If you've always wanted to learn how to work with chocolate, you're in luck. Chuck Siegel of Charles Chocolates will be giving chocolate classes. Head into the Charles Chocolates factory kitchen to learn the basics of working with chocolate through an entirely hands-on, intensive class led by Siegel himself.

Starting with the basics of working with chocolate, the curriculum will also include more technique driven skills like preparing ganaches, rolling truffles, tempering, shell molding and more. “People are curious about working with chocolate, and I get asked for tips and lessons all the time,” said Siegel. “Once you know the basics, there are so many ways to creatively use those skills.” Recipes are fine, but nothing beats hands-on experience.

The classes will take place on Saturday afternoons, and last approximately five hours. You must wear closed toed shoes in our factory kitchen and please wear clothing that you don't mind getting a little bit of chocolate on.

What: Chocolate Classes at Charles Chocolates
When: Saturday, June 14 from 1-6pm, other dates to follow
Where: Charles Chocolates Chocolate Bar, 6529 Hollis St., Emeryville
How: Purchase tickets $300
If you have any questions, please call 510.652.4412 x311 or email events@charleschocolates.com.
Why: Learn to make chocolates from a master chocolatier and take home all of the confections you make, plus a deluxe kit containing molds, an offset spatula, sheet pans and several recipes developed by Siegel -- everything necessary to use what was learned during the class at home.

Here's a sample recipe you can try at home:

Perfect Chocolate Truffles (untempered)
courtesy of Chuck Siegel, owner of Charles Chocolates

Ingredients:
250g/2 cups 65% Bittersweet Chocolate
250g/2 cups 41% Milk Chocolate
345g/1 1/3 cups Heavy Whipping Cream (not ultra-pasteurized) – When infusing cream with herbs or tea, increase by 50% to 518g to allow for evaporation. Use only 345 total grams of infused cream in recipe.
1 Vanilla Bean
150g/5.5 oz. Unsalted Butter – softened
453g/4 cups 65% Bittersweet Chocolate for dipping
225g/2 cups Natural (not Dutch processed) cocoa powder for rolling

Directions:
1. Melt chocolates together to 120°

2. Slit vanilla bean in half and scrape seeds into cream - Heat cream to 120° (note that variations like infusions of fresh mint, Earl Grey or Jasmine Tea or the addition of fruits like raspberries or mangos would be integrated into this step).

3. Add melted chocolate to cream and, starting from the middle of the bowl, stir with a silicone spatula to start the emulsion. As the emulsion forms in the center of the bowl, move to the edges to completely blend the ingredients.

4. Add the room temperature butter and mix with immersion blender

5. Pour ganache into a saran wrap covered ¼ sheet pan and smooth out with an offset spatula – cover with another sheet of saran to prevent a skin from forming on the ganache.

6. Refrigerate until firm (at least 2 hours, or preferably overnight)

7. Remove ganache, remove saran and invert ganache onto the back of a second ¼ sheet pan. Using a steel ruler, mark edges of ganache in 1" increments.

8. Using a pizza cutter or sharp paring knife, using the ruler as a guide, cut ganache into 1" squares. Roll each square in latex gloved hands into a smooth ball and refrigerate for 1 hour.

9. Melt bittersweet chocolate for dipping. In latex gloved hands, alternately place small amounts of melted chocolate and truffle balls in your hand to coat.

10. Drop coated truffles in natural cocoa and roll to coat. Place coated truffles on a saran covered ¼ sheet pan and refrigerate until ready to eat.

The Candy Store has but one decoration: candy. Despite its white walls, this tiny sugar-laden Russian Hill boutique is a veritable rainbow of color -- giant yellow swirly lollipops, chocolate bars in vintage wrappers, shelves stacked with jar after jar of vivid red and green gummy cherries, hard candy in pastel wrappers, and champagne gumdrops. With more than 300 kinds of candy to choose from, including nostalgia brands, hard-to-find chocolate, and double-salted licorice, there's something for everybody.

Owner Diane Campbell has always been a candy freak. "I was forbidden candy as a kid so it was on the sneak," she confesses. Her addiction got her suspended from school for selling candy out of her locker at age ten, and she was on a covert first name basis with the ice cream man. "When I was seven, I'd go to the ice cream man for candy every day. At 3 p.m. I'd ride my bike to the park, get candy, and sneak eat it at home. One day I'm playing outside with my mom and I hear the ringing of the ice cream truck. My mom says, 'I'll get you an ice cream cone today.' I'm panicked. I tell her I don't want one, but she insists. We walk over and of course the ice cream man says, 'Hi Diane.' And my mom says, 'How do you know my daughter?' And he says, 'Know her? She's my best customer!'"

Diane's passion for candy is contagious. On my second visit, she pushed a piece of licorice on me. (Yes, I hate it too.) But the "chalk licorice" -- a sugar-coated piece of black licorice with a creamy, peppermint-y center -- changed my mind. I walked out with a box full.

Every piece of candy in the store has been taste-tested by Diane and her husband, Brian (and samples of the bulk candy are free for the asking). Though they opened the shop in April of this year, they began their research three years ago with the goal of representing the entire world of candy, from sours and gummies to chocolate and licorice. One shelf is devoted to nostalgia candy, like wax bottles and candy lipstick, Big League Chew gum and Pop Rocks. Diane's childhood favorites get their due as well, with Zagnuts (crunchy peanut butter bar coated in toasted coconut) and maddeningly addictive Mallo Cups (milk chocolate and toasted coconut around a sticky marshmallow center). People also go crazy for Valomilk, Chase's Cherry Mash, Idaho Spud, and Zotz.

The Candy Store's chocolate collection includes edible chocolate boxes from local favorite Charles Chocolates, caramel-chocolate pretzels from Utah, four kinds of malted balls (chocolate mint, peanut butter, chocolate, and ultimate dark/milk/white chocolate combo), and 13 chocolate bars from the United Kingdom, including the ever-popular Cadbury Flake, Nestle's caramel-ly Lion, and the Mars bar (which is more like our Milky Way). Diane's hands-down favorite is an organic, fair trade butter caramelchocolate bar from Austrian chocolate maker Zotter. "It's the best chocolate bar I've ever tasted in my life," Diane swoons.

Perhaps surprisingly, what has a lot of people drooling the most is the black licorice selection. Diane stocks more than 15 varieties, most of which come from Holland, and she says the double-salted licorice inspires its own kind of addict. Diabetics also get their due, with nine sugar-free candies.

Chocolate-covered "river stones"

The most fun offering is the custom-made party favors. Diane will create something for any budget, from small Chinese takeout boxes full of gorgeous chocolate "river stones" (chocolate-covered apricots, marzipan, and almonds) and mini-martini shakers full of chocolate almond nougatine "olives" (the canister can double as a drink maker) to sugar-coma-inducing candy carts you can rent at big events where everyone gets to fill their bags from dozens of sweet treats.

The Candy Store
1507 Vallejo Street at Polk
San Francisco
(415) 921-8000