STAFF REVIEW: ONLINE TRUFFLE MAKING WORKSHOP

It’s safe to say I’ve been spending a lot of my time watching the same programs on TV and over indulging in chocolate during lockdown. When I found out I was going to participate in an online truffle making workshop, I was over the moon! Not only did I have an excuse to eat more chocolate, but I had a good reason to remove myself from the sofa.

I received my ingredients box in good time after the experience was purchased. The box contained 250g of dark chocolate, 200g of milk chocolate, decorations and toppings including honeycomb, coconut, white chocolate flakes and berry dust. They also provided me with a piping bag and parchment sheet. We just had to buy the double cream. Cocoa powder is optional, however it's really handy for shaping. 

The workshop kicked off at 2pm and we had a solid hour with John, our chocolatier. He was very entertaining and full of energy. This was being live-streamed via Zoom and although the rest of us were on mute, there was a chat box where we could ask any questions. It didn't take much convincing for my wife Gemma to join me. If I'm honest, she's the creative one out of us both so it was more of a case of me needing her there for help!

After a demonstration from John, it was now over to the rest of us to prepare our piping bag, mix the cream and dark chocolate, and place the ganache into the bag. Gemma was able to produce around 28 bite-sized truffles. This is where the cocoa power comes in handy. We sprinkled some over them and rolled the chocolate into little balls using just our fingertips. John advised not to use our palms as this is the warmest part of your hand meaning the truffles would not set.

We split them between us before decorating them. As I'm more of a milk chocolate person than dark, I dipped all but one into the melted milk chocolate. The next and final step was to pick which decoration sprinkles to use. I made sure to use them all, however I was particularly partial to the white chocolate and honeycomb. 

We then placed them on a tray and into the fridge to set. It's safe to say they were all eaten by the end of the day. 

We had some dark and milk chocolate left over and not being one to waste, we poured in a fair amount of cornflakes in each bowl before mixing the chocolate in and shaping into cornflake cakes. I can't speak on behalf of Gemma, but I was guilty of eating all of mine soon after it had set. 

Thanks for reading!

For anyone who is bored and just wants to try something slightly different, these workshops are great fun, don't take up a lot of your time and you get to keep what you make. It's brilliant that you can involve the entire household - as long as you're happy to share. This was the biggest test for me!