Chocolate has the feelgood factor
Oct 14 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post
It’s National Chocolate Week from October 13-19. Emma Pinch gets the skinny from the region’s most passionate chocoholic
FORMER commodities broker, Bala Croman, reckons her new business is just about recession proof.
“People will always treat themselves to chocolate,” she asserts. “Chocolate is cheap and it lifts your spirits. I’m a chocolate convert.”
Luxury stores groan with goods emblazoned with “hand-made” and “home-made” and “fresh”, but Bala’s chocolates are arguably more deserving of the label than most.
Her factory is a high ceilinged room into her rambling Victorian home, in a quaint street in Bidston village, toddler proofed against sons Ronan, four, and Arun, 18 months.
It doesn’t seem so at first glance, but everything in this packed space is devoted to the craft of making chocolate – the cluster of Whiskey, Tia Maria and Amaretto bottles in one corner, the jar of salted pretzels, and the pots of spices, cumin, chilli and garam masala.
Sheets of plastic, gaffered into place, keep out the glare of the sun and two heaters keep milk and dark chocolate heating to 45°C and cooling but constantly moving to imbue it with a glossy appearance, smooth texture and clean snap when it breaks. A vibrating dental tray squeezes air bubbles out once it’s in the moulds.
She’s currently at a stainless steel island in the kitchen piping tiny pips of icing onto rose truffles for a wedding order, made of Belgian chocolate, fresh cream and rose oil.
“In the morning, it’s usually stuff we’ve done at night, finishing it off,” says Bala, 42. “In the summer, this has to be done in the middle of the night when it’s cooler. I get the boys to bed and I come down and make chocolate. I start at 10pm and work until 2 or 3am.
“The secret is to have cool hands and give it lots of time.”
She estimates she makes 10,000 chocolates a month, cooking in the morning and selling them every afternoon.
She’s passionate about educating people on the vast spectrum of tastes and qualities of the brown compound, and its versatility.
Some fillings are traditional marriages of flavours, using fresh fruit or liquor and no preservatives. Pecan and cinnamon, Tia Maria, Amaretto, and new-for-autumn orange and mulled wine spices.
