#chocolate making

you blink, still in your house clothes, clutching your phone. “you mean… right now?”

“no time like the present!” he beams, waving a grocery bag full of ingredients he clearly guessed on. “i brought supplies.”

you glance in the bag — a block of chocolate, sugar, cocoa powder, a whisk, and, for some reason, a bag of marshmallows.

“tendō, what—”

“emotional support marshmallows,” he interrupts. “for when i inevitably mess something up.”

you laugh, shaking your head. “come in, you dork.”

your kitchen becomes a scene of barely controlled chaos.

he’s all long limbs and energy, crowding your counter space and reading the recipe upside down. every few minutes he asks questions that make no sense.

“what does ‘fold it in’ mean? do we… like, fold it in half?”

“no, you gently mix it.”

“so swirl it?”

“yes.”

he stirs with exaggerated care, tongue poking out in concentration. it’s so endearing you almost forget he’s technically ruining your chocolate mixture.

you reach over to correct his motion, your hand brushing his. he freezes.

“oh,” he says quietly.

you both laugh, too flustered to say anything else.

a few minutes later, you’re standing side by side, waiting for the chocolate to cool enough to mold. he’s still watching you out of the corner of his eye, smile tugging at his lips.

“so,” he says, “how’d you even learn to make this?”

“my mom used to make them for valentine’s,” you say. “i just… picked it up.”

he nods thoughtfully. “guess i should’ve started learning sooner.”

“why?”

“might’ve had an excuse to talk to you before you gave me chocolate and disappeared like some mysterious baking goddess.”

you roll your eyes. “you’re ridiculous.”

“you like that about me.”

you can’t even argue, because he’s right.

when the chocolates are finally ready to shape, you hand him a piping bag. “squeeze slowly, or it’ll spill.”

he concentrates hard for all of five seconds before accidentally squeezing too hard. chocolate splatters across your hand and the counter.

“oops,” he says, but he’s laughing so hard he can’t look sorry.

“you’re hopeless,” you giggle, reaching for a napkin, but he catches your wrist before you can wipe it off.

“wait,” he says, eyes glinting with mischief. “i’ve got it.”

he leans forward and kisses the back of your hand, right where the chocolate smeared.

your breath catches.

“see?” he says softly, smile still there but gentler now. “clean.”

you stare at him, heart pounding, and for once he’s quiet — no teasing, no grin, just this warm, nervous look that makes your chest ache.

“you can’t just—” you start, but the words die when he steps closer.

“can’t what?” he murmurs, voice lower now.

you swallow, pulse racing. “make everything feel like this.”

he exhales a shaky laugh. “then what am i supposed to do with it?”

you don’t answer — you just rise on your toes and kiss him.

it’s soft at first, tentative, your hands still sticky with half-made chocolate. he tastes like cocoa and sugar and something you can’t name yet, something new.

when you pull away, his grin is back, but it’s softer now — full of awe instead of mischief.

“so,” he says, breathless, “does this mean i passed the lesson?”

you laugh, cheeks burning. “barely.”

“guess i’ll need another one, then.”

“maybe next weekend.”

“deal.”

he steals one more kiss before you can protest, laughing into it when you squeak in surprise.

somewhere on the counter, the chocolate starts to harden — but neither of you notice.

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Ok. Deep dive time.

The truth: you will see people talking about double boilers and fancy equipment and how chocolate must be done a certain way. Nope. I'd probably have people busting down my door with pitchforks for how I do chocolate if I was at a culinary school/fancy chocolate shop, but my way works just as well and tends to be faster than the fancy, frilly methods. I use a microwave and an unreliable meat thermometer (clean) to temper my chocolate, and it's worked for me every time. I can find you the website I learned to do this, but here's the gist:

Pour chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl. Use special chocolate made for chocolatiering (often called callets, I ask for a big bag of Callebaut for Christmas to get me through at least a couple years), it has the right ratio of cocoa butter to other stuff--chocolate chips and other candy bars do not have that ratio and can't be tempered. Cannot stress this enough: make sure your microwave is always set to 50% power when working with chocolate. Your chocolate will scorch otherwise, and there's no saving scorched chocolate. Also, make sure your hands and equipment are fully dry, even a drop of water can make your entire batch seize, and that's a pain to deal with.

Microwave your chocolate for 60 seconds, stir, then pop it in for 40 second intervals. Once it's up to 100 degrees F, take it out and stir in more callets. Wait until they're fully melted before taking the temperature again and adding more callets (this process is called seeding). Keep doing this until the chocolate is between 86-91 degrees F. If it drops below that, you'll need to microwave it back up to 100 degrees and start the process again. This way, you're getting the molecular structure rigid and cooling it slowly so the rigid structure stays.

Now you have tempered chocolate! Once it fully dries and hardens, it'll snap just right and keep your fillings sealed in if it doesn't crack. It's super shiny and pretty, too. You can also re-temper and reuse any leftover tempered chocolate later.

Take a clean, dry bonbon mold (I like wiping each bonbon out with a paper towel before use, even if it's clean) and pour your tempered chocolate into however many chocolates you want to make. Shake the mold around (without, y'know, flinging chocolate all over the place) to make sure the entire inside is coated and there are no air bubbles. Then flip the mold upside down over some parchment paper and shake out most of the chocolate. You'll have to do some experimenting to know how much to shake out to get the thickness of chocolate shell you want, but once the flood of chocolate out of your mold starts to slow, that's when you want to start checking how thick it looks on the inside.

Then, flip the mold back over and scrape off the excess chocolate from the mold (you can use the flat side of a butter knife, I like using a dough cutter thing that's basically a paddle with a thinner edge on one side). Set the mold aside and let it harden at least 10 minutes, at least until the chocolate looks and feels set. I normally make my fillings while I wait.

Fill your bonbons with whatever filling you'd like, but make sure to leave half a centimeter or so between the filling top and the top of the mold. Re-temper your remaining chocolate and pour it over your bonbons. Scrape away excess chocolate, and let the mold sit for at least 5-10 minutes, plus some extra time in the fridge to really set.

Once the chocolates are set, warn anyone in your house that you are about to make loud, concerning noises. :D Flip the mold upside down over clean parchment paper and S L A M it down. Really. Slam. Have fun. Take out some aggression. I wiggle my molds in between slams to help more of the bonbons come out. Also, move any bonbons that popped out to the side so you don't slam them. Learned that one the hard way.

pink is raspberry+white chocolate, green is caramel+brownie, blue is a mystery (evil caramel)