Andrew Garrison Shotts - Making Artisan Chocolates

FLAVOR-INFUSED CHOCOLATES,
TRUFFLES, AND CONFECTIONS

ANDREW GARRISON SHOTTS

Award-Winning Pastry Chef and Chocolatier

Photography by Madeline Polss
Foreword by Nick Malgieri

This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents. My mother, Sue, first instilled in me my love of cooking. She would call me from work and walk me through simple preparations to help get dinner started before she arrived home. I can still hear her telling me to pour two bloops of oil in the pan. From my father, Don, I learned work ethic and discipline. He taught me that a worthwhile outcome is fully dependent on the time and effort it takes to get there. I am thankful for their love and wisdom in pointing me in the right direction time and time again. I honor their memories every day when I go to work and do what I love.

Candy Apple,

By Nick Malgieri

With close to thirty years experience teaching and writing about chocolate, desserts, and baking, Ive seen many a trend come and go. My greatest pleasure has been to witness a younger generation of pastry chefs and chocolatiers grow up around me, winning awards and recognition for their fine work. Andrew Shotts is at the front of that group, whose dedication to their craft and disciplined hard work have helped them gain significant recognition at a young age. His resum includes extensive work experience in Italy and France, head pastry chef positions in such renowned establishments as La Cte Basque and the Russian Tea Room, and four years as the corporate pastry chef for Guittard Chocolate Company. His first business venture in New York, the Chocolate Loft, combined a teaching kitchen and a production facility for preparing his first line of chocolates. While there, he attracted students and teachers from all over the world, and quickly developed a reputation for being as gifted a teacher as he is a chocolatier.

Andrew loves to shares his knowledge of chocolate and its complexities. He is as clear and gifted a writer as he is a master of developing creative and unusual flavoring components for his confections. In his book youll find precise step-by-step instructions for all the basic chocolate processes, as well as charts, techniques, and hints to help you strike out on your own to and pursue your own creative impulses. Like every great teacher, Andrew gives you the basics and encourages your own creativity.

If you havent been fortunate enough to receive a gift of Andrews Garrison Confections, or to attend one of his classes, Making Artisan Chocolates will give you bothyoull feel as though hes right beside you, teaching you how to create these luscious chocolate treats that are as much fun to prepare as they are to taste. I cant think of anyone else who could do that better than Andrew Shotts.

Nick Malgieri is the award-winning author of several highly-acclaimed cookbooks, including How to Bake, Chocolate, and A Bakers Tour. He also serves as Director of Baking Programs at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City.

In the world of artisan chocolates, my company, Garrison Confections, is known for creating new flavor combinations five times a year. We change our chocolate collections seasonally, based on the lunar calendar. Each collection comprises twelve bonbons, is named after the season in which it falls (Vernal Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumnal Equinox, and Winter Solstice), and is only available during that specific season. Additionally, we create a new Valentines Day collection each year called the Legendary Lovers Collection, also made up of twelve pieces.

Although it is quite a challenge to create sixty new flavors a year, I believe it is important to continually offer something new and interesting. This keeps us on our toes and allows us to take advantage of flavor trends.

I do not have one specific formula for creating new flavor fusions. At Garrison Confections, the creation of each new collection is a group effort. Throughout the year our store keeps track of customer requests and feedback. Many culinary students come through my kitchen every year; their minds are open to new ideas and they are not afraid to propose new flavors. And my kitchen staff keeps an ongoing list of ideas culled from research, conversations, or, if we are on deadline, pulled out of thin air.

A few of our bestsellers have come from adaptations of past desserts I created when I was a pastry chef in New York City. The peppered pineapple chocolate in several seasons ago. The inspiration for this concoction came while having dinner at a favorite Providence restaurant, Chez Pascal. And our neighbor Carol is responsible for the spiced nut praline I recently created.

My point is this: Inspiration is everywhere as long as you are open to seeking it out.

To be able to translate inspiration to finished product, however, you must first understand the basic techniques of working with chocolate. One of the biggest misconceptions I come across is the idea that chocolate bonbons and candies are made by simply melting and then refrigerating the molded or coated pieces to help the chocolate set. This is a quick and easy short-term fix to help chocolate harden, but not the proper way to make chocolate confections.

To really become proficient at working with chocolate, and to eventually be able to invent your own fabulous creations, you will need to have a good working knowledge of the chocolate-tempering process. In writing this book I have tried to take information that can be somewhat confusing and make it less so. If you only truly read one section of this book, please pay attention to . Mastering the techniques in that chapter will give you a good foundation on which to build future chocolate skills.

Counter clockwise from left to right: Classic Dark 72 percent, .

provides fun ideas on pairings and presentations. Wine and chocolate parties are a great reason to invite everyone over to sample your efforts. When paired correctly, wine and chocolate enhance and bring out each others subtle nuances. And you are sure to become everyones favorite dinner guest when you show up with a hostess gift of chocolates artfully wrapped and creatively presented.

After mastering the basics, shows you how to put the techniques into practice, with forty recipes with which to experiment. Use these recipes as a guide to making your own unique flavor fusions. I hope they will give you a sense of how to pair flavors, both complementary and contrasting, as well as textures.

I love to make chocolate and I think it shows in all the products I create. If you enjoy the process of thinking about flavor combinations and putting them together to create chocolates and confections, then I am sure you will come up with some winners of your own. And remember that, while it may take time and practice to master the art of making chocolate, it will be time and effort well spent. So get ready to have fun and be creative!