Michael Anderson doesn’t like chocolate. He loves it. He craves it. He eats it, drinks it, breathes it and lives it. An obsession like this for anyone else could lead to madness and ruin, but Anderson has turned his passion into a career with Swan Chocolates in Merrimack.
“It’s kind of disgusting how much chocolate I can eat,” said Anderson, 38, a might proud of himself despite his words. “ . . . My earliest memories involve chocolate. I don’t know how, or why, but it just connects with me. It’s my ultimate comfort food. When we go out, it’s my chosen dessert. I could have a bunch of other options, but I’ll take the one that’s made of chocolate.”
Though the business, which he co-owns with his wife, Theresa, has only been around for five years, Anderson’s love of chocolate is as old as he is.
Though Anderson initially was an ad man and his wife in sales, they regularly took chocolate vacations, sampling each destination’s candy shops, searching for that perfect confection. It was during one of these decadent retreats that the Andersons had a funny musing.
“It was kind of just like, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat if we could do this ourselves?’ “ Anderson said. “And that was it, we left it there. . . . But then we found ourselves talking about it the next day, and the next day, and the next day after that. Until finally we were talking about trying to make a go at it.”
Though caught by the cocoa bug, the Andersons dipped their toes in slowly. First, they had to learn how to be chocolatiers. Sure, they had always made chocolates at home for family, friends and themselves, but not on the scale in which they were thinking. They sought out other candy makers to learn from.
“You’d be surprised how many people don’t want to teach you how to make chocolate,” he said. “It’s understandable. They want to keep their process secret. But we found a man in Montreal who was willing.”
So for about eight weeks, the couple drove from Merrimack to Montreal every weekend to learn all they could.
“We mostly studied the theories of making chocolate. We learned what makes good chocolate,” he said. “It’s more complex than just melting it down. It’s how the chocolate comes back together. It has to come back in just the right way, so that it tastes the best. It’s really very scientific.”
It was about midway through their education that the couple started to feel they could really make a go at this chocolate thing.
“I don’t think we were scared. It is chocolate, after all, how scary could it be?” Anderson said. “I think we took it slow more because we wanted to make sure we learned how to run a company.”
The couple started out putting together flavors and combinations that they liked and plied their family and friends with endless samples of their concoctions.
One of the early hits, and still a popular number at their shops, is a melt-away truffle, made with very dark chocolate.
“It’s very soft and literally melts in your mouth,” he said. “It’s got lots of cream, lots of butter. It’s a ganache that’s covered in cocoa, so it’s very light. It’s the kind of thing you want if you need a chocolate fix. It’s also really good frozen.”
They also made a few that, well, needed some work.
“We tried a green tea truffle once,” he said. “We’ve since revamped it, and we do sell one. But it wasn’t very good at first.”
Since those early days, Michael and Theresa Anderson opened up in Merrimack, switched to a different shop in Merrimack at 436 Daniel Webster Highway and, just a few years ago, opened a second store in Nashua. They dole out not only their special chocolates, but homemade pastries, as well.
<B>CLASSIC DARK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES</b>
FOR THE GANACHE:
4-1/2 ounces 70 percent bittersweet chocolates, chopped
4 ounces heavy cream
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon salted butter
FOR THE FINISH:
10 ounces cocoa powder
1 pound tempered bittersweet chocolate
TO MAKE THE GANACHE: Place chopped chocolate in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
Combine heavy cream and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat while stirring. When it comes to a boil, immediately remove from heat and pour over the chopped chocolate.
After 2 or 3 minutes, slowly stir the mixture, being careful not to incorporate air. Continue to stir until ingredients are fully combined, and the texture appears silky smooth and shiny.
Allow the mixture to cool to about 95 degrees, then add butter, and stir until butter melts and is fully combined.
Let the ganache sit for 1-2 hours until it is firm.
Once the ganache is firm enough, line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Then using a melon baller or teaspoon, scoop a small portion of the ganache and drop onto waxed paper. (They do not have to be perfectly round at this point.) Let sit overnight to firm up.
The next day, roll the ganache into smooth, round balls.
TO COAT THE TRUFFLES: Fill a shallow bowl with the cocoa powder. One by one, dip the truffles into the tempered chocolate and then immediately roll each truffle in the cocoa powder until fully coated.
Be sure to let the chocolate fully cure before removing from the cocoa powder.
Makes about 35 truffles.
Melanie Plenda can be reached at plendame@gmail.com.
