williams-sonoma chocolate cooking class...

Today, Val and I went for a chocolate cooking class at Williams-Sonoma. The head chef was a former Procter & Gamble chemist. She was very informative and reminded me a lot of a female Alton Brown. On today's menu was a Chocolate Sorbet, a Mocha Cake with Spiced Caramel Sauce, a Warm Molten Cake and finally a Chocolate-Banana Croissant Panini, the latter being my favorite. Everything was quite delicious except for the mocha cake which I found to be quite salty.

The head chef (Maral Apelian Banks) explained to us the differences in the type of chocolates that you use for cooking and baking. Let me pass on a tip that she gave us. Try not to use domestic chocolates in baking because they are usually coated in wax and oil for shipping and the flavor is not usually as pure as European and other imported chocolates. Above, you see me holding a 10 pound bar of Guittard Bittersweet Chocolate. Wow. And I thought that the 5 pound Hershey bar was big!

This morning I picked up a few new chocolates that I'll be reviewing in the upcoming days, including a new brownie flavored Hershey bar. It should be interesting. Until tomorrow...