Chocolate Truffles and Trouble

by Samantha Silver

  Grace gave me a hard look. “You do realize they are not a group to be messed with, right? Las Brujas has been around since I was a young witch, and they are very organized and very good at what they do. They don’t look lightly upon people trying to interfere with their business. You need to be careful, Megan. I’m sure your parents wouldn’t want you to get yourself in trouble with a gang like that. They made their choice to plead guilty; don’t get yourself killed trying to prove that they aren’t.”

  I nodded, swallowing hard. Grace was right, of course. She was a perfect grandmotherly figure, always ready with some excellent advice. Still, I had to do this.

  “I’ll be careful,” I promised. “They won’t even know I’m looking into them.”

  “Good,” Grace replied with a nod. “I know your parents. They wouldn’t want you getting into any sort of trouble or getting hurt trying to clear their name.”

  I rubbed my chest. I knew in a few hours a bruise would start forming where I had face-planted into the ground as a crow less than an hour earlier. I had definitely already gotten hurt in this investigation. But it could have been worse. I had a sneaking suspicion that I would have suffered more if Alex had caught us in Olivia’s bedroom. Getting locked up would have definitely been worse than a bit of pain.

  The tiniest bubbles just began to form around the edges of the milk and the chocolate was now completely melted, which meant the hot chocolate was ready for consumption. I cast a quick spell to protect my hands from the heat of the cauldron, then picked it up and poured the liquid into each of the two mugs I had set out earlier. Then, making my way to the fridge, I grabbed the container of whipped cream, shook it up, and added a nice little cone to the top of each mug. Finally, I made my way back to the counter and, using a large knife, made some chocolate shavings which I then sprinkled on top of the whipped cream. I pushed Grace’s mug toward her, and she smiled at me, looking approvingly at my work.

  “Very good,” she said. “I can’t speak to the taste yet, but your presentation is phenomenal. You definitely have an eye for the chocolate arts.”

  “Thanks,” I grinned, taking my own mug and having a small sip. The mixture was thick and creamy, with a strong chocolatey taste mixed in with the cool sweetness of the whipped cream. I looked expectantly at Grace.

  Sure enough, after she had a taste, she set down her mug and nodded approvingly.

  “Excellent,” Grace said. “The chocolate to milk ratio in this is perfect. It’s a shame that you are only a distributor, and that you don’t plan on opening a shop, as I’m sure people would pay a premium for chocolate this good.”

  “I was thinking maybe around Christmas I would start selling little kits to make hot chocolate,” I explained. “I could put the chocolate on a stick, add a few marshmallows—maybe in that time I’ll be able to learn how to make them myself as well—and possibly a little packet of flavoring, like some cinnamon or bits of crushed-up candy cane, and have it all put in cellophane. Then I could wrap it with Christmas ribbon and people could buy them as gifts for others or simply for themselves.”

  Grace’s face broke into a huge smile. “That’s absolutely wonderful thinking,” she said. “You truly are your mother’s daughter. You have a mind for business as well as the chocolate making skills, and that combination is so rare to see and so wonderful to see as well.”

  I beamed. “Well, none of it would be possible without you, Grace. I really appreciate you taking me under your wing and teaching me everything you know. I saw Chief Enforcer Lupo the other day, I meant to tell you. He was in Maryanne’s gift shop, and she had a number of my chocolates on the counter for sale. As soon as he saw them, he scowled and asked Maryanne why she stocked that garbage.”

  “He didn’t!” Grace gasped.

  “He absolutely did,” I nodded. “He knew I was in the store, too, so I know he did it on purpose. Maryanne gave him a look and told him that Phoenix Chocolates are some of her most popular items now, and that she thought it was wonderful that a young entrepreneur in town was so successful, especially given the trouble I had gone through to get the business up and running.”

  Grace burst into laughter. “Maryanne’s wonderful, isn’t she? We went to school together. She always hated bullies, and I’m not the least bit surprised that she told Chief Enforcer Lupo exactly what she thought.”

