Dear Heart

Chocolatier offers advice for the lovesick

From the Rocky Mountain News
February 9, 2000

By Marty Meitus, News Food Editor

Han De Kesel and her husband, Johan Devriese can pinpoint the exact moment they decided to move here from Europe.

"we were attending a conference in Dallas," De Kesel says, "and I fell (at a tourist attraction),...and everyone was so nice and I said, 'I could live here.'"

Her husband took her comments literally.  After researching the best place to live in America from his home in Brugge, Belgium, he settled on a good place to raise children, a place that still has wide open space: Colorado.  They moved here 18 months ago, and no, "we don't ski," De Kesel says.

Instead they're building a confectionery business, piece by piece.  De Kesel is a chocolatier, who learned her craft at Ter Groene Poorte, a culinary school in Brugge.

Their retail shop, Belvedere, is in a newly renovated block at 350-A Perry St., Castle 
Rock, a street that's quickly becoming a desert haven, with a bakery, Dream Pastries, just a few doors down.

In addition to the luscious-looking chocolates in the case, they have a specialty chocolate business making dark-and-white chocolate treasure chests, floral covered chocolate heart boxes and specialty chocolate items such as golf balls.  They also sell Callebaut chocolate by the pound, ground almonds and hazelnut paste for do-it-yourselfers. (Phone: 303-663-2364.)

With Valentine's Day nearing, we asked De Kesel for a candy recipe the at-home cook might tackle without too much trouble.  She came up with this recipe for chocolate-covered hazelnut hearts.  It's helpful - but not imperative - to have a double boiler, waxed or parchment paper, a regular (not candy) thermometer and a candy-dipping fork, although you can use toothpicks or improvise.  De Kesel uses metal rulers, stacked a half-inch high, as a barrier when she pours chocolate on parchment paper.  We just poured the chocolate onto the paper and spread it the way we would cookie dough.  If it's too thin, however, you'll have trouble dipping it.

We tested the recipe twice, once using the expensive chocolate and once using Nestle's baking bar chocolate from the grocery.  In both cases we had to refrigerate the chocolate to get it to firm up enough to cut.  We also came up with a good alternative to cutting shapes, which became tiresome because the chocolate would get too soft and we had to keep putting it back in the fridge to firm up again.  Finally, when it got too soft, we began to scoop balls of chocolate with a teaspoon, and dipped those, making truffles.  Frankly, that was the easiest of all, although you have to work quickly when you're dipping so that the chocolate doesn't melt when you dip it.  After dipping, place the truffles or shapes on waxed paper and refrigerate until firm.

Reprinted with permission from the Rocky Mountain News.

Please go to our recipes page for the complete recipe.