Great temptations

IT was a dilemma. When I was invited along to Bettys, in Harrogate, to learn how to make chocolates I wondered if I should confess. I had given up this delicious dark, aromatic substance for Lent.

Perhaps I could learn how to make it without actually tasting any on the day. I could always save anything I made until Easter, it would be something to look forward to. It was worth a try.

I lasted about ten seconds. The truth is, I would possibly have broken my pledge anyway, because I am a hopeless chocoholic. But at least I didn’t crack over a Mars Bar or a square of Dairy Milk. No, my moment of weakness came in the face of the divine Cru Sauvage truffle. Made from rare cocoa beans grown wild in the Bolivian Amazon, I defy the most ironwilled among us to resist its heady aroma.

I may, at my most determined, have been able to say “no” to an upmarket Thornton’s continental liqueur, even a square of Green & Black’s organic Maya Gold. But Bettys’ handmade chocolates, and the incredibly complex flavours they deliver, are in another league altogether.

And now, having spent a day learning just how these small and exquisitely beautiful treats are created, I know why.

Our tutor, chocolatier Robin Kendall, who has been with Bettys for more than 40 years, has the perfect cool, calm temperament needed for this delicate craft. Because you can’t rush the art of making chocolate.

More people than ever, from all over the country and from all walks of life, are signing up for Bettys’ popular chocolate courses. Some want to set up their own chocolate-making businesses.

Others simply want to spend time indulging themselves in the craft. Luxury chocolate sales certainly haven’t been hit by the recession: “People are still prepared to pay more for good quality chocolate,” says senior course tutor Lisa Bennison. “When times are hard, we all need a treat.”

Robin, who is about to talk us through the process of melting and tempering to achieve a perfect velvety smooth texture and sheen, maintains that you can’t make good chocolate if you’re in a bad mood. Chocolate, he explains, is like a particularly headstrong child, determined to do just what it wants. So it requires patience and delicate handling: “Chocolate rules the roost. It goes at its own pace,” he says.

BUT it all starts with the cocoa bean and, before we get our hands dirty, Robin explains the extraordinary efforts Bettys goes to, to ensure the chocolate we will be working with is of the finest quality.

It is made from the relatively rare and complex flavoured Criollo cocoa bean, which is grown below the canopy of the rain forest in the tropical climate of Venezuela, and accounts for just three per cent of the world’s production.

Once fermented and sun-dried, Bettys’ beans are processed by a traditional, specialist Swiss company, which kneads and massages the roasted, ground cocoa and butter for up to 18 hours to produce a particularly smooth texture and intense flavour.

It is these blocks, known as couverture, that Bettys transforms, using a process called tempering, into smooth, glossy chocolate which breaks with a characteristically loud snap.

Robin shows us how to do it, melting and cooling the couverture to precise temperatures in order to set the chocolate crystals, an intricate chemical process which requires great persistence and attention to detail. Pouring a pool of melted chocolate onto the granite work surface, he swishes it about with a knife to cool it. He makes it look so much easier than it is, as we soon discover when we start to make our own.

THE key to tempering dark chocolate correctly is to make sure it reaches exactly 46C during melting, before falling to between 30C and 32C at the moment it is poured into the mould.

Just one or two degrees out and you’ve blown it, because chocolate, like that headstrong child Robin told us about, is extremely temperamental.

It must be handled with care.

Even a slight change in the temperature of the room will affect the chocolate and you must adapt accordingly.

Throughout the course, Robin demonstrates everything from how to pipe the chocolates with caramel filling to making a delicious raspberry ganache, before sending us all to our work stations to have a go.

Having tempered our chocolate, we carefully hand fill our cooled moulds, applying the same skills and techniques that Bettys founder Frederick Belmont was using 90 years ago, and which have since been passed down through three generations.

Some of the chocolates are dipped or rolled, others are intricately hand-finished. Robin shows us some stunning Easter eggs, decorated with piped chocolate edging and sugar flower decorations, using techniques which can take years to master.

Each chocolate, carefully placed in an individual wrapper, then hand-packed in a range of pretty boxes – including those inspired by 1930s Bettys designs, which are keepsakes in themselves – is unique.

Robin and Lisa invite us to try a selection of their best-selling chocolates, lovingly handcrafted by Bettys’ nine, full-time artisan chocolatiers, who work in the aptly named Chocolate Room next to the Cookery School, at the company’s headquarters on the outskirts of Harrogate.

After the Cru Sauvage, I moved on to the Champagne truffle, filled with a luxurious Moet & Chandon ganache and coated in raspberry dust. The complex flavours of the blackcurrant ganache, with smooth, dark chocolate and rich, heady filling, was another hit.

Before I leave, I ask Robin about the large, hand-decorated chocolate Easter eggs on display.

The biggest, which is huge, and hand made to order, costs £235 (although, thankfully, you can buy smaller eggs from about £5).

“We have sold about 14 of the big ones so far,” he says.

He has often been asked to create chocolate eggs with engagement rings and other precious gifts inside. The late Lord Mountgarret used to order special Bettys Easter eggs containing presents of expensive necklaces and valuable porcelain, he says.

I would be happy with just the egg. Perhaps with just the one, perfect Cru Sauvage truffle inside...

Chocolate on a class of its own

BETTYS Cookery School, which has just released its latest calendar of courses, runs a number of practical classes with a chocolate theme:

• The Chocolate Box. This course is a great all-rounder, covering a wide range of chocolate-making techniques. These include hand tempering, creating indulgent fillings, hand dipping and different finishes. At the end of the day you will take home a selection of hand-crafted chocolates. On Thursday, May 23 and Wednesday, September 18.
• Baking with Chocolate. The ideal course for serious chocolate lovers. You’ll make the traditional Bettys Swiss chocolate torte, as well as moreish biscuits and brownies. You’ll also master the techniques of making a hot chocolate souffle and a delicious chocolate creme brulee. On Sunday, June 23.
• For more information about courses, visit bettyscookeryschool.co.uk, phone 01423- 814016.