  “Well, I can tell you Chief Enforcer Lupo wasn’t happy about it at all, and he left the shop, scowling at me as he walked past. Maryanne then told me that everything she had said was true, and placed another order for more chocolate. I have to finish it after this lesson; she wants it delivered tomorrow.”

  “Good. Well, in that case, why don’t we get started straightaway so that we can finish up this lesson and I can leave you to working for your paying customers,” Grace said, finishing off the hot chocolate with a big gulp that I hadn’t expected from a witch of her age.

  “Alright,” I said. “What are we doing today?”

  “I’m going to teach you how to decorate chocolate with colored cocoa butter,” Grace explained. “This is what you’re going to make.”

  She reached into her bag and pulled out a small box of chocolates and handed it over to me. I opened it, peeled away the tissue wrapping around it, and smiled. Nestled in little individual cups were four small, oval-shaped chocolates topped with the most incredible colors. Blues and greens mixed with reds and yellows, contrasting against the dark chocolate core of the chocolates to make a true work of art. I always loved looking at chocolates like this, and I had to admit, despite having grown up around chocolate, I had never known how these were made.

  “These look amazing,” I gushed. I wanted nothing more than to shove one of them into my mouth and taste it; it had to be phenomenal.

  Grace smiled. “Thank you. I made these last week, a small batch for a family friend. It gave me the idea of showing you how to make them.”

  “They never made chocolates like these at the factory, did they?” I asked, and Grace shook her head.

  “No. Your parents thought it would be too complicated to train chocolatiers to make the colored cocoa butter, and that it was more cost-effective to simply make normal chocolates without the fancy colors. And I do have to admit, they have a point. Especially if you’re making your own colors, and a lot of them, it’s a very time-intensive process for something that looks good but admittedly has virtually no impact on the taste of the chocolate. When done well, anyway.”

  “Can you buy premade colors?” I asked, and Grace nodded.

  “You can, yes. For somebody mass-producing chocolates, or doing larger quantities, it might become worth it at some point in the future. However, as a boutique artist, I would highly recommend making your own colors, as you have so much more flexibility in shades. And I’m going to teach you how to make your own colored cocoa butter, because regardless of what you decide to do in the future for your business, you need to be able to make your own cocoa butter colors simply to have the technique nailed down. It’s an essential skill every good chocolatier should possess.”

  “Okay,” I nodded, and Grace got up from her chair and made her way next to me at the counter, hoisting her bag from the floor and placing it with a soft thud onto the granite.

  Chapter 15

  “Great. First things first: ingredients. You need cocoa butter. Let me know the next time you go to Bruxspells and I’ll come with you to introduce you to Rémy, who sells by far the best cocoa butter in the chocolate market. There are two different types of cocoa butter: natural and deodorized. Natural cocoa butter is just as it sounds, and it retains a natural flavor. Cocoa butter’s flavor is rich and a little bit nutty, and some chocolatiers choose to avoid it because it will slightly change the flavor of your chocolate. However, it is naturally filled with antioxidants, so you could choose to go with the natural flavor if you wanted to advertise the health benefits of the chocolates you are making. Going this route, if you wanted to minimize the impact of the taste the cocoa bu
tter might have on your final product, you may want to combine it with a strong-flavored interior, such as coffee.”

  “Okay,” I nodded, jotting all of this down in the notebook I kept in the kitchen for whenever I learned anything new about chocolate. “What about deodorized cocoa butter?”

  “That’s exactly as it sounds. A chemical process is used to eliminate the taste of the cocoa butter, but then all of the nutritional goodness disappears as well. The quality of the chemical process used varies by supplier as well, and some people who are not as skilled at deodorizing the cocoa butter end up with a product that has a sharp smell. It’s one of the reasons why I want to introduce you to Rémy; he deodorizes his own cocoa butter and the smell is nonexistent. He also sells natural cocoa butter, and his is among the best quality in the entire market.”

