Choc around the clock at York Cocoa House

“WHAT sort of chocolate do you like – dark, milk or white?” asks Sophie Jewett as she makes me a cafe latte at her new chocolate emporium, York Cocoa House.

Her question makes me freeze. Sophie is one of the city’s top chocolatiers who runs sell-out chocolate workshops and is heading up the first York Chocolate Festival, so I wonder whether to tell the truth – or lie.

You see, I am a Galaxy/Dairy Milk sort of girl, who can eat a family size bar in one sitting.

However, I am tempted to say that only the darkest chocolate will suffice; the more cocoa solids the better; and how I only ever savour one tiny square at a time. But deception has never been in my make-up. I come clean.

“Milk,” I say rather sheepishly, feeling as if I’ve just confessed to Jilly Goolden that I prefer Blue Nun to the finest Burgundy.

To my great surprise Sophie breaks into an understanding smile. Turns out, she’s a Galaxy/Dairy Milk sort of gal too, and her new chocolate venture is aimed at people like us.

“As we get older people think we should like the darker stuff more,” says Sophie. “People feel guilty about having something sweet and creamy. Well this is where people can come for their chocolate fix – without feeling too guilty.”

Not that you’ll find Sophie selling bars of Galaxy or Dairy Milk from her grand premises on Blake Street, opposite the Assembly Rooms.

On the menu are the usual ranges of coffees, but hot chocolate and teas too as well as a tempting array of home-made treats. There are brownies and cakes that pay homage to the city’s chocolate heritage; chocolate orange cake and KitKat cake.

Also, from next month, savoury dishes will be available – all featuring chocolate. During my visit I sampled some of chef Claire Davies’ works in progress. Her fiery butternut squash soup, laced with aromatic cardamom, is served with giant white chocolate buttons. It looks and sounds crazy, but there is sanity in the culinary combination.

“The white chocolate is just cream, cocoa butter and sugar,” says Sophie, adding that its addition is similar to a spoonful of yoghurt or cream into the curried soup. Indeed, as the chocolate melts into the soup it leaves an oozy, white swirl that adds creaminess.

Next comes a veggie chilli, complete with shards of dark chocolate on the side and a mini grater. “People can grate the chocolate straight into the dish at the table,” says Sophie.

The Cocoa House also sells Sophie’s handmade chocolates and truffles.

“Try this,” says Sophie with a grin. It’s a rich chocolate truffle made with Yorkshire Blue cheese. My instinct is to scrunch my nose in distaste, but the strong flavours of the dark chocolate and ripe cheese are a surprising hit.

“We also make truffles with real ale using York Brewery’s Centurion Ghost and chocolate orange ones with marmalade,” says Sophie.

She runs chocolate-making workshops too. This weekend, during the Residents’ Festival, people can make chocolate lollipops at York Cocoa House.

During my visit, I have a go at making one. My first surprise is when Sophie hands me a hairdryer. We use this to melt the mass of Belgian milk chocolate buttons piled up in a plastic bowl. It’s a gentle method to ‘temper’ the chocolate, allowing it to get to the correct consistency to mould it into the desired shape. It is right when a ribbon of chocolate dribbled from a wooden spoon leaves a trail, but this trail disappears when you shake the bowl.

To make the lollipops, we take a spoonful of the melted chocolate and ladle it on to a cellophane sheet on a small tray. I bang the tray a couple of times until the chocolate spreads out to form a nice round shape.

Then I place a stick in the middle, twiddling it around so it too is covered in chocolate, and decorate the lollipop with a sprinkling of strawberry swirls and dark chocolate balls.

With the remaining chocolate, I spoon it into a silicon mould. Sophie puts this in the fridge and about ten minutes later, like ice cubes, we pop out the results. The chocolates are delightful, a mix of quirky shapes on an afternoon-tea theme featuring mini biscuits, cupcakes and even a teapot.

Sophie began making chocolates as a child growing up on a farm on the Isle of Wight. As a sufferer of Crohn’s disease, a chronic condition that causes inflammation of the gut, she discovered one of the triggers is chocolate. This means she has to limit her intake, although she still has a sweet tooth; she takes three spoonfuls of sugar in her coffee.

Sophie says she learned how to make chocolate by trial and error and seeks through her workshops to show people how to make chocolates in an accessible way – hence the use of a hairdryer for tempering rather than splaying the chocolate on a marble slap in the traditional way.

