Ruth Kendrick admits she's turning to the dark side.
"I used to be more of a milk-chocolate lover, but I'm going more to the dark side," she said, explaining that dark chocolates have more complex flavors. "Your tongue picks up different flavors in different places, so some chocolates just almost dance around your mouth."
Of course, she still likes milk chocolate.
"People say the dark chocolate is good for you," Kendrick said, referring to its higher level of flavonoids. "I say, 'Yes, but you can eat twice as much milk chocolate to get the same benefit, plus you have the added benefit of the calcium from the milk chocolate.' "
She's joking about the health benefits of eating twice as much, but she is serious about making chocolate. Kendrick, founder of Chocolot Artisan Chocolates in Uintah, is an award-winning chocolatier. At the 2008 Utah Chocolate Show, she entered nine categories and took home eight first place ribbons. She repeated her success in November 2009, entering six categories and earning five ribbons.
Kendrick says she's passionate about her confections.
"I care as much how they look as how they taste, and I really care how they taste," she said.
Love of chocolate
Kendrick's love of chocolate started when she was a child in Malad, Idaho.
"Mother would come to Salt Lake and bring home a block of chocolate," she said, noting that the blocks were very large.
"I remember the first time she brought it home -- she brought home milk chocolate, and we all just thought it was wonderful. Then she brought home dark chocolate and we thought, 'That's just like chocolate chips -- that's the best thing yet.' "
Her mother, Pauline H. Atkinson, taught herself to make candy and wrote a little book about it, which her father printed and sold.
Kendrick earned a degree in home economics, and started teaching at Roy High School. Just before Christmas, she'd teach her students to make candy, and their mothers started asking for evening classes.
"So I started getting pretty serious, reading the book and studying and teaching myself," she said.
Eventually, she co-authored a larger book, "Candymaking" (HP Books, Inc, 1987), with her mother.
Her mother died seven years ago, at the age of 93.
"She's not there to ask all those questions, so I became the person people would call," Kendrick said.
From bored to her best
Kendrick says she made candy her mother's way for most of her life.
"I made candy the way of the book for literally 50 years ... and then I was bored," she said. "I taught everybody how to do it, and everybody's making it and that's great, but I like to be different -- so I have to up my game."
In 2008, she signed up for an advanced class at Montreal's Callebaut Chocolate Academy.
"I hadn't bothered to take the first class," she said. "Well, there were only eight or 10 of us in the class, and they were all professionals."
She called a friend who is a chef, and asked if he thought she could handle the class.
"He said, 'Yeah, just brush up on your infusions and your emulsions.' I said, 'OK,' and I hung up going 'What's an emulsion and an infusion?' " she remembered. "I was doing these things -- I just didn't know that's what they were called."
It turned out that Kendrick had more chocolate experience than the pros.
Savor the flavor
Kendrick says she's moved on from fondants, divinity, nuts and chews. Her specialty is beautifully molded chocolates with creamy ganache or truffle fillings.
She uses different kinds of chocolate, from around the world, to make her candies. Madagascar chocolate is one of the stronger, more unique varieties.
Each chocolate is created in a decorative mold, and accented with anything from salt or cocoa nibs to sparkling edible powders.
She makes around 20 different flavors at any given time, including Vanilla-Bean Rum, mint leaf, pomegranate, strawberry balsamic, gianduja and peanut butter.
"My favorite is Molten Caramel," she said -- adding that it's hard to choose because her chocolates are like children to her -- all unique and special.
One of the flavors she's proudest of is Root Beer Float, which she makes only during the summer.
"It's a white chocolate ganache," she said. "I use the root beer extract, but I use other flavorings in it, too, and it does taste like a root beer float."
She was commissioned by Uintah's Beehive Cheese Co. to make a chocolate inspired by their award-winning Barely Buzzed cheese. The dark chocolate has a coffee flavor, mixed with lavender.
Aztec Spice is another Kendrick original.
"The habanero comes in at just the very end with some heat," she said.
Chocolot Artisan Chocolates are sold locally at Beehive Cheese Co. and Ogden's Jade Tree gift shop. Orders are also taken online at www.sweetchocolot.com. There will be a Chocolot kiosk in Salt Lake City's Trolley Square for a few days before Valentine's Day.
A box of six candies costs $12, $24 for a box of 12, or $37 for 24 candies.
"I'm expensive, and I don't apologize for it," Kendrick said. "It is eye candy, but the other kind of candy, too ... It's the look of them, and they taste as good as they look, if not better."
Here are two of Kendrick's recipes for you to try
Ruth Kendrick, founder of Chocolat, specializes in making artisan chocolates, but here are a couple of recipes she says are easy to make in a home kitchen.
Elegant Chocolate Truffles
1 1/2 pounds (about 4 1/2 cups) milk chocolate, melted (110 degrees)
1 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with plastic wrap; set aside. Place melted chocolate in a medium-size bowl. In a 1-quart saucepan, scald cream. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Beat chocolate with an electric mixer. Stop mixer and pour cream all at once over chocolate. Continue beating, cleaning sides and bottom of bowl several times with rubber scraper, until mixture is smooth and well-blended; this takes no more than 1 to 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan and refrigerate 6 hours or until firm. Cut into 1-inch squares and serve immediately. Store in refrigerator. Makes 64 pieces.
Variations: For Mint Truffles, add 5 drops of oil of peppermint in place of vanilla. For Cherry Nut Truffles, add 1 teaspoon almond extract in place of vanilla, and stir in 3/4 cup chopped candied cherries and 1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds.
-- Recipe from "Candymaking" (HP Books) by Ruth A. Kendrick and Pauline H. Atkinson.
Melissa's Peanut Butter Truffles
1 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 pounds (about 4 1/2 cups) mild chocolate, melted
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with plastic wrap; set aside. In a 1-quart saucepan, scald cream. Remove from heat and add peanut butter. Transfer melted chocolate to a medium-size bowl. Pour cream mixture over the top. Using electric mixer, beat until thick and well-blended. Pour into prepared pan. Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm. Cut into 1-inch squares. Store in refrigerator. Makes 64 pieces.
Variation: Use crunchy peanut butter in place of creamy.
-- Recipe from "Candymaking" (HP Books) by Ruth A. Kendrick and Pauline H. Atkinson.
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