Choklit Blog #61: Epic Accounts of Candy-Making, Week 5

September 21, 2010.

  Good news: Chef Gronert is back!  Bad news: Chef Gronert is back.

       Last week when he wasn’t here, we skipped one of our recipes.  I’m not exactly sure why, but we did… so this week, we got to do that recipe in addition to everything else that was planned for the day.

  I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that Chef Gronert never lets us out of class early.  He always plans enough work for us that we don’t get out until two o’clock.  So if you take a full day of production and add in one extra recipe, what do you get?  That’s right!  You get out of class late!

  I’m not sure if the class is shrinking, or if a fourth of the class just happened to be busy today at 7:30 AM.  Either way, we only had nine people in class.  Instead of working in two groups like we would normally do and just making the groups slightly smaller this week, the entire class worked together as one unfortunately large group.  We also doubled all of our recipes so we would still end up with the same amount of candy… not that it matters how much candy we make, since it apparently just sits in the kitchen until random people come in and eat it all.  And speaking of the candy, I can’t figure out why the only one that almost broke my teeth was the only one with “soft” in its name.

  Anyway, through this class, I rediscovered the fact that nine different people cannot work on the same task at the same time, unless we’re talking about one large task that has nine smaller tasks within it.  That’s not what we’re talking about.

  The one time it was good to have the entire class working together was when we had to whisk nougat for thirty minutes over a double boiler.  Those of us who were fortunate enough to be too short to do much good had the extremely difficult and important tasks of watching our classmates sacrifice their sanity, and telling other classmates to come relieve them of whisking duty.

Choklit Blog #60: Epic Accounts of Candy-Making, Week 4

September 14, 2010.

  Today was a monumental day in the history of the Culinary Institute of Charleston and in the lives of every student in HOS 181-001.  Something happened that just does not happen.  No one I’ve ever come in contact with has known of this happening before.  In fact, it probably never has happened before.

  Chef Gronert missed class.

  I sensed that something was amiss as soon as I walked by the kitchen window.  Class was starting in about two minutes and he was nowhere in sight.  The only chef in the room was Laura Vein, the new adjunct pastry instructor, who doesn’t normally teach on Tuesday at 7:30 AM.  When the thought entered my mind that Chef Gronert may not be teaching today, I immediately told myself “Germans don’t miss class.”

  And so I walked into the kitchen totally unsuspecting of the astonishing news that would smack me in the face as soon as I walked through the door.  I was greeted by a class of shocked and amazed students who quickly informed me, “Chef Gronert is sick and Laura is teaching our class today.”

  Fact: Chef Gronert does not get sick.  Or miss class.

  Once we had all recovered from our bewilderment, class was kind of awesome.  We made mocha sticks and pistachio aida, which we called pistachio aida instead of baumstaemmchen because Laura isn’t German.  I also ate a ton of mocha ganache, which made me feel like passing out later since I had eaten basically no protein all day.

  Even though it was a really fun day and we got out of class early, I think everyone is dying to know why on earth Chef Gronert missed class.  Maybe he got sick of us and ran away back to Germany.  The world will never know.  Until next week.

Choklit Blog #59: Epic Accounts of Candy-Making, Week 3

September 7, 2010.

  Today was almost easy.  Class almost ended several hours early.  Everyone almost left class in an okay mood.

  Key word: almost.

  All those wonderful things could have been, due to the fact that today was cluster day.  Toasted, sugar-coated almonds mixed with tempered chocolate.  Frosted flakes mixed with tempered chocolate.  Feuilletine mixed with tempered chocolate.  Not very difficult or time-consuming.  We were done with all of that by 11:30.

  (This is the part where Chef Gronert uses something harmless and delicious to ruin our day.)

  For some odd reason that I will never know, Chef Gronert was DETERMINED to have us make cashew clusters.  We had already made enough clusters to understand the cluster-making process, so it couldn’t have been for the sake of education.

  Unfortunately, we didn’t have any unsalted cashews.  We weren’t sure if we would have any cashews, but we were supposed to be getting some in a little later.  And they absolutely had to be unsalted because Germans apparently aren’t into sweet and salty.

  So we waited.  Did we do anything productive while we waited?  No.  We just waited.  Finally, right around one o’clock, we got our cashews.  Class ends at two, so we got to work immediately.  We put our cashews in the oven and waited for them to toast.  Then we coated them with sugar syrup and waited for them to cool.  Then we made the clusters and waited for them to set.  Why yes, we did do a lot of waiting today.

