Chocolate Dipping In A Real Chocolate Factory

Boxes for chocolates, lined up, row after

row, waiting to be filled with hand-dipped

fresh chocolates for Christmas.

Many wonderful varieties, creams, toffees,

caramels, truffles, each one fabulously

delicious.

That's what you will find in this little 

family owned and run candy shop in

Salt Lake City, Utah

at 1479 S. Main Street.

Condie's Candies - hand-dipped since 1924

is a seasonal business that is in it's fourth generation.

It was first started by George Charles Phillipps who

specialized in European caramels and roasting nuts.

(One little interesting fact is that Dad is a first cousin

to Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church 

of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and he

orders chocolates from them every year!)

Besides the smell of chocolate that greets you as you

enter, they have fun little sayings about chocolate

upstairs in the store part.  I love this one!

The breakfast quote needs to hand in my kitchen!

Downstairs is where the production is done.

This bevy of beauties are three sisters and

one sister-in-law that are busy little elves

at this time of year creating centers, dipping,

boxing and wrapping nearly round the clock

to meet the Christmas demand.

From left to right we have Pam (their sister-in-law), 

Shelly, Nanette and Karen.

They are proof that eating tons of chocolate

keeps you thin and beautiful!

First we toured everything.  This is

the yummiest place - the packing 

room.

Then they were kind enough even at this super 

busy time of year to open up their

shop and let an amateur like me try a hand at

professional dipping!

Pulling my hair back and donning the 

black apron that everyone wears, I dive in.

(Don't be afraid to get a little dirty when you 

dip chocolate.  It is so smooth and silky, it

feels wonderful!)

Geri, the matriarch and owner 

(with her husband Phil)

 just turned

80 and still dips - and she

is a fast professional - a quick 

flick of the wrist 

and a touch to the paper, then

a quick initial written in chocolate to identify

the variety and she is at it again.

I have been dipping for 30 years and 

I felt like a total klutz next to her.

(But notice the pan of dipped centers

by my side - I slowly dipped all of those!)

Aunt Linda specializes in the nuts and toffees

filling tray after tray of wonderful chocolates.

She is very fast too.

Condies has had its ups and downs.  About 15

years ago they had a fire and the fireman was

sent in to rescue the original hand written

recipes (pictured above with

charred edges).  He found the recipe book 

floating in the water, soaking wet.  They pulled

the recipe book apart.  There were no recipes

on the pages anymore, but as they dried the

words reappeared.  You wouldn't believe it,

but these are still the only copies available.

Hopefully someone will get them written down

on a computer so they won't be nearly lost again.

All of the original equipment survived the fire and

was transported to a new building.  On the left is

one of their copper cooking kettles and the burner.

On the right is an old piece of equipment that cuts

the 10 pound blocks of chocolate.

They use Guittard chocolate which is put into vats

in the middle of the table to melt and to stay warm.

There are gas burners underneath each vat that melt

the chocolate and keep them warm.

The dipping process begins by Karen

scooping up the warm chocolate 

 onto

marble slabs to warm up the marble and to

cool down the chocolate.  Dipping chocolate

needs to be tempered, or brought up to melting

point and then brought back down to around 90

degrees so that it will create the wonderful 

shiny and crisp coating that we expect from

fine chocolates.

As the chocolate cools additional

warm chocolate is scooped out and

added to keep the chocolate at a

perfect temperature.  It was a great

way to dip.

There are two dipping stations on the

side of each of 3 vats of chocolate.

I had never dipped on marble before.  That went

well, but try to write a cursive L (for lemon creams)

backwards and from bottom to top.  Only a few

of mine had recognizable Ls! 

 (They will use them

for seconds - to give visitors!)

We were told that no one has ever been 

allowed to come and dip on the factory 

floor before.  My good friends Wally and

Annette are relatives and Wally got me 

the invitation. I felt so honored.  Our

good friend Rachel (in the pink) also got

to come along and give chocolate dipping

a try.

Wally and Annette's twin daughters Grace and

Esther love to come and work at Condies and

want to start learning to dip.

They usually spend most of their time in

the boxing room (sampling as they go along!)

Hey - that is half the fun of working in a chocolate

factory - you get to sample.

Meanwhile there is always something 

cooking in the kitchen.  Nanette is the cook.

She has all of the recipes in her head 

(or mostly she says.)

There are three

main ingredients in the kitchen - 

butter, cream and sugar!  

No wonder every single

variety was absolutely delicious.

I LOVE chocolate and love to try

different chocolates everywhere I go.  With

every manufacturer of chocolates, I like some

varieties and some I dislike.  You might say I am

 a bit of a chocolate snob. 

 I can honestly say

I love every flavor they have (and it seems like we

got to try most of them! Plus I bought a 2 lb. box 

and have been snacking on them.)

Bubbling hot toffee is poured on

the cooling table.

One of my favorite things was getting to

see all of the specialty equipment 

they have, like this special roller that scores

the toffee to make breaking into pieces

easier.

That is a huge batch of toffee,

ready to be dipped.

This is one of the greatest little machines.

The hot fondant (for cream centers) is

poured into this machine that was patented

in 1901.  Cool water fills the chamber to

quickly cool the fondant.  After about 

an hour, when the fondant is cooled, the

machine begins to stir it.  

They wanted to know if I made my own

cream centers at home.  I said yes and they

wanted to know how long I had to stir it.

I told them it was usually 40 minutes to

an hour.  Sure enough, that is how long

their machine stirs it.  This would be

amazing, but one batch makes enough

centers to fill 4 cardboard boxes - a bit more

than I could use.

From when the door first opened and the incredible

smell of chocolate rushed out

into the open air

to washing the chocolate off our hands and

carrying our hand-dipped and hand-boxed

chocolates out to the car, it was an

incredible experience

and opportunity.

Thank you to all of my dear new

friends 

at Condies.

You can order Condie's chocolates

online at

Condies Candies.

It was such a wonderful experience,

quite different from my home dipping.

To see my post on

Mrs. Claus' Chocolate Factory

and to see how I dip at home and my little elf who got into

the candy dipping from last year,

 click the above.

These are some of the varieties I usually make.  

We just started making centers this week.

I will be posting this with 

Foodie Fridays

Sweets for a Saturday

Seasonal Sundays