I'm still buzzing from the fun I had this morning at our first cooking class in Korean! Luckily my Korean teacher Helen agreed to come along for the first class so she could translate, take part and generally take an interest as always. She is a wonderful lady.
There were eight foreigners in total, plus Helen. There were also three or four Koreans taking part in the class. I think they were a little overwhelmed at the start but they were very friendly and after class they said we made their experience very special which was lovely. We purposely chose a simple class for our first attempt just in case there were any communication problems. But the cookery school in Shinsegae Masan was very clean and professional. We foreigners were very much welcomed in and taken care of.
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| Our teachers |
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| Helen |
The first half of our lesson consisted of a tutorial in chocolate tempering which is the correct method of heating and cooling melted chocolate in order to make chocolate lollipops. I am sure you have sometimes seen chocolate shapes appear to have a thin white coating and this occurs when the chocolate has been heated or cooled too quickly or to the incorrect temperature. It's a very technical process and one which was obviously deemed too technical for us to actually carry out. We were a little disappointed that this was a tutorial section and we could not attempt it ourselves. Oh well, we have the info.
We used dark, white and green tea flavoured chocolate in piping bags and formed our own lollipops. We cooled them and later wrapped them in decorative gift bags. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately there was no dark chocolate left for my teddies as some students had been eating the chocolate from the bag! But I managed to form a heart with the green tea chocolate and fill the rest of my bear with white. I was quite pleased. The others seemed to bleed into each other, but I was pretty happy with my first attempt as a chocolatier. I have a new found respect for Thornton's. The teacher seemed very impressed with Leslie!
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| Steven and I |
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| Leslie and her finished products |
Next we began the Coconut Rocher. Not something I have ever even heard of to be honest but they were so simple to make. If you are familiar with Ferrero Rocher they are similar in that they are small and circular, but ours contained no chocolate.
We mixed an egg white with sugar, added some almond flour and shredded coconut with a dash or rum kept under the safe keeping of the teacher, and then moulded the mixture into balls. I laughed because mine seemed a little rough but it actually made them crispier. We baked them in the oven and my god they were good!
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| My finished coconut rocher |
Roll on class number two!!
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