Try homemade chocolate for V-Day

Video: Canada’s very ‘Purdy’ chocolate

Open in new window

2. Closed captioning of: Canada’s very ‘Purdy’ chocolate

   Advertise | AdChoices

   >> strudel.

   >>> this morning on "today's olympic kitchen," valentine's day chocolate . 'tis the season, especially at one of canada's most popular companies. it's called purdy 's chocolate , produced more than 2 million pounds of chocolate every year. we have peter higgins, the chocolate scientist. that's an auspicious title. that means you can really make this stuff.

   >> good morning. we're going to make some chocolate here. chocolate is such a technical product. we meld the science and the art of chocolate and i'll let you all be chocolateers here. so, what we've got in front of us is one cup of 70% dark chocolate .

   >> yum.

   >> so, very, very good. so, the first step --

   >> okay.

   >> everybody's ready to go here. you're looking good. we're going to temper the chocolate . what that means is tempering the chocolate , is get the right structure so you get that proper snap and shine of high-quality chocolate .

   >> right.

   >> so, a little tip for home is if you melt -- you take your chocolate bars and you melt it to about 80% and then you stir in the rest. so, that's what i've done here.

   >> what do you mean, 80% melted?

   >> 80% melted, and then you stir in the 20% solid.

   >> that's left over.

   >> that's right. that's what we're doing today. we'll assume it's perfectly tempered for now. now we're going to mix the wonderful ingredients. it all starts with high-quality ingredients.

   >> right.

   >> we're making a blueberry almond bar today. so a healthy bar.

   >> and it makes you grow tall.

   >> it makes you grow very tall. as you can see, chocolate is good for you.

   >> how long have you been making chocolate ?

   >> i've been making chocolate about 15 years.

   >> all right.

   >> it's been a passion of mine. we're going to start with the almonds.

   >> okay.

   >> the almonds are from california. so, lightly roasted to bring out that natural flavor . we're going to add about four ounces for this recipe, or to taste. so, stir that in, make sure they're all nicely covered. i'm going to get little bit of mine. there we go.

   >> i notice that the chocolate is very big in canada, everywhere i go, and it's like very dark chocolate , some of it, like 60%, 70%.

   >> this is 70%, and that's the amount of cocoa content. the higher the amount of cocoa content, the better for you.

   >> and that makes it much more healthy.

   >> absolutely. full of antioxidants. we're going to add our blueberries now, about two ounces.

   >> are these dried blueberries?

   >> these are dried blueberries. we grow a lot of blueberries in the vancouver area. so, we'll mix those in.

   >> this looks so good.

   >> you're making a lot of the olympics chocolates. look at these, with quatchi, with the mascots.

   >> no licking your fingers yet. so, now what we're going to do is pour it out on the wax paper .

   >> oh, okay.

   >> so, we're going to pour that out on the wax paper .

   >> just flat?

   >> just about half inch thick all around into a nice rectangular shape.

   >> mm-hmm.

   >> and you can get your hands right in there, if you want. that's the fun part of it.

   >> oh, yeah, yeah.

   >> this is going to be a gooey mess.

   >> okay.

   >> so, we mix it out to about a half inch thick all around. get those nice inclusions set up there. and then what we're going to do is we let that cool for about a half an hour at room temperature. and once that's set, you've got the best darn chocolate bars you've ever got.

   >> that's great.

   >> and you can have fun at home. you can make some of your own recipes. what we're going to do now, we're not going to wait a half an hour. we're going to taste some.

   >> let's do it!

   >> i love it.

   >> we're going to set that up. you can eat that. so, we're going to grab some of the blueberry almond. i'll take you through how it tastes.

   >> oh, this is how it comes out, right there.

   >> you've got some in front of you. natalie. and we're going to taste this. first of all, we want to have the right snap. you've got to use all your senses.

   >> the snap.

   >> the right snap. the texture, the shine. and you put it in your mouth and taste that. let it savor over your taste buds . you get the salty, the bitter notes. appreciate all those different notes, savor that --

   >> you can really taste the blueberry in it.

   >> the aroma of the blueberry.

   >> yes, the aroma is incredibly strong and that starts with the high-quality ingredients.

   >> speechless.

   >> you have a signature chocolate . what is that?

   >> our signature chocolate , two things. sweet georgia browns and hedge hogs. our sweet georgia browns, you can taste them here. are you okay tasting more chocolates, you guys?

   >> i guess we have to.

   >> twist my arm.

   >> we heard michael buble talk about georgia . georgia pecans.

   >> oh, sure.

   >> these are the best pecans you can buy. best ingredients make the best chocolate .

   >> and these guys?

   >> the hedgehog. we've got our hazel nuts here. it's just a fine blend of hazel nuts and into a nice pure mixed with the belgian milk chocolate .

   >> and look at this --

   >> yes, you're using himalayan sea salt . now why do you go this route?

   >> so, this is from an ancient deposit high up in the himalayan mountains .

   >> right.

   >> so, some say it's the purest salt in the world. so, it is fantastic. and so, if you want to try a himalayan pink salt caramel. it actually dates back to aboriginal recipe that richard purdy , when he started purdy 's in 1937 -- we're 103 years old -- when he started it, this is the original caramel recipe. we put a twist on it with the himalayan pink salt .

   >> that looks amazingly fresh for 103 years old.

   >> i look good for 103.

   >> we're going to bring these over here to these kids here, helping us out. you want to try some? go ahead. help yourself.

   >> how long before we start getting tall when you start eating this? several years?

   >> it takes a few years, but keep eating it.

   >> and a constant, steady diet of it.

   >> exactly. i eat seven to ten pieces a day. it's great for you.

   Show transcript