My Truffle Masterclass Experience in London

Pinterest invited me to a truffle Masterclass with Paul A. Young, award winning British chocolatier. At first, it wasn’t clear to me the reasons for the invitation. There’s no much about chocolate on this blog (I worked my heart out for this cake). Is this invitation a mistake? I asked myself after reading the mail. You see, I was even addressed with my correctly spelled name. A birthday present? Does Pinterest love me so much? Uhm, it’s the wrong month, anyway. I was puzzled. Why me? 

The reason is that I am a Pinfluencer. Not a girl that has strategically and methodically arranged her feeds so to make the whole pinning situation more efficient and fast.  No, I am Pin influencer. At least this is what Pinterest thinks of me (shame on me, I thought I was more a kind of a pin-addicted girl). By the way, if you want to be pin influenced by me, head straight to my Pinterest board and enjoy a world of breathtaking recipes. 

OK, enough self-promotion. After all, I don’t even feel confident in the role of “influencer”. Seriously speaking, I had a blast at the Chocolate Truffle Masterclass where I learned how to make Stilton and Port Truffles (more pictures here). Inspired by the strive for excellence and quality Paul A Young demonstrated during the class, I want to take a chance to say a few things about chocolate, a few things I learned during the workshop.

Paul A Young is a very nice guy and a professional artisan of chocolate.

Farmers in Africa produce half the world’s cocoa. There are unfortunately many children involved in cocoa production. Direct trade with cocoa farmers is one way to avoid child labor. Paul is a member of Direct Cacao, a group of chocolate makers, chocolatiers, tasters, writers, cacao growers that work and strive for the recovery of heritage cacao.

Chocolate contains Flavonol antioxidants that help reduce the risk for cardiometabolic disorders. Maybe.

Good quality chocolate doesn’t necessarily mean 85% dark chocolate. Cocoa butter occurs naturally in the beans and is not to be deprecated. It is just a fat and natural part of chocolate. Amen.

White chocolate, on the other hand, is a chocolate derivative, an indulgent treat that comes with a price. Extract the cocoa mass from the chocolate, mix it with more butter and sugar (very often corn syrup) and you get a chocolate minus the chocolate. I think I’ll be always faithful to the “brown” one.

Are you wondering if I learned the secret to delicious truffle? I think I know now how to make better truffles and I am ready to give you evidence of it in a soon-to-come post. You may want to test the recipe to prove its goodness. In which case, would you like to share a pic of your craft with me? You’ll find me ready to pin your work to the world, always happy to fulfill my duty of a foodie pinner.