  We probably spent more time waiting today than we did actually working.  So really, this was more like waiting day than cluster day.  By the way, the nut clusters needed some salt.

Choklit Blog #58: Epic Accounts of Candy-Making, Week 2

August 31, 2010.

  Truffles have been pretty much my favorite thing ever for a very long time.  Today I found out that all this time, I’ve been eating them wrong.  Apparently, you’re supposed to let the entire truffle melt in your mouth without biting or chewing.  I can barely even fit a whole truffle in my mouth.  I guess I can’t eat truffles anymore.

  I almost had to punch an inanimate object this week.  My group was making milk chocolate truffles, so we had to temper milk chocolate.  To do that, we had to heat the chocolate between 113℉ and 122℉, cool it to 80-81℉, then heat it back up to 88℉.  According to Chef Gronert, we couldn’t be a single degree off or the chocolate wouldn’t really be tempered.  Also according to him, our thermometers are inaccurate; his bottom lip is the ultimate authority on judging temperature.  I’m not so sure about that.

  We’re all pretty new to the whole chocolate tempering thing, so it’s expected that we’ll make some mistakes.  One of those mistakes was accidentally heating the chocolate to 90℉ as our end temperature.  We had been told that if the chocolate was overheated even 1℉, we would need to re-temper it.  FYI: That is not fun.  We did not re-temper.  We tested it on the back of a spoon and it set just fine, so we used it the way it was.

  Once we tempered our chocolate, we had to roll our filled and sealed truffles in it.  How did we do this?  We covered our hands in chocolate and then rolled the truffles around in our hands.  The result?  Little chocolate dots all over my uniform.  I looked like I had been misted with melted chocolate.  I have no idea how it happened.

  I’ve decided that I never want to see or taste chocolate again after today.  Let’s see how long this lasts.

Choklit Blog #57: How To Do Something Awesome

       At some point in our lives, every human has to stop and think “Why am I here?  What’s my purpose?  What do I want to do with my life?”  If you’re a Christian, you’ve probably always said “I know why I’m here.  I know what my purpose is-- to glorify God in everything I do and to do everything for Him.  Duh.”

       (This is kind of my favorite part.)

       Well, it turns out we were all WRONG.

       I came across Psalm 51:16-17 last night: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

       At first glance, anyone would look at this and say “Yeah, we don’t do burnt offerings anymore, so what?  I already know that.”  But I’m a firm believer in hidden messages, like in good songs and Ted Dekker books.

       I love Ted Dekker’s books.

       The point of the burnt offering was to earn God’s forgiveness.  Jesus hadn’t died on the cross yet, so salvation was earned through works, not through faith.  This is the “law of sin and death” mentioned in Romans 8:2 (and in various different places throughout that chapter.  I love that chapter, by the way).

       So in Psalm 51, when David says that God does not delight in sacrifice and burnt offerings, he’s not just talking literally about burnt offerings.  Well, he may have thought he was talking literally about burnt offerings, but God had something more in mind.  It’s symbolic of all of our works.

       Myth: God wants us to do great things for Him and give Him credit for all of our great works.  Christians typically think that God wants them to go do something huge to help a lot of people, and then say “God gets all the credit!”


       This common misunderstanding leads most people to live average lives saying “Oh, I could never do that!”  If everyone would have just a little bit of faith, imagine how different the entire world would be right now.  (For tips on how to have a little bit of faith, check out Choklit Blog #56: The Fear Infection).

       Fact: God doesn’t want you to do anything great.  He doesn’t want your works, because you can’t do anything compared to what He can do.  He wants to do great things through you.


       Nothing great will ever happen in this world until people STOP trying to be great!  “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  If you’re trying to do something great or if you’re under the impression that you can do something great, God can’t use you to do anything great!  God requires a broken and contrite spirit.

       I think we all know what “broken” means, but until five seconds ago, I had no idea what “contrite” meant.  According to my computer’s dictionary, it means “feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt.”

       “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)-- we’re all sinner, but until we realize that, God won’t use us.  God doesn’t want the deeds of the cocky, the intelligent, the powerful, and the confident-- he wants the heart of the broken, guilty, self-aware sinner.

Choklit Blog #56: The Fear Infection

  I recently injured myself.  Surprised?  I hope not, because that means you don’t read my blog or know me very well.