  “Perfect,” I said, nodding slightly. “I’ll be buying some of both types when I go and experimenting with both to see what I prefer. I like the idea of keeping the antioxidants and the natural taste of the cocoa butter rather than having to use a product that has been treated with chemicals.” After all, health and natural living were extremely popular among paranormals right now. With my brand being high-end, I figured I should push toward advertising the use of natural cocoa butter that was filled with antioxidants, rather than having to tell people that the cocoa butter I used had been treated by chemicals. Still, I was more than willing to try both options.

  “You should be fine using natural cocoa butter,” Grace told me. “For coloring chocolates, the quantities are so small that it generally won’t impact the taste. It only becomes more of an issue when you’re actually using the cocoa butter in the tempering process. I only had natural cocoa butter at home, so we will use that today,” Grace said, pulling out a glass container filled with off-white beads the size of pebbles. “Now, there are two types of dyes you can use when coloring the cocoa butter: oil-based or fat-soluble. Always choose fat-soluble. Not only are the resulting colors better, but the shelf life of the product is increased as well, which is especially good to start with, since you’re not exactly going to be coloring thousands of chocolate molds at once. Finally, the last thing you’ll need to be aware of is titanium dioxide can be used to make your cocoa butter color more opaque. Most of the sellers of cocoa butter at the market will be able to sell you food-grade titanium dioxide, no problem. However, I find that Rémy’s products are so good to begin with that the titanium dioxide isn’t necessary. Still, you need to know that it does exist in case you find yourself with cocoa butter that’s too translucent.”

  “Good to know,” I said, still writing at a blistering pace. Grace spoke faster than some of the professors at Spellford who purposely tried to give as much information as quickly as possible in an attempt to teach us how to take notes with only the most important information.

  “Now, the actual making of the colored cocoa butter is pretty simple. You melt the cocoa butter, measure out how much powder you want to use, pour it in, and use an immersion blender to mix it all together. Go ahead and give it a shot.”

  “Ok,” I said, nodding. I took the bag of cocoa butter and put about half a cup’s worth in a small cauldron, then put the cauldron on the stove. While the butter melted, I took a deep blue concentrated powder. It was a gorgeous, rich color, and I wanted to see how it would look.

  “How much do I add?” I asked, and Grace smiled at me.

  “Test it out and see. The more you add, the deeper and richer the color.”

  I nodded and plugged the immersion blender into the wall as the cocoa butter began to go from individual pearls to a smooth, semi-opaque liquid. I sifted a tiny little bit of the coloring powder into the cauldron and mixed it together. The resulting color was a lot lighter than I had wanted, so I tipped in more of the powder and repeated the process.

  After a couple of minutes, the liquid was a very deep blue, absolutely perfect. It was the same shade as the sky on a summer’s evening just before twilight.

  “Beautiful,” Grace said with an approving nod. “Now you need to leave the mixture for twelve hours to allow it to set. In the morning, you can do the rest yourself. Temper the mixture, and work with it between eighty-nine and ninety degrees. You can use a brush to coat the inside of your molds. Always leave them for a few hours to set before adding chocolate.”

  “Alright,” I said with a nod, excited for the next day as I poured the mixture into a glass container to store it in the fridge overnight. “Thanks so much for this, Grace. I’m starting to feel like I really know what I’m doing.”

  “That you do,” Grace confirmed. “No doubt about it. You have your mother’s skill and passion for the chocolate arts.”

  The old witch hopped off her stool, thanked me for the hot chocolate, and made her way back to the front door. After I saw her off, I headed back into the house and began working on the chocolates I had to make for Maryanne.

  My business was definitely growing; I was getting so many orders I had to make chocolate almost every day, and as I looked at my stores, I realized I was going to have to go back to the Bruxspells chocolate market sooner rather than later. I was running low on dark and milk chocolate especially.

  As Ashley made her way through the front door, I plopped myself down on the couch, ready for a couple of minutes to relax and try to think things through. Of course, it’s hard to relax entirely when your familiar has realized that you’re now in a position to have your face licked. Sherlock immediately leapt up onto the couch and tried to stick his tongue in my ear.

  “Stop it,” I laughed. “You’re incorrigible.”

