How Mr. Chocolate Makes His Chocolates Slideshow
The first step in making molded and rolled chocolates is to temper the chocolate. This machine both tempers the chocolate and keeps it warm enough to use.
Creating Chocolate Bars
The tempered chocolate is used to make Jacques jumbo-sized Big Daddy Bars. Here, white chocolate is being poured into the reusable molds.
Letting the Chocolate Set
Here, the mold is filled. The chocolate is then chilled so it can harden.
Wrapped Big Daddy Bars
The finished bar is then wrapped in cellophane for sale in one of Jacques' many shops.
I Love U Puzzle, Step One
A similar technique is used to make the special I Love U Puzzle for Valentine's Day. Here, the molds are filled with white chocolate for the lettering.
Finished I Love U Puzzle
The molds are then filled with contrasting chocolate and left to set. When unmolded, colors are mixed and matched so each heart has two dark chocolate puzzle pieces and two white chocolate puzzle pieces.
Valentine's Day Spankers
The same technique is used to make the chocolate spankers, which resemble extra-large chocolate lollipops, sold in the shops for Valentine's Day.
Chocolate Bark
The tempered chocolate is also used to make Jacques' addictive dark chocolate bark, studded with an array of hazelnuts, pistachios, and almonds, all carefully roasted in-house at their Brooklyn factory.
Candied Orange Peels
The tempered chocolate is not just for making molded chocolates. Here are some candied orange peels that will be coated in chocolate to make Jacques' Orange 'A Peel treats, which are packaged in a fun apple-shaped box (perfect for a teacher's gift). They do say an apple a day (er, chocolate a day) keeps the doctor away...
Coating Candied Orange Peels
The candied orange peel is then run through machine that coats each piece of rind in chocolate.
Finished Orange 'A Peel
Once the chocolate sets, the chocolate-covered orange rinds are collected for packaging. Christophe and his team can make a giant tub of these chocolate-covered treats within a couple of hours.
Creating Rolled Chocolates
The tempered chocolate is also fed into this machine for making chocolate-covered almonds, malt balls, Cheerios, fruits, and more. Here, the machine is rolling the almonds. While the almonds are matte (looking like they've been dipped in cocoa), the machine can be adjusted to make the chocolate coverings shiny.
Chocolate-Covered Almonds
This batch of almonds was made that morning.
Packaging Chocolates
Each container of chocolate-covered almonds is filled by hand.
Rolled Chocolates for Sale
These chocolate-covered almonds are ready to be sold.
Shiny Chocolate-Covered Almonds
These almonds were run through the machine to create a shiny surface texture.