  I was at a water park with some friends to celebrate the end of summer.  I mean, all normal teenagers get together to celebrate the fact that school is starting again, right?  Well, we did, and we did it at a water park.  So, in my normal tradition, I injured myself on the least dangerous thing in the entire park: the lazy river.

  Yes.  I skinned my knee on the bottom of the lazy river.

  I managed to walk over to a lifeguard with blood running down my leg and ask for a band-aid, which lasted for a very small part of the day.  For the rest of the day, my skinned knee was completely exposed to... well, everything.  FYI: Water parks are not the most sanitary places in the world.

  A little later that night, right around seven, the pain kicked in.  Before long, I could barely even bend my knee.  I also ate eighteen Twizzlers that night, so my knee wasn’t the only thing in pain.

  For a few days it was like this.  On my first day of school, I was limping everywhere, and I cringed every time I had to sit down or stand up.  Every night before bed, I would take off my old band-aid, put some antibacterial ointment on my knee, and put on a fresh band-aid.  One night I didn’t do that.  I said “Oh well, it won’t hurt to keep the same one on for two days.”  So I did just that.

  The next night, I was really tired and ready to get in bed.  I took off my band-aid to change it, and immediately I knew I wasn’t going to bed any time real soon.  Judging by the look of my knee and the horrible scent wafting through the air, one thing was quite obvious: I had an infection.

  Last night I heard a sermon about fear, and it made me think of that infection.  I mean, I didn’t need a sermon to make me think of my knee since it still hurts, but my mind immediately started making connections between fear and infections.  Crazy how that works.  Anyway.

  Take a look at 1 John 4:18.  “There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”  Conclusion: fear is bad.

  Just like any other negative thing, fear will creep into your life unnoticed at first.  You’re not just going to wake up one day and go, “Man, I’m scared today.”  Do you think Eve woke up one morning and said “I think I’ll corrupt mankind today”?  (FYI: She did not.  Read Genesis 3 for the whole story.)  It’s just like the infected wound: The infection is there, growing, building itself up, but you don’t notice it until five days later.

  By the time you detect this fear, you have to get rid of it immediately.  Otherwise it will cripple you, just like it did to the wicked servant in the parable of the ten talents (and just like my little scratch rendered me unable to bend my knee).  “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you’” (Matt. 25:24-25, NIV).  In case you don’t know the rest of the story, the servant gets fired for failing to multiply his master’s money--because he was afraid.

  So how do you get rid of it?  Well, let’s look at how I got rid of my infection.

  Step 1: Hot water.  Not a little splash of lukewarm water.  HOT water.  Mark 4:35-41 is a perfect example of this:

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. (NIV)

  Jesus throws His disciples into a crazy storm and scares them out of their minds, then He tells the storm to shut up, and it does!  Why?  Because facing fear head-on is the best (and sometimes only) way to get rid of it.  Once you face your fear and realize someone more powerful than any force on this earth has your back, that fear kind of goes away.  It’s like Romans 8:31 says: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

  Step 2: A powerful antiseptic.  In my case, tea tree oil.  Not fun.  Unlike hot water, which flushes out most of the infection, an antiseptic penetrates deep into the wound and kills any traces of infection that were too set-in to be moved by the water.  It takes time and it may be temporarily painful, but if you let the infection continue to grow, it’ll be way more painful... and that pain will last until you destroy the infection--through a painful process, no doubt.

  So what’s a good antiseptic for fear?  Something that penetrates deep into your soul and rebukes fear.  Any guesses?

  That’s right!  It’s the Bible.  “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, NIV).  Studying God’s word daily will help to remove those little bits of fear that may still be marinating in the back of your mind.  You most likely won’t like everything you see, and some of it will require you to make, often painful, changes to your life.  In the end, though, you’ll find that it’s much easier than walking around in fear constantly.

  Step 3: Keep the dirt out.  This seems easy enough, right?  For me, it consisted of putting on some antibacterial ointment and a band-aid every day until the wound healed.  In the case of fear, it consists of not murdering people and stealing and doing bad things like that.  Right?

  Wrong.  In my case, I was actually smearing useless white goo all over my knee.  It turned out my ointment had expired ten years ago.

  Romans 8:5-8 says “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”  When we fill our minds with sin, we separate ourselves from God.  Without God, who is there to protect us from our fears?  No one.

  If you remember all the way back in the beginning of this blog, I quoted 1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”  So according to that verse, in order to completely destroy fear, we need love, right?  According to 1 Timothy 1:5, “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”  You can’t be fearless in a sinful life, just like you can’t be healthy with a dirty cut.