Anna Crumley, Pastry Chef, Cherokee CC
Forrest Gump said it best: “Life is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you’re gonna get.”
Today’s club and resort pastry chefs are surprising members and guests with a variety of unique confectioneries. From life-sized sculptures that serve as dessert table centerpieces, to boxed bonbons to cap off a memorable dining experience, chocolate candies have become bona fide showstoppers.
For Pastry Chef Anna Crumley, crafting chocolates allows her to showcase her artistic side via brushstrokes of a different kind.
“I personally enjoy painted bonbons because of how many techniques exist,” she says. The intricate process involves melting and then tempering colored cocoa butter, followed by applying the chocolate with either a warmed airbrush gun or by hand. Members at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville, Tenn., are often treated to these delicacies as a garnish in lieu of a macaron.
Tempering Technique
Bonbons are just one portion of Crumley’s chocolate repertoire, one that she has perfected over the years working in restaurants and resorts. While Cherokee marks her first private club experience, she has maximized the past three years by making chocolate-based confectioneries for assorted member events.
Each month, Crumley produces bonbons for wine club meetings and works with the sommelier to see which flavors will pair well with different vintages. She also made bonbons with a strawberry rosewater filling for Cherokee’s founders’ event. “I used oil-based food color to dye the chocolate and custom transfer sheets to put the logo on,” she explains.
Holidays at the club have also seen their fair share of Crumley’s chocolate confectioneries. She made a chocolate box for Valentine’s Day, while for Halloween, she fashioned truffles in the shape of a cat. Crumley has cultivated a steady diet of YouTube culinary videos to learn new techniques and follows select chocolatiers online for additional inspiration.
Determining what type of chocolate to use depends upon the taste Crumley is looking to achieve. She also notes the influence of production and origin on overall flavor. “Beans are heavily impacted by the environment when they’re grown,” she says, noting the vast difference between those in Peru versus those in Guatemala.
For her own chocolate-making technique, Crumley depends on tempering, particularly the silking method. She melts her chocolate, cools it to 94°F and then adds 1 percent by weight of silk. “For instance, 1,000 grams of chocolate would equal 10 grams of grated silk added in,” she explains. A double boiler gets the job done, as does an infrared gun thermometer.
And while the idea of tempering initially posed a bit of a learning curve for Crumley, she has since embraced the technique. “I never had much success with the seeding method, and the table method is rather messy,” she adds. “Once I tried silk, it worked the first time and every time since. It has been a game changer.”
Savanna Brodar, Executive Pastry Chef, The Country Club of North Carolina
Sweet Surrender
It’s not uncommon for members at The Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, N.C., to be greeted by a chocolate sculpture of epic proportions. Be it a tremendous Thanksgiving turkey or tabletop-sized Easter bunny, complete with chocolate eggs in his basket, these eye-catching, mouthwatering creations are just as compelling as the truffles and bonbons bestowed upon wedding and banquet guests. Guests can thank Executive Pastry Chef Savanna Brodar who has been satisfying their appetite for sweets since last July when she came aboard.
Brodar is no stranger to the pastry kitchen, having spent the past decade working in a variety of Charlotte, N.C., hotels. While she has been developing her chocolate-making skills for the past five years, Brodar ramped up her experience over the past two.
“I have had the opportunity to create large chocolate sculptures for many holiday brunches,” she says, “which has greatly enhanced my expertise.”
Tapping into her previous hotel pastry experience, Brodar has built up her truffle and bonbon-making for club banquets and weddings. Hand-crafted CCNC chocolate bars took center stage at the U.S. Open earlier this summer and are also made for other special events. “I have a passion for chocolate and the tempering process, and I incorporate it into my work whenever possible,” she says. This includes dipping techniques used with mousses and other desserts, such as cake pops and decorated cookies.
Brodar notes that she prefers manual tempering over a tempering machine for creating the most authentic product.
“The ability to hand-temper chocolate to the perfect temperature and texture is immensely rewarding,” she explains. “This process provides a sense of accomplishment that I don’t experience with a tempering machine; I take pride in knowing that I can achieve excellent results with minimal equipment.”
Even after yielding confectioneries that meet her high standards, Brodar must contend with fluctuating temperatures in the kitchen—a challenge when working with chocolate. She usually makes a point of working quickly and using refrigeration to benefit the setting process.
“I’ve also discovered that tackling chocolate work early in the morning, before the rest of the crew arrives, helps mitigate the temperature challenges,” she adds.
Chocolate by Design
Temperature control is also a factor for Pastry Sous Chef Ryan A. Stipp at the Omni PGA Frisco (Texas) Resort.
“In the worst scenario, you have days where your air conditioning can’t keep up with the radiating Texas heat, so your kitchen runs a little warmer than usual,” he says. “This is when it’s crucial to understand the properties of chocolate and how you can manipulate them, despite the temperature conditions of your kitchen.” To combat these challenges, Stipp, like Brodar, shifts his production time earlier in the day or later in the evening when the heat has waned. He also uses chilled sheet pans to help set the chocolate.
Strategies like these are something Stipp has acquired over the past 20 years in the pastry business. Before joining the Omni PGA Frisco last May, he spent the past five years at another Omni resort, where he immersed himself in the culinary world. But Stipp’s all-in commitment to chocolate truly kicked into high gear when he ran a Florida-based chocolate production company, supplying wholesale accounts in the Orlando area and for Disney Cruise Lines. A big believer in the power of continuing education, Stipp also takes classes from chocolatier Melissa Coppel to stay current. “One thing I always remind myself of, and anyone I’m working or collaborating with is, if I ever get to the point where I know everything, then I might as well hang up my apron because I have become complacent,” he says.
Ryan A. Stipp, Pastry Sous Chef Omni PGA Frisco (Texas) Resort
To maintain his standards of excellence, Stipp has incorporated chocolate on the a la carte menu at the resort’s upscale steakhouse. Each guest receives a confection sample accompanying their bill as a token of appreciation.
“It’s just one of those tiny details that might not seem like much, but it is something that resonates with them as a sweet send-off,” he explains.
Wedding guests, on the other hand, get to experience the full treatment: a dessert table of chocolate goodies, ranging from custom flavor and color (to match their wedding palette) bonbons, mendiants, chocolate bark, hand-rolled truffles and chocolate-dipped bacon, among other selections.
Gauging which type of chocolate works best for each product requires a thoughtful approach. When crafting molded or enrobed bonbons, Stipp leans towards chocolate with a higher cocoa butter ratio for greater fluidity; conversely, for ganache or fudge, a lower cocoa butter ratio is best.
Of course, relying on tried-and-true pastry equipment—a tabletop chocolate tempering machine, confectionery guitar and Stipp’s own hands—is key to success, particularly in an environment where chocolate yearns to be the star of the show.
“In the resort, not only are we making these fun, little chocolate confections, but we’re also supplying 13 food outlets with desserts and confections and banquet events on top of all that,” Stipp notes. “We’ve really worked hard to balance all those areas, while still offering elite confections where it makes sense.”