But her ambitions stretch further than running a chocolate business in York. In recent years, she has organised various chocolate events for the York food and drink festival, which spurred her on to launch the city’s first Festival of Chocolate, which will run over Easter weekend. The timing couldn’t be better, coinciding with the opening of York’s newest visitor, York’s Sweet Story, this spring.

Sophie says: “We want to get people talking about York’s chocolate heritage and promote York as a chocolate destination.”

And where better to start than with a spot of indulgence at the York Cocoa House?

Recipe

SOPHIE JEWETT shares her recipe for chocolate truffles.

(Makes about 40 chocolates)

Ingredients

200g milk chocolate (chopped finely)
100ml of double cream
25g of butter (slightly soft and cut in cubes)You can adjust this recipe by substituting some of the cream with a liquid or jam of your choice.

To create a fruity raspberry flavour you could use 50ml of double cream and 50ml of fruit puree.

Equipment

Plastic bowl
Wooden spoon or plastic spatula
Small saucepan
Baking tray
Baking paper.

Method

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a plastic bowl and set aside.

2. Put the cream and flavouring (if you are using) in a small saucepan. Heat the mixture slowly, stirring so it does not stick to the bottom. To make your chocolates last longer add a teaspoon of liquid glucose, golden syrup or honey; these will affect the taste of your chocolates, don’t worry if you don’t want to add it, you will just have to make sure you eat them within a few days.

Once the cream comes to a rolling boil pour directly over the chocolate. Let this sit aside for a couple of minutes before stirring.

3. Stir the hot cream and chocolate mixture together until all the chocolate is melted, add the butter and stir until the mixture is all combined. Put the mixture aside until it starts to set.

4. Cover a clean baking tray with baking paper.

5. Spoon out the chocolate mixture into equal sized balls, don’t worry they don’t need to look perfect. If the mixture is too soft or sticky place it in the fridge until it’s a bit firmer.

6. Allow to set for an hour and roll each lump in your hand to form a small ball. If the mixture is a bit sticky leave the centres over night to set, put them in the fridge or dust your hands in cocoa powder.

7. Ideally leave your chocolates overnight to set, make sure you cover them and put them somewhere safe and cool just to make sure they don’t go missing before you finish them.

Chocolate tempering

Once you have created your chocolate centres you can cover them in anything you want. For a simple covering, grind up biscuits or nuts to roll them in. To get a gorgeous crunchy shell you will need to prepare your chocolate so it is at the right consistency to work with but looks glossy and silky, this is called tempering.

Ingredients

400g milk chocolate (chopped finely and evenly)

Equipment

Plastic bowl
Wooden spoon or plastic spatula
Small saucepan or microwave
Baking tray with baking paper
Hair dryer.

Method

1. Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and put in the microwave for 30 seconds.

2. After 30 seconds take out of the microwave and stir. The chocolate won’t look like it is melted yet but you will need to stir to distribute the heat evenly.

3. Put the chocolate back in the microwave again for another 30 seconds, take out and stir.

4. You will need to keep doing this until two-thirds of the chocolate is melted and the rest is still lumpy. You may need to reduce the length of time each time you return the bowl to microwave, it’s important that you don’t burn or over melt the chocolate so it is better to be cautious.

5. When two-thirds of the chocolate is melted, remove from the microwave and stir until the rest of the lumps are mixed into the chocolate. A great hint to help with tempering the chocolate is to keep a small hair dryer handy, you can gently add some heat to the chocolate and melt any bits that start to solidify.

6. When the chocolate is properly tempered it should be thick enough that it leaves a trail in the bowl from the spoon (this should disappear when you shake the bowl). Another test is to dip a knife into the chocolate and set it aside.

If it is perfectly tempered, it should dry silky and a solid colour in five minutes. If the chocolate sets before the end of the minutes you need to make the mixture slightly warmer, if it takes more than five minutes then add some more finely chopped chocolate and stir to melt it in.

7. Using clean, dry hands, scoop the chocolate into one hand, with the other hand dip the truffle centre into the chocolate to evenly coat, place on a tray with a sheet of clean baking paper.

8. Roll your truffles in crushed biscuits or nuts, or add chocolate curls, fruit, nuts or pink hearts to make each one different or personalise them. Do this quickly before they set; it’s easier if you have help.

9. Leave your chocolates somewhere cool to set, then show off and enjoy. These chocolates are best eaten quickly, but will last up to two weeks.