EHChocolatier in Somerville

I have a whole new respect for chocolate now.

Last week, I had the honor of attending a Beyond the Bar chocolate-making class at EHChocolatier in Somerville. Myself and a few other bloggers got to taste a whole lot of handmade, small batch chocolates, while learning a number of techniques for making exceptional chocolate-based confections.

First, a little back story: EHChocolatier was opened in 2010 by the two lovely ladies below, Elaine Hsieh and Catharine Sweeny.

Elaine and Catharine met while making a wedding cake for a friend, after years of careers in internal medicine (Elaine) and at Harvard University (Catharine). Both women also studied at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts.

Elaine and Catharine put a heavy emphasis on freshness and flavor when it comes to their chocolates. All of their products are handmade in small batches, and no artificial flavors or preservatives are used. They even use classic techniques and make each chocolate by hand to create the ideal balance of flavor and texture. And after attending this class, I must say: whatever they're doing works.

Besides getting to taste a slew of chocolates at the beginning of the class, we also got to learn how to make Elaine and Catharine's silky ganache. 

Catharine showed us how to make a sultry ganache with butter, while Elaine filled us in on how to make a vegan ganache (simply use water vs. any dairy).

Then, Catharine showed us how they put the ganache into molds in order to make their chocolates.

From there, the large square of chocolate is cut into smaller, bite-size squares.

At this point, the squares are dipped into tempered chocolate. If you've ever tried to temper chocolate, you know it's quite the process. Elaine taught us a lot of great techniques for tempering chocolate successfully, including using a "spoon trick."

If the chocolate runs off the spoon, it's not quite ready. But if it becomes cloudy, it's also not quite right. The type of consistency you want is this:

It definitely takes some trial and error, but, thankfully, Elaine and Catharine don't have to temper by hand all day, every day. They have a machine to do that for them (although, they still have to test the chocolate every time to make sure it's at the right consistency). 

Once the tempered chocolate was perfect, we all got a chance to dip our own chocolate squares into it. (I failed miserably at this step, by the way. But it's actually quite easy).

After dunking our squares, we "painted" various designs on each one.

The end result comes out looking something like this:

Our class concluded with more chocolate samples. 

In addition to being able to taste a wide variety of quality chocolate, this class was also super informative. I really learned a lot when it comes how to make a fantastic ganache, as well as some great techniques for tempering chocolate. Learning how much work goes into small, bite-size pieces of chocolate also gave me a whole new respect for the craft. It also really helped that Elaine and Catharine clearly love what they do, are good at it, and also really enjoy working together. Their passion, creativity, and camaraderie was evident in each piece of their chocolate.

You can order any of EHChocolatier's chocolates online, or sign-up for any of their classes here. 

What's your favorite type of chocolate? Milk, white, or dark? I'm partial to dark, but let's be honest...I'll eat any of the above.

I attended this class at no charge, but all opinions are my own.

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