Lindt Chocolate Classes

This isn`t really a recipe, but it was a lot of fun, so I thought I`d share.  

The Lindt Factory in Kilchberg has a store attached, where you can buy Lindt chocolate at a slightly reduced rate than the grocery stores. Always a good thing.  To make it even better, they have one section of chocolate bars for 1.25...these have something slightly wrong with them.  The wrapper may not be perfect, the chocolate may have leaked out of the inside wrapper a tiny bit...minor things that you barely even notice.  

There is a bus stop, which stops just at the factory, so you walk about 2 minutes to the store.  The smells are absolutely amazing.  There are also quite a few customer parking spots if you`d like to drive. 

Yesterday though, I had a class at Lindt. It was amazing.  They had one a few months ago, at Easter time, for a parent and child, but mine aren`t old enough, so we didn`t do that one.  This one was for people 14 and older, and it was offered in English.  Now, granted I`ve been taking German classes for a while now, but I have to say, I don`t think you really need to understand much to follow along the class if you can`t make it to one of the few offered in English.  If you have ever worked with icing or melted chocolate, you will be fine.  Here`s a link to the schedule. 

You don`t need to wear anything special, as they will dress you up like chefs. It`s great.  You walk into a room full of coats, hats and aprons. After everyone taking pictures, they open a large set of double doors

and you are greeted with large tables, warm, melted chocolate and truffles ready to be filled. The feeling you get is like a kid walking into Santa`s workshop. It. Was. Awesome. 

We had a small overview on how the chocolate gets to the factory, filled with `can`t really tell you that part`and then we filled the truffles with a champagne filling using piping bags.  The goal was not to fill them completely, and then they were put in a fridge for a little over an hour.

While these were hardening, we got to decorate pralines.  We had the option of white, milk or dark chocolates and sprinkles, foils, candied nuts and chocolate balls to decorate them with. The last picture is him explaining that the foil must stay on until the chocolate is completely dry. 

Decorating our own was lots of fun, but we had 10 to do, so it was really hard to figure out something different to do on each one. The ones above are his examples for us.

After we were finally done decorating our pralines, we got to move back to the truffles.  We finished filling them, with a slight overflow and then let them sit a few more minutes while the next steps were explained to us. 

The next step is to decide if you want to spike your truffles or if you want to just coat them with powdered sugar.  I did both.  

For the powdered sugar, using gloves, put a little of the warm chocolate (any flavor) in your hands.  Roll the truffle around in your hands so it is coated and then drop it in a bowl of powdered sugar.  Do 3 or 4 and then after they are coated in sugar, let them sit until the chocolate hardens.

Afterwards, use a sieve to knock off excess powdered sugar and set them aside. 

Spiking the truffles was a lot of fun.  You drop the truffle in the vat of chocolate to coat it, and then set it on a cooling rack.  When the chocolate just starts to set, using a fork, you can roll it back and forth across the grate to create spikes. 

And there you have it. A very fun, informative 2 hour chocolate class!  Oh, and you get to take all your creations home with you of course. 

French Toast for Father`s Day

So Father`s Day was a few weeks ago.  I like to make the hubby something that he particularly enjoys to try and make the day special for him. He loves French Toast and pretty much only gets it when his mom visits or he visits her...so not often.  I think I`ve made it once in the almost 5 years we have been living here.  Not because I don`t want him to have it, but because it makes so much and he is really the only one who enjoys it.

That being said, this recipe worked out great because it was easy to have it again the next day for him. He said that he really liked this version of it, so if you like French Toast, definitely give it a try.

The main difference is that instead of bread, you use Angel Food Cake as the base. Now if you are lucky and live somewhere where the mixes are available, you have it easy. Or you could buy it on one of the American food websites I have listed.  If you would like to be adventurous, I found two recipes that look promising for making it yourself.  Here is the first, in English, and the second, in German. I will get around to making these and give you a review...probably when strawberries are less expensive as they go so wonderfully with an angel food cake.

What you need:

1 Angel Food Cake - either made with one of the recipes above, or a mix
2 tsp vanilla
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla

butter for frying
fruit, syrup for topping


Heat a skillet on medium with the butter. 

Meanwhile, slice the cake into wedges and mix the rest of the ingredients together. Put in a shallow dish.

Soak the slices for at least a minute on each side.

When the butter has melted, add the slices and cook for 2 minutes on each side.

Put on a plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar and drizzle with maple syrup and add fruit if desired.

Store any extra cake in a zip lock bag, and cover any remaining batter and refrigerate.
Original recipe here