Surprise!
When Kat's fiancé Dan asked for Christmas present advice and he mentioned a Paul A. Young class I knew he was on to a winner.Kat and I have met Paul and watched many of his demonstrations at shows. This was us at the Taste of Christmas last year with our signed aprons at Paul's truffle making workshop.
There were three places left when Dan went to book so my friend Lorna and I decided to buy the remaining tickets and surprise Kat. After keeping it a secret for 4 months, surprised she was when Lorna and I walked into the kitchen on Thursday, she was maybe even a little confused.
*My top tip would be to book early as the classes sell out very quickly.
The class consisted of just five people which was a really nice size especially in a small kitchen but also great as everybody got a chance to have a go at each stage. Once in the kitchen (below their shop in Islington) we were greeted by Tehmina and Caesar our chocolatiers, they gave us an introduction and a bit of a history of Paul and the shops. Then we donned our aprons and those beautiful blue hairnets!
First Tehmina demonstrated how to make the caramel, what to look for and she explained that Paul's method was all about timing rather than using a thermometer.
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| Stirring in the cream and chocolate |
Next Tehmina demonstrated how to temper the chocolate using the tabling method. It was totally mesmerising watching her scraping and spreading the chocolate across the worktop.
Then it was time to fill the moulds with the tempered chocolate, this was very messy as we hadn't quite mastered it but lots of fun.
Once chilled it was time to pipe into the shells that gorgeous Sea Salted Caramel we had made earlier.
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| Tehmina inspecting our shells |
It was such a fantastic class, I will definitely be attempting my own at home. Yesterday, I couldn't resist picking up one of Paul's books and a chocolate mould. Paul has teamed up with Lakeland to bring us a recipe book but it's more than just recipes with step-by-step instructions, tips and advice; Lakeland also stock all the equipment you will need to follow his recipes from moulds to piping bags and even a chocolate makers slab. Don't worry the book includes his multi award winning sea salted caramel recipe.
Throughout the class we were able to try several different chocolates including; Rhubarb and Pink Peppercorn, Passion fruit and Salted Caramel of course - the sugar coma was definitely worth it.
I would highly recommend this class for those wanting to learn more about the art of chocolate making; an intimate class with fantastic chocolatiers teaching you the techniques to making the perfect and mulit-award winning Sea Salted Caramel filled Chocolates.
Have you been to any Paul A. Young classes?
or
Are there any workshops or classes you would recommend?
Mel xoxo
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