Sweet holiday fun

Some people make fruitcake at holiday time. Others make cookies and trade them like baseball cards. I make chocolates. Chocolate making was my first profession, and it's stayed in my blood. So each year instead of joining the Black Friday crowds at the retail emporia, I head for my old place of employment and buy pounds of semisweet and milk chocolate. Usually I've been thinking for weeks about what kinds of chocolates I want to create. I settled years ago on two kinds of barks (now called "tablets" by the chichi chocolatiers), so I have the ingredients list for those memorized. I also make at least one kind of truffle, and at least one other type of confection. This year, I'll make mocha truffles; perhaps a star anise or sweet curry one (if star anise, I'll make a fennel toffee to top it with); and for certain some lavender caramels enrobed in dark chocolate. Also, I've invited four friends over to join the fun, learn chocolate making, and take home a few pounds of our creation to enjoy or give as gifts. So far my acquired ingredients include (in random order):

• 30 pounds of chocolate (milk, semisweet, bittersweet)
  
• 10 pounds of sugar
  
• Culinary lavender
  
• Star anise
  
• Sweet curry
  
• Pecans
  
• Pistachios
  
• Almonds
  
• Walnuts
  
• Golden raisins
  
• Dried cherries
  
• Crystalized ginger
  
• Cocoa
  
• walnuts
  
• golden raisins
  
• Dried apricots
  
• Espresso-roast coffee beans

I still need to pick up a gallon or so of heavy cream. First we'll need to make the centers -- the caramel and the truffle bases -- and set them aside to cool. Next we'll make the two types of barks. Then we'll shape and enrobe the caramels and truffles. After it all sets up, we'll set about packaging the candies for storage and gifting. Bark-making is really the most fun for newcomers, as it involves getting their hands into the warm, tempered chocolate to mix in the fruit and nuts and then spreading the confection into a thin layer to set. There are few sensations more glee-inspiring than that of velvety warm chocolate spread up to mid-forearm. And with four people getting in on this action, it should be quite a production. The date's been set for next Saturday. Expect a recap.