Cindy Karrels started crafting delicious chocolates for herself and her loved ones. Then, after more than ten years, she entered into competition at the State Fair. Today, the Best of Show winner talks to WTMJ’s Libby Collins about how she began making chocolates, the people and ideas that inspire her luxurious flavors, and the intricacies of the chocolate-making process. It’s all ahead on this delectable edition of WTMJ Conversations!
A partial transcript is provided below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters.
CINDY KARRELS: Getting chocolate in temper, it’s an art and a science that you learn. And once you learn that, we call it the chocolate brain. Once you get that chocolate brain and you can see when your chocolate is in temper and you’ve got that magic window to work with, that’s when you’re really up and running. It’s something that you just develop. You can adjust your chocolate to make it work a little bit longer, or you have to say to yourself, it’s not going to work. Then we’ll look at updating recipes or things like that.
The very first chocolates that I came up with, our line of chocolates at our store, was to honor my grandparents. They have that wonderful Italian background, and I wanted to incorporate those flavors. So, Leonardo’s favorite has the hazelnut in it, and then we have a Maria’s Bellini with the peach and the Bellini wine in it, sparkling wine. And then, of course, they came through the port of Ellis Island, so we’ve got a chocolate named after that with the port wine infused into the chocolate.
