How We Make Danucci Gourmet Chocolates
Each individual gourmet chocolate is made by hand in our workshop in Dundalk, Co.Louth, Ireland. Unfortunately we don’t have any river of chocolate, or oompa loompas in our workshop, but we do have a small team of chocolatiers who take great pride in their work to ensure that you get the best quality gourmet chocolates every time you choose Danucci.
The broad steps involved are as follows:
Step 1:
Depending on which chocolates are being made, the various ingredients for the manufacture of those chocolates are picked from our raw materials store. We use very detailed recipes to make sure our gourmet chocolates are consistent from one batch to the next, so we measure our ingredients precisely for each batch of chocolates.
Step 2:
Each individual chocolate centre is then made by mixing the relevant ingredients and in some cases heating the mixture until certain conditions are met. To make our Ganaches for example, we pour boiling cream over chocolate to make a velvety smooth mixture. To make pralines we mix chocolate with butter and nut pastes to make a beautifully smooth nut flavoured filling.
Step 3:
These mixtures are then hand poured into trays and placed in special cooling cabinets overnight, to allow to set.
Step 4:
Once set, the firm slabs are cut by hand with the help of a piano wire cutting tool into individual chocolate centres. These chocolate centres are then left to “stand” for a short period after cutting before going on to the next process.
Step 5:
These centres are then put through a chocolate enrobing process, where the chocolate centres pass through a “Curtain” of “tempered” chocolate to complete the outer chocolate shell. The main part of making the chocolates is now finished, however we need to be able to distinguish one chocolate from another.
Step 6:
To do this various decorative effects are applied by hand to help distinguish one chocolate from another. Some of these decorations are made from cocoa butter, while some are hand piped designs made with chocolate of another colour.
Step7:
The completed chocolates now pass through a cooling tunnel to ensure that they do not “fat bloom” i.e. turn grey. Chocolate is very temperamental if not handled correctly, so our cooling tunnel helps bring down the temperature of the chocolate quickly to help avoid some of the major problems that can arise in chocolate processing.
Step 8:
The cooled chocolates are then moved from the end of the cooling tunnel to our chocolate packaging area for packing into their primary packaging. The chocolates are then stored in the finished goods area at 18 degrees Celsius for onward distribution. The storage of chocolates is hugely important to ensure that the chocolate doesn’t experience temperature shocks, which can badly affect the quality of the finished product.
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