington branch of his chocolaterie, to watch him temper a batch of chocolate. The kitchen is air-conditioned, you can’t temper chocolate in a warm place, and two large slabs of marble are positioned on island worktops.
Shivering slightly, I watched Paul expertly and rapidly pour chocolate over the white marble and with practised movements, shift the chocolate around over the slab, using a palette knife and a metal scraper. After about ten minutes, the chocolate became thicker and shinier. Paul dipped the end of his palette knife into the chocolate and let it dry while he scraped the rest into a metal bowl.
He kept stirring until he sensed the texture was correct:

“this way it sets with a nice sheen, no graininess or grittiness”.

Brendan on the other side of the room was jumping from task to task, making salted caramel, icecream and brownies. Both of them work very fast, today they will produce 2000 chocolates. Coming up to Christmas the number is more like 20,000 chocolates a day.
On the side stood an enormous cellophane wrapped Easter egg, in glorious colours, as if it had been painted roughly with expressionist brush strokes, ordered by a guy for his girlfriend.

“How much was that?”

“£95.”

“Did the client design it?” I asked, looking at the sparkly mini eggs encrusted, fabergé style, into the surface.

“No, he likes and knows my stuff and just said do what you think. The colours are actually in the chocolate, not painted on.”

My childhood ambition was to work in a sweet shop. Just work in one, not even own it! Being in this workshop with it’s marble benches, was like winning the golden ticket for Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Shelves were crammed with tantalising bonbons, copper pots bubbled with white chocolate, goats cheese, rosemary and lemon ganache, ice cream machines whirred with thick gooey mixtures, diamond, circular and rectangular moulds, the familiar shapes of chocolate selections everywhere, casually piled up. Christmas, Easter, Valentines, presents and treats, celebration, reminiscent in every corner.
Chocolate roses, paul a young
Chocolate roses

“Being around sweet stuff so much, we love savoury food,” said Brendan.

Paul works so hard. Only this year has he started to give himself one day a week off. This is the reality of starting your own business, no love life, no time off. He has one week’s holiday a year.

“I mostly spend my day off sleeping.”

“Do you ever eat crap chocolate?” I ask Paul.

“No.”

“I mean,” I push on, investigative reporter’s hat on, determined to get to the bottom of this. “If you were stopping at a petrol station, and you fancied a chocolate bar, what would you choose?”

“I always keep a selection of my own chocolates in the glove compartment. I never eat trashy chocolate, there’s no enjoyment,” answered Paul.

Brendan agreed: “Once you’ve had this stuff, you don’t go near the commercial stuff. I will, on occasion, have a Bounty though.”

“Why chocolate? and what’s so good about your stuff as opposed to say, Thorntons?” I ask Paul.

“There was no defining moment. It just happened! What I make is 100% handmade, natural, no machinery chocolate. It’s the hardest, purest way to make chocolates. Nothing is made industrially. Thorntons is mass production. You can’t make a decision with a machine. I can make new things everyday. With a machine, you’d have to change the set up, it would take too long, be too difficult.”

Paul uses the word ‘pure’ a great deal. There’s almost a monastic dedication to his craft:

“I’m not in this for the money. I only use the best suppliers such as Valrhona or Michel Cluizel which have a high cocoa content, are the most expensive. Most of the chocolate I use is French, not Belgian.”

“Why? Does it taste different?” I ask

“It’s just our style. I also check their ethics, don’t trade unfairly, use child labour… If Valrhona weren’t ethical, I’d stop using them.”

“The important thing is to dream. People say ‘you are a dreamer’ like it’s a bad thing. But we are all grownup children. You have to have dreams.” He pauses while stirring the ganache. “One day I’m going to retire, somewhere pale and calm. But this is a long term project, ten, fifteen years.”

Finally, I ask: “Any advice for people wanting to temper at home?”

“Buy my book. Work as cleanly as possible. Have a cool room. Some of it will always end up on the floor…If you make a mistake, melt it down, do another batch. Practise. Get comfortable with it. It won’t happen overnight.”

Simnel truffles, paul a young

Simnel truffles
Like marbles of lava... paul a young chocolates
Like marbles of lava…


paul a young


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Comments

  1. Jenny

    April 16, 2010 at 11:03 pm

    Did they have a conching machine?

    I'd love to own a chocolate factory, although I think I'd still have to buy the occasional creme egg…

    Reply
  2. theundergroundrestaurant

    April 17, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    Nothing is done by machine!
    Agreed!

    Reply
  3. marv woodhouse

    April 19, 2010 at 11:39 am

    OMG … now its offical Ms M. that you have the best job in the world!

    Will have to check them out the next time I am on London…

    Reply
  4. vincent

    April 25, 2010 at 7:35 pm

    Hello,

    We bumped into your blog and we really liked it – great recipes YUM YUM.
    We would like to add it to the Petitchef.com.

    We would be delighted if you could add your blog to Petitchef so that our users can, as us,
    enjoy your recipes.

    Petitchef is a french based Cooking recipes Portal. Several hundred Blogs are already members
    and benefit from their exposure on Petitchef.com.

    To add your site to the Petitchef family you can use http://en.petitchef.com/?obj=front&action=site_ajout_form or just go to Petitchef.com and click on "Add your site"

    Best regards,

    Vincent
    petitchef.com

    Reply
  5. ButterYum

    April 26, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    Greetings from the US. Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving such a nice comment. To answer your question, the berries in the photo are actually "black raspberries". They're very small, and much different than blackberries. You can do a google search to see examples.

    Btw, I LOVE you blog!!!

    🙂
    ButterYum

    Reply
  6. theundergroundrestaurant

    April 26, 2010 at 4:39 pm

    thankyou butter yum just discovered your blog and I love the step by step explanations….
    Check out my other blog…the english can cook…about my supperclub…if you have a moment.x

    Reply
  7. Laura Nickoll

    May 13, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    Lovely post, and fascinating behind-the-scenes pics. I visited Paul's Islington shop for the first time last week, picking up some chocolate salt caramels, and a bag of other goodies from the counter to sample. They were truly decadent and special, worth the cost when you realise how much effort has gone into making each one. Thorntons should be wiped off the face of the earth, though I'm a sucker for a kitkat…

    Reply
  8. theundergroundrestaurant

    May 13, 2010 at 7:04 pm

    I have to admit I'm a heathen when it comes to chocolate. Good ole Cadburys for me!

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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