Chocolate Making Class at ChocoLee

For Christmas, Christian gave his sister and I gift certificates to take a chocolate making class at ChocoLee in the South End. It was a really thoughtful gift because we both love to bake but have never made chocolate before! There was a long waiting list to get into a class, but we finally scheduled ours for this past Saturday. {It was a weekend full of classes for me!!}

The class instructor was Lee Napoli, pastry chef, chocolatier and owner of ChocoLee. I adored taking class with her because she was knowledgeable, direct, great at explaining everything and very approachable. She wasn't one of those pastry chefs you see on the Food Network who is stuck up with an attitude - she was extremely friendly and passionate about teaching us novices how to make chocolate. :)

We made ganache truffles, filled chocolates and Kapinziner {chocolate almond bark.} We learned how to temper chocolate and got super messy!! I wanted to share some photos from the class with you - I hope you enjoy!

Making truffles was my favorite part of class because I really enjoy working with my hands and adding small details, like decorating cupcakes. :) I got to roll the ganache into balls, dip them in coating chocolate and decorate them with coconut, nuts and sparkly luster dust.

I also really loved making the filled chocolates. First we poured tempered chocolate into the molds and then dumped it out to coat the cavities. We then stuck it in the fridge for a bit until it hardened. 

When it was ready, we piped different flavors of chocolate into the molds...

  and then covered the bottoms with more chocolate to seal them up. 

The molds go back in the fridge for about 15 minutes, and then you take them out and slam them against the table to get the chocolates out! This was really fun {and loud!} 

If you have the opportunity to take a chocolate making class, especially at ChocoLee, I definitely recommend it!!