Rydale Folk Museum is a gorgeous museum in the North York Moors, a definite destination perfect for the whole day and great for a range of family members. The traditional houses and shops are something that always capture my imagination, but they were so fun to explore with different foods being created - they had crumpet and muffin making on a traditional hearth and honey gathering from the museum's bees, visitors were in for a delectable treat that day. 

The day was a perfect occasion for us to make and share our research on chocolate as it was originally had - as a drink rather than as a bar. Chocolate was brought over by the Spanish and quickly spread through the European courts as a drink, it was one of these exotic new hot liquors - the others being Tea and Coffee from the far corners of the empires. The Cacaos would be roasted in a pan, then the shell would be discarded and they would be ground on a mortar stone under which a fire would be lit, the result would be a thick, mud like paste, this is what the chocolate industry now calls Cocoa Liquor or Cocoa Mass, it is at the centre of chocolate making. This paste would be extremely bitter and would be mixed with spices in order to make it more palatable, the favoured spice by the time it reached the UK being sugar. The paste would be mixed with spices and would have water added to it, Hans Sloane discovered that by adding milk to it made a desirable drink with medicinal benefits when drunk hot, whilst the Georgian courts would enjoy the mixture with warm wine to create the most luxurious and decadent chocolate drink. 

The problem with this chocolate was the fat content in the cocoa mass, it made it look unsightly and would not mix properly, the Aztecs got round this by pouring the chocolate from a great height to create a froth on top. Over time a number of things have been used to remove the fat from the chocolate, Rowntree used Icelandic Moss, others used starch or corn flour, whilst the Dutch came up with an ingenious press that would extract the fat, leaving the dry residue behind. This dry residue became known as cocoa, it was easier to transport and the chocolate industry took a different turn, whilst the fat that had been extracted was sent to London to be used in the cosmetics industry, where it is still used to make moisturisers and lipsticks. 

We decided we would re-create Sir Hans Sloane's medicinal chocolate drink, on his return from a trip ti Jamaica, he came back with a recipe to drink chocolate made with hot milk, the cocoa mass would be ground with sugar and then mixed into boiling milk. The result was the most gorgeous chocolate drink, that was sold by Cadbury brothers for many years. The result on the day was as amazing as any drinking chocolate I've ever tasted, and all the more so for how simple it was, and our visitors very much agreed. 

We used 1 ounce of cocoa mass, 1 ounce of sugar and 1 pint of milk. Heated the milk until it boiled we then added the sugar at the cocoa mass and stirred, whisking the mixture to ensure the cocoa butter and milk were fully mixed. The result was gorgeous. We could certainly see the fat on the top as it rose to the surface, but modern dipping sticks that are made with just chocolate have twice as much cocoa butter, so there were less problems than there might have been, but still, such great chocolatey flavour. 

If you would like to taste Sir Hans Sloane's original recipe join us at The Fountain on Parliament Street during York Festival of Food and Drink, 16th - 25th September where you can taste and purchase your own to make at home. 

It's hard to believe that just 2 years ago we launched Little Pretty Things at York Food Festival in September 2009, so much chocolatey fun has happened since then, we just get so excited when the time comes around again, and delighted to be supporting the festival with our chocolate wares. This year we will be running a number of chocolate workshops, some have small entrance fees involved and some are completely free for you to come and join in the chocolate fun, and when the evenings are starting to get darker, what could be better than chocolate to give you that sense of comfort?

We'll also be opening up the Little Pretty Things Chocolate Parlour at the Festival this year, open from Friday 16th September - Sunday 25th September at the Parliament Street Fountain, we will be sharing our wares and profiling some of the most amazing chocolate creations from our favourite chocolatiers and chocolate makers. We'll have the finest hot chocolate, a little chocolate factory for you to make your own as well as new chocolate creations and products. We do hope you'll come and find us or there will be too much chocolate to have all by ourselves. 

Join us at the following Chocolate Events

 

We know the wealth of creativity that there is amongst our younger chocolatiers, many of our best ideas have come from our workshops and parties, so we can't wait to see what they offer us. We also think it's important to get these teams working together to create their own success, which is why we're leaving the final decision up to the pupils themselves, market forces will decide the winner in a true Apprentice style challenge. 

This is just one of the chocolate workshops that Little Pretty Things can offer to work with the curriculum on a whole range of subjects, including History, Geography, English, Maths, Science, Design, Cookery and Enterprise, if you would like a workshop created for you and your school please contact us to discus your needs. 

We're looking forward to celebrating the winning team, and hopefully having a new product that we can put to use.

We'll be sharing our tips and secrets for making Easter Eggs. It's always a bit of an interesting one for us, as everyone wants to know how these gorgeous Eggs are created, however for us they bring back horrible nightmares. Chocolate Easter Eggs were the first chocolate making that got me very annoyed as a child, I was about 9 years old and did every experiment possible to try and figure out what was happening with the chocolate, how could I make it glossy, how did it come out of the mould, how do you make it hollow? At lot of chocolate making has happened since those early experimental days in the kitchen, however I still hear those anxious noises when I mention Easter Egg making to anyone, it really is simple, so simple that we hope BBC Radio York will all go home with some gorgeous chocolate creations and a little bit more knowledge about how Easter Eggs are made. 

We'll also be showing off our inventive method for making Easter Eggs without the need for a chocolate mould, they are even simpler! Have a look below how to make your own Easter Eggs or join us at The Mansion House on Sunday 17th April and we'll show you exactly what to do!

The following instructions are ideal to be able to make Easter Eggs using a fantastic set of chocolate moulds available at Lakeland.

Use 500g of tempered chocolate or chocolate flavoured cake covering

(There is no need to temper chocolate flavoured cake covering, so it might be easier to practice with, if you would like to learn how to temper chocolate visit our instruction sheet here)