Today, we made Belgian chocolates with Stephanie at Chocolate by Me. We started
with an understanding of chocolate. There are 80 varieties of cocoa. The price
of a ton of cocoa has varied from 3200 to 4200 Euros for the last 20 years. Last
year the price rose by 10X “because of a failed harvest”. But there are
multiple harvests per year in multiple countries.. Stephanie gets her Cocoa
from Ghana and the Ivory Coast. We tasted chocolate without and without sugar. Sugar
intensifies the taste to us. Dark chocolate has from 55 to 90 percent cocoa,
which has about 30% fat from Cacao butter, and 45 to 10% sugar. Milk chocolate
is 50% sugar, 30% to 50% Cacao (still 30% fat) and 20% milk powder. White
chocolate uses Cacao butter, but not Cacao powder. Belgium chocolate requires
that all the fat comes from Cacao butter. Most commercial chocolates have other
fats added. The Cacao powder and butter are separated in processing. It took
Stephanie two years of study to learn how to make Belgium Chocolate.
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| Cindy and Bob with chocolates |
We then proceeded to make two chocolate recipes per couple.
It was clearly a case for us of clearly reading the recipe. We missed the cocoa
butter in our first attempt, but Stephanie helped us to recover for our praline
chocolate. Our second chocolate was more successful; we made a Baileys and
caramel filled chocolate. It was a great time as we learned the secret of
chocolates. In the end, we got two large boxes of chocolates, samples from all
14 of us, plus some extras from Stephanie.
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| Madonna and Child |
In the afternoon, I explored more of Brugge, Stopping at the Church of our Lady, famous for its Madonna and Child carved by Michelangelo. Then exploring the Beguinage Houses and the Lake of Love. That evening the group gathered together to share the experience of the entire cruise. We really enjoyed traveling with our expanded family. We shared a lot of time, dinners, and beer together. We had not spent much time with Carolyn or Jane before this trip, it was great to get to know them. And, of course, there was a lot of beautiful architecture, interesting history, and fun throughout the trip.
The video of this trip is available on youtube.
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| Lake of Love, Bruges |
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