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How a Chocolatier Gets the Job Done

Julia BainbridgeFood Editor

Updated Fri, October 31, 2014 at 5:20 PM UTC

Rubber spatula — “I use a rubber spatula for basically everything,” said Riley. “So for caramel, making toffee, stirring chocolate, making ganache…”

Melting bowls — “There’s a lot of stirring,” Riley laughed.

Candy thermometer — “If I’m going to hand-temper anything, I need my candy thermometer,” said Riley. The highest temperature Riley goes is for Nunu’s sponge candies, which the team has dubbed Hokey Pokey: she must bring the caramel to 340 degrees!

Bench scraper — “I use my bench scraper for a ton of stuff: molding, cleaning molds, cutting up butter, and scraping down tables,” said Riley.

Flat surface — “On the right are the shavings that come off of the molds when we trim them,” said Riley. “We actually melt them back down and re-use them. It’s perfectly fine!”

Whisk — “The whisk is primarily for ganache—all of our molded, individual pieces of candy are ganache-filled except for the caramels—but I use it for making the sponge candies,” said Riley. “You use very caramelized sugar, and right before it turns into charcoal, basically, you violently whisk in baking soda. It’s kind of like a volcano for a science project.” Beneath that are two forks for hand-dipping individual chocolates, and a small offset spatula for cleaning up chocolate molds.

Tempering machine — “We have a 10-pound and a 30-pound chocolate melting machine,” said Riley. “That’s a lot of chocolate in there, so I stir it with the offset spatula to make sure it’s mixed and reading the proper temperature.” She’s looking for 90 degrees, which is the temperature that introduces “the right kind of cocoa butter crystals into the melted chocolate. You want that workable viscosity but when hardened it’s nice and shiny and has that snap.”

Molds — All of Nunu’s molds are made of polycarbonate.

Offset spatula — Riley smooths the top with an offset spatula.

More molds! — Now, the chocolates are ready to be refrigerated.

Packaging — “Including the chocolates, caramels, barks, and lollipops, there are probably 25 different kinds of things we’re doing right now,” said Riley.

Nunu’s storefront — Though she makes chocolate all day long, “I’m not a chocolate dessert person,” said Riley. “I like citrusy sweets. But I do love dark chocolate with lemon.”

Colleen Riley has worked with a bunch of the heavy hitters in the baking and pastry worlds: she apprenticed with legendary confectioner Jacques Torres, then worked for Valerie Confections in Los Angeles, and, finally, she returned to New York City to bake pies with the ladies of Four and Twenty Blackbirds. A little over a year ago, she became head chocolate maker for Nunu on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, whose owners were unlike any Riley had worked for in the past. “Even for people in this profession, chocolate is daunting, but they dove in head first,” said Riley of Justine Pringle and Andy Laird. "They have a nice balance of high technique and a homey approach."

Pringle chose the name Nunu because it's a nickname for little kids in Africa, where she spent her childhood—plus it rolls off the tongue. So do Nunu's salted caramels, which have become a cult favorite at the shop. But Riley thinks the milk chocolate bark with pink peppercorn and cocoa nibs deserves some attention, too. “That’s what I pick to nibble on while I’m working,” she said.

Nunu has just opened a second location in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where Riley will also be baking some pastries for the early morning crowd. Don’t worry, though, she’ll still be making about 600 candy bars and 1,000 pieces of caramel every day. Click through the slideshow to see how she does it.

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