Dipping Chocolates How-To
This all started when I was asked to teach a class on dipping chocolates to the church lady-folk two years ago. The only problem was I had never dipped chocolate before. So, Phyllis Mason spent a couple hours in her giant kitchen showing me the art of dipping chocolates. She said when her children were little she would put her kids to bed, turn the heat down and open the windows and dip chocolates at night. We spread and worked the chocolate on her big granite countertops and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. She is one of the best cooks in Eastern WA! So you can thank her for this tutorial.
First, select the best chocolate you can find. The more cocoa butter the better. Stay away from confectionary coatings because they contain vegetable oils and cocoa powder, not cocoa butter. Winco sells bulk Guittard chocolate in both milk and dark that you can chop and use. I like to mix dark and milk, but you can do whatever combo you like. One friend of mine likes dark and white chocolate together. A good resource on dipping chocolate is
baking911.com.
Whatever you use, put it in a glass bowl and melt it on defrost in the microwave. Stir it every 30 seconds or so, then every 15 seconds towards the end. You want your last stir of the chocolate to be the one when all the little pieces are blended into the melted mixture.
Next, pour the melted chocolate onto a marble slab. If you don't have one, you can get them at kitchen stores for $10 to $20. If your house is warm, the marble slab won't get very cold, so you want to keep your house as cold as you can stand it. Also, you can put the slab outside to get it cold. You don't want it too cold though or else the chocolate will harden too quickly. Also, when working with chocolate, moisture is
the enemy. Everything you use must be completely moisture-free or the chocolate will get grey flecks on it and look very unattractive. All utensils, hands, bowls, etc. must be moisture-free.
Then, you work the chocolate with your right hand. Keep your left hand out of the chocolate so you can grab what you're dipping with it. You want to cool the chocolate down to body temperature. Working the chocolate with your hands and scooping and moving it across the surface of the marble helps to evenly bring its temperature down. You work the chocolate like this until you feel that it is the same temperature as your hand.
Then, it's time to dip. You just put whatever you're dipping into the chocolate, and cover it completely. If you miss spots, the caramel or other filling will seep out later.
Then, you put the piece on a sheet of parchment paper and finish it off with a little swirl of your finger. Professional chocolatiers have a different swirl for each kind of chocolate they dip to identify them later.
And lastly, you flick the little skirts and drips of chocolate off the bottom the pieces you've dipped and then package them how you like.
The best place to store dipped chocolates is in a cold, dark closet. Don't put them in the fridge or freezer as they will take up the moisture in those compartments. They do best in an airtight container with a lid and they will store for several weeks. Caramels tend to crystallize after a couple weeks, so you'll want to use those faster.
I hope you each enjoy the gifts of the Season and the gift-giving!
We take off tomorrow for the Homeland, aka Washington, so my blogging might become scarce for a while. But, Happy Holidays nonetheless!
Against my doubts, the challah actually turned out this time. Thank-you Jeffrey Hamelman of King Arthur Flour and his book, "Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes." 
For the record, tonight's dinner was:
The wreath that 
