Art is in the coating
or chocolate treasures
By Connie L. Sheehan
Senior Editor
I opened the door, and the most
heavenly scent on earth perme
ated the air — chocolate.
And it was everywhere. All sizes,
shapes and kinds. No wonder I
was as excited as Charlie on his
legendary trip through Willy
Wonka's chocolate factory.
Katrinka Schnabel, vice presi
dent of Sugar Plum Candies, 333
N. Cotner 81 vd, pulled me in from
the morning snow and into the
corner shop that houses the hand
dipping kitchens of Josephine Krick
Cnocolates.
My attention was torn between
the perfectly stacked trays of hand
made candies on^the left and the
three women bustling over sev
eral counters on the right.
Katrinka introduced nerself and
then ushered me over to meet the
crew, Kitty Lekai, Lola Ring and
Jean Johnson, the women whose
dipped creations adorned the
shelves.
Katrinka brings 30 years of
merchandising experience to Sugar
Plum Candies. Her major in col
lege was English, and she says it
was just an accident that sent her
into the candy industry with a job
as assistant candy buyer for an
exclusive Philadelphia department
store.
Kitty distracted me from the
introductions as she swirled a
truffle center in a tub of melted
chocolate and, with a twist of her
wrist, deposited the coated deli
cacy on a covered tray.
Kitty, who has hand dipped for
20 years, has dipped botn one
handed and two-nanded. The dif
ference, Kitty says, is two people
being able to produce in one day
what takes four people one week
to dip one-handed.
Lola has 40 years of experience,
both as a hand-dipper and as an
instructor, and is positi ve that she
has "taught half of Lincoln" the
art. She also demonstrates newly
purchased dipping machines,
invented by owner Clive Hilgert,
to buyers over the United States
and Canada.
Jean specialized in dipping dus
ters the last seven years but, ac
cording to Katrinka, soon will be
learning how to dip all the store
specialties.
The women hand dip an aver
age of 150 pounds of candy a day
for this shop and its two other
locations: the downtown Sky walk
level shop at 1201 O St. and the
Penn Station location in New York.
After eating tons of chocolate
all these years ir. blissful ignorance,
I was ready to begin my formal
chocolate education — but, first, a
few basics.
One of the worst places for
chocolates is your refrigerator,
Katrinka explained. Not only does
"chocolate absorb odors like a
sponge" but the humidity is too
high. Chocolates should be eaten
af70 to 72 degrees since the tex
ture and flavor will be at its peak.
"It's also a fallacy that you can
only get fine chocolate in Europe,"
Katrinka said about the chocolate
used as the coating for the hand
dipped pieces.
Wonderful chocolate is avail
able in the United States, Katrinka
said, and each major chocolate
maker may produce more than
100 different grades of chocolate.
"We happen to buy the very
best (grade) from the" manufac
turer that we use," she said, add
ing that the maker was located in
California.
According to Katrinka, making
candy for three stores requires
abou 1500 pounds of dipping cnoco •
late per month, and Christmas holi
days may demand up to 1,500
pounds.
Katrinka explained how the
manufacturers end up with three
final products after tne beans are
processed: chocolate liqueur, which
is not actually alcoholic, cocoa
powder and cocoa butter. The
ingredients then are recombined
in various ratios to produce dif
ferent grades of chocolate.
The dipping chocolate is not
purchased, however, for its taste
alone but for how it relates to the
centers that one plans to use it on,
Katrinka said.
"If you have a real sticky sweet
center, which we don't make, then
you might want a more bitter
chocolate to offset it," Katrinka
said. "But since we make true fla
vor centers, we needed a choco
late that would blend with what
we were doing, not overpower it
but complement it."
Katrinka slid the case open and
appeared with a raspberry cream
dipped in dark chocolate. A nibble
revealed a rose-pink cream so fresh
that a few small seeds still remained
within the fruit center. The blend
was balanced — the center some
what tart, and the dark chocolate
not as bitter as many I've had.
I was dubious as she handed
over a vanilla cream, one of the
last pieces usually left in my candy
box at home. Yet, it wasn't the
over-vanilla flavored goo I nor
mally neglected; it tasted like my
grandmother's old-fashioned
butter cream icing wrapped in
chocolate.
