Ingredients required for _chocolate for covering cremes_, etc.:
Cacao nib or mass 30 parts Cacao butter 20 " Sugar 49-3/4 " Flavouring 1/4 " ------------- 100 parts
It is prepared in exactly the same way as ordinary eating chocolate, save that more butter is added to make it flow readily, so that in the melted condition it has about the same consistency as cream. The operations so far described are conducted by men, but the covering of cremes and the packing of the finished chocolates into boxes are performed by girls. Covering is light work requiring a delicate touch, and if, as is usual, it is done in bright airy rooms, is a pleasant occupation.
[Illustration: GIRLS COVERING, OR DIPPING, CREMES, ETC. (Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville.)]
The girl sits with a small bowl of warm liquid chocolate in front of her, and on one side the "centres" (cremes, caramels, ginger, nuts, etc.) ready for covering with chocolate. The chocolate must be at just the right temperature, which is 88 °F., or 31° C. She takes one of the "centres," say a vanilla creme, on her fork and dips it beneath the chocolate. When she draws it out, the white creme is completely covered in brown chocolate and, without touching it with her finger, she deftly places it on a piece of smooth paper. A little twirl of the fork or drawing a prong across the chocolate will give the characteristic marking on the top of the chocolate creme. The chocolate rapidly sets to a crisp film enveloping the soft creme. There are in use in many chocolate factories some very ingenious covering machines, invented in 1903, which, as they clothe cremes in a robe of chocolate, are known as "enrobers"; it is doubtful, however, if the chocolates so produced have even quite so good an appearance as when the covering is done by hand.
[Illustration: THE ENROBER. A machine for covering cremes, etc., with chocolate. Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Savy Jeanjean & Co., Paris.]
It would be agreeable at this point to describe the making of cremes (which, by the way, contrary to the opinion of most writers, contain no cream or butter), and other products of the confectioner's art, but it would take us beyond the scope of the present book. We will only remind our readers of the great variety of comestibles and confections which are covered in chocolate--pistachio nut, roasted almonds, pralines, biscuits, walnuts, nougat, montelimar, fruits, fruit cremes, jellies, Turkish delight, marshmallows, caramels, pine-apple, noisette, and other delicacies.