A day of chocolate making at Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut

What do you do if you have a love for chocolate and getting crafty? Make a bunch of the sweet treats at Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut of course! For #LoveYYC day, Tourism Calgary sent my sister, niece and I to the Cococo Chocolatiers-owned shop for a day of chocolate making fun.

The premier chocolaterie has been a staple in Calgary’s food scene for many years and I was so excited to go ‘behind-the-curtain’ to see how the chocolate process works. We were put right to work on a variety of chocolate activities.

Truffles

Now I always thought that ‘truffles’ were some kind of specialty, fancy schmancy chocolate. But in fact they are just round chocolates that are typically filled with some kind of ganache or cream.

It’s the same chocolate as all the other chocolate! They were named after the truffle mushrooms and were made to imitate their similar round shape. But let’s be honest – I definitely don’t want mushrooms in my chocolate.

We were given a tray of open-ended chocolate truffles and it was our job to fill them up! Both a chocolate filling and a hazelnut cream went into the little spheres. We then closed off the “tops” of the truffles with more chocolate and let it set dry.

From there, it was time for some dipping action as we covered each truffle in either milk, dark, or white chocolate mixes. It was followed up with a little drizzle action and voila – the perfect truffle!

Buttercream filled chocolates

What I love about Cococo chocolates is how amazing and rich they taste. The chocolatiers use the finest ingredients to make their desserts just right.

All natural flavours, the best cocoa beans and nibs, and no palm oil are just some of the reasons why these chocolates are so gourmet.

Our second batch of chocolates called for raspberry buttercream and hazelnut buttercream fillings. Just like icing a cake or a batch of cookies, you can make fun patterns and shapes with the icing bags.

We then topped the chocolates with things like coconut, hazelnut and the very popular pink chocolate glitter that we liberally doused over all the pieces.

These chocolates were left “open” with no lids so you can see all the yummy insides.

Chocolate shoes

While many of the Cococo chocolates are premade in machines at the main factory, there is still a lot of hands-on work that needs to be done to prepare and finish the treats.

The chocolate shoes are one example of some serious craftsmanship and labour involved to make. The shop uses plastic molds to form the shoes. We were given paintbrushes and artistic license to decorate our shoes as we wanted.

Using the melted chocolate as our ‘paint’, we decorated the molds with hearts, dots, flowers and more.

The chocolate drawings set fairly quickly and from there it was time to fill up the shoes with our favourite chocolate flavour. My sister and niece chose milk chocolate while I opted for a dark chocolate shoe.

Chocolate is poured into the molds to form the shape of the shoe. The excess liquid gets poured out and then the shoes are left to dry upside down on a rack. One or two layers are usually enough and we even put in an extra white chocolate shoe lining on my niece’s shoe.

After a quick trip to the fridge to cool and set, the plastic molds are carefully removed and we are left with our very own tasty chocolate shoes!

If you want to experience your own chocolate making session, you can! Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut offers many different kinds of hands on events for office team building sessions, birthday parties, bachelorette parties and more at their 1^st Street SE store. Contact the shop’s main reception at 403-265-5777 to make a booking.

Thanks to Tourism Calgary and Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut for all the tasty treats.