Het Chocolate Atelier

Today was so much fun! I did something I never thought I'd have a chance to do...I made chocolate candy! How cool is that? What made it even more fun, was the fact that Brandon was allowed to participate as well. I'd signed up for an adult chocolate workshop with the gals from Kleine Brogel, but a couple of them had to bail at the last minute. That left a free spot, and they let Brandon join us. Our chocolate workshop was through Het Chocolade Atelier in Kinrooi. We were met at the door by our lovely instructor and chocolate maker extraordinaire, Bart. Trust me, you'll never meet a nicer or more patient guy. He started out our class by explaining the process of making chocolate, from it's start in the cocoa plant to the chocolate bars in the final product. It was very interesting. Then we got down to the fun part...making the candy! That's right. Those are huge vats of melted milk and dark chocolate. There was another one on the other side with white chocolate in it. This place was candy heaven. Don't you just want to dive into this vat? Brandon wanted to stick his head under here and open his mouth wide. I told him it would probably be frowned upon. That's just a guess, of course. We filled molds with milk and dark chocolate, and then dumped them back out again to leave room for the yummy fillings that Bart had prepared. I had a lot of fun piping in the creamy chocolate and hazelnut fillings. After the chocolates were filled, then they were covered in chocolate again to seal the backs of them. The hardest part of the class was not licking your fingers! Trust me, it was VERY tempting. If you give in to temptation, then you have to go to the sink in back for scrubbing and disinfecting. After the second time to the sink, you kind of learn your lesson. The workshop lasted a couple of hours, and it was tons of fun. At the end, we got to put on white gloves (because no one wants fingerprints on their lovely chocolate) and load up our boxes to take them home. The best thing about this kind of workshop is that no matter how talented you are (or are not) when it comes to making and decorating your chocolate, the end result is the same. It's Delicious! Well, I take that back. It tastes just a little bit better, knowing that you made it yourself! I think I'll be a chocolatier when I grow up. I'm just saying.