Wondering about the truffles
I'd seen Kitty dipping earlier, I
inquired about suen exotic names
as Champagne, Amaretto, Grand
Marnier, Bailey's Irish Cream, Rum
Jamaica, Kalua, Double Chocolate
and Chocolate Mousse.
Katrinka confirmed that origi
nal flavorings are combined with
chocolate, whipped cream and
butter,‘but any alcohol content
evaporates during the heating
process.
While we talked, Kitty still
dipped one variety after another
— first truffles, followed by nut
clusters, then almond bark.
Katrinka said an experienced
dipper knows by feel if tne choco
late temperature is correct in the
warmed pot.
"Occasionally, as good as these
firls are, they get streaks (in the
ipping chocolate) because the
chocolate we use is so good that
it's very delicate," she added.
Kitty took a few moments to
demonstrate the secret code of
squigeles put on the top of the
chocolates to indicate their type: p
for peanut butter, r for raspberry
or v for vanilla, to name a few.
'The position of the fingers when
the girl li f ts her hand off the choco
late determines the mark on the
chocolate," Katrinka explained.
All the women agreed that hand
dipping seems to be a dying art.
That's too bad, Katrinka said,
because one can't get the same
taste or looks witn machinery
chocolates.
"You never get completely away
from it. Once you learn about the
candy, it's always on your mind/'
Jean said.
Although she's had other jobs,
Jean admits that every once in a
while, thoughts about dipping pop
up in her mind.
"It's a skill, an art, and you
learn it," Jean said. "It's just like
you were a painter, you might go
and do something else, but it would
still be in your mind."
William Lauer/Daily Nebraskan
Kitty Lekai, official dipper for Sugar Flum Candies, makes co
conut clusters. Lekai said the other dippers tried to take her job
away but "I said no way."
Foreign
Continued from Page 7
Fie can get almost all of his food in
Lincoln, but "seafood is hard to
get here."
Han said one dish he enjoys is
boiled rice with kimchi, a spicy
pickled dish made mainly from
cabbage and garlic. Another of his
favorites is dried seafood.
Shek-Tak Tang, an actuarial
science graduate student from
Tawain, said he cooks mostly
Chinese food.
"I like chicken, beef and vege
tables," he said, "along with pork,
served with either rice or noodles."
He said one store in Lincoln
gets a fresh supply of seafood every
Wednesday.
Wine
Continued from Page 8
All unusual European wines
aren't necessarily expensive, Stoehr
said. The Romania wine, Premiat
and the Hungarian wine, Trakia,
are moderately priced.
Stoehr said they're not expen
sive compared to Rothschild wines,
but they are very good ethnic wines.
Other ethnic wines include the
Chilian wines, Santa Rita and
Walnut Crest. Some American
vineyards are establishing vine
yards in the Chili region because
the soil gives the grape such a
different flavor, Stoehr said.
"Wines that are really hot and
really starting to pick up in the
United States are Australian
wines/' Stoehr said.
Stoehr ,said Australian wines
like Black Opal and Black Marlin
brands aren't expensive, and
they're still considered exotic
because they're relatively new to
the United States and especially
new to the Lincoln area.
Black Marlin blend comes from
three varieties of grapes and has a
semi-dry taste witn an added
smoothness, Stoehr said.
"It's a fantastic wine," he said.
American wines don't tend to
be very exotic, Stoehr said, with
the exception of Opus One, a
combined effort of the Robert
Mondavi vineyard In America and
Baron de Philippe de Rothschild's
French vineyard.
"They got together, and their
goal was to .rnake the ultimate
wine," Stoehr said. "A retailer
cannot just call up one week and
have somebody send a case, it's
preordered with signed delivery
only.
The Wine Spectator, a rating
booklet, has consistently ranked
Opus One 97 on a scale of 100
points. The bottle retails for $69.95,
Stoehr said.
1 asked Stoehr to show me the
best exotic champagne for special
occasions.
Of course I expected the name
to be Dom Perignon, but 1 didn't
expect the 1982 selection to be $88.99
a bottle or about $889 a case.
Well, perhaps I should rethink
my budget for my graduation party.