  “I’m just showing you I love you,” Sherlock replied.

  “I know, and I love you too. But why don’t we show our love with a little bit less tongue?”

  “Fine,” Sherlock replied. “But you have to throw my ball for me.”

  I laughed and looked around, finding a tennis ball pressed against one of the coffee table legs. I picked it up and threw it down the hall, with Sherlock immediately bounding after the small, green ball.

  “Hey,” Ashley said, making her way into the kitchen. “How’s it going?”

  “Pretty good, thanks,” I said with a smile. “We had an interesting day.”

  “Well, I’m glad to see you’re not dead. Have you managed to find anyone from the gang?”

  “I have a name,” I said proudly. “Well, ok, it’s just a first name. And a description. Not necessarily of the same wizard.”

  Ashley raised her eyebrows. “Well, it sounds like it all went swimmingly, then.”

  “Hey, it’s more than I had,” I argued. “I know there’s a wizard named Alan that Olivia said was the one who kept pressuring her. She was going to run away with Ryan. She had had enough of working for Las Brujas.”

  Ashley shook her head sadly. “If only she’d managed it a bit sooner.”

  “I know, right? Anyway, I also discovered that if you cast the spell that turns us into animals, if you go for bird, Andy turns into a penguin,” I added with a grin.

  “I’m not going to ask why you two needed that spell,” Ashley said, shaking her head. “Do you have a plan to find this Alan guy?”

  I shook my head. “Unfortunately, not yet. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do on that front. I think I need to get access to Olivia’s phone again. But Alex probably took it.”

  “Alex, as in the sexy IPIU Enforcer you met in Bruxspells?”

  “Why does it always have to be ‘sexy IPIU Enforcer?’” I complained. “Why can’t it be ‘the IPIU Enforcer who’s good at his job?’”

  “Because the fact that he’s good at his job isn’t the reason you blush every time his name comes up,” Ashley teased. “You can’t hide from Andy and me. We’re your sisters. We can tell.

  “Fine,” I muttered. “But I’m not interested in a relationship with him, no matter how good-looking he might be. Anyway, he’s investigating Olivia’s murder as well.”

  I threw the ball for Sherlock agai
n and went over the entire day’s events, recounting how Andrea and I got caught by Alex, and how we almost got caught again at Olivia’s house later on.

  “Hmm,” Ashley said, biting her lip. “I have a few people I can ask. If you give me that sheet of paper with numbers, I can look into those as well. Tomorrow after work I’ll let you know what I find out. But you have to promise me you’re going to be careful. I’m only doing this for you because I know you’re doing it to help Mom and Dad.”

  “I will be,” I promised, nodding my head firmly. “I have no intention of ending up dead, or in the gang’s sights.”

  “Good,” Ashley said. “I’m only going to do this for you because you have a good head on your shoulders; I trust that you won’t do anything stupid. I wouldn’t do that for just anyone.”

  “Is that code for you think Andy is too reckless?” I asked with a grin, and Ashley gave me a coy smile.

  “Maybe. Anyway, I’ll call you tomorrow if I find anything out.”

  “Thanks, Ash,” I said gratefully. “I have a few more orders to fill in the morning, plus I need to play around with this cocoa butter to coat chocolate molds, so it’s going to be a busy day.”

  I had no idea just how busy it was going to end up being.

  Chapter 16

  I spent most of the next morning filling chocolate orders and playing around with the cocoa butter mixture I had made the day before.

  I ended up spreading it inside some of the molds for some chocolate bars, then topping them with white chocolate mixed with dried blueberries. I put the finished mixture in the fridge, and a few hours later, when I popped the chocolates from their molds, I gasped in surprise. The blue I had created was so bright, so shiny—it was absolutely perfect. I immediately began to see possibilities. If I added some edible glitter and combined the blue with, say, black and a purple color, I could make galaxy-themed chocolate bars that would be absolutely gorgeous. They’d probably sell pretty well, too, seeing as all the covens in the paranormal world were guided by a celestial being of some sort. Space was a fairly popular thing here.