In the afternoon we had lessons in how to do sugar work and chocolate work with Ms. Hirst. We learned about isomalt and how that is used to make sugar sculptures like the coral we made today. We melted isomalt and water together and then we kept this on the stove till about 320 degrees F. We then poured it over ice and after it was cooled, we were able to take it out and reveal these coral sugar sculptures. On a separate stove we made candied strawberries. We had 2 parts sugar to 1 part water in a pot and we had to let it get to about 400 degrees F. We had to do this process twice because the first batch of sugar started to caramelize. We then took the first batch added some cream and other ingredients to make caramel which we dipped apples in. The second batch was better and we were able to coat our strawberries, dip them in ice water, and then eat them. The sugar had to reach 400 degrees F to give it a nice crunch when we bit into the strawberries without letting the sugar stick to our teeth. The last workshop we did today was making chocolate matchsticks. We had to temper chocolate, getting it to a high temp, bringing it down, and then bringing it back up. Once the chocolate was ready, we smoothed a thin layer on a marble slab which served to cool the chocolate. Once the chocolate had set and didn’t have that gloss/shine, we used a bench scraper to roll the chocolate.
