Kidsday: Our Trip to Eataly

When you walk into a candy store, your eyes wander to many different things, but you always end up gazing at the chocolate. But, have you ever wondered what it's like to make chocolate? We took a trip to Eataly in Manhattan (200 5th Ave., eataly.com) to make Baci Perugina Chocolate.

When we arrived at the classrooms, we were given a table with sparkling lemon water, an apron, cocoa bean sheds (aka nibs) and three kumquats. The class was taught by Francine Segan, a food historian and the author of six culinary books. We learned how to make many things, including our own Baci chocolate.

Baci is an Italian chocolate, originally used to send hidden love notes. We were given hazelnut-chocolate balls, tempered (melted) chocolate and hazelnuts. We made our Baci by sticking a hazelnut onto the hazelnut-chocolate ball. Next, we dipped it into a bowl of tempered chocolate. We then took out the Baci and set it on a plate to dry. We even dipped the kumquat in chocolate.

Next, we made Creamy Baci Pie. Francine taught us how to make it. It's so easy. We mixed eggs, flour, sugar and butter to make a simple batter. Next, we pressed the pie dough into a crust tin. We then poured in the batter. After that, we put in multiple Bacis until each piece had some. When it was out of the oven, Francine passed out a piece of pie to everyone in the class. It was delicious.

Finally, we made Baci Perugina Dessert Pasta (chocolate-covered pasta). To make this, we boiled the pasta and poured melted chocolate over it. Then, we mixed it and put it onto a dish. We were skeptical about trying it, because we both don't like pasta, but it turned out to be really good.

This trip was fun, and we would recommend this class to anyone who loves to cook. It was the best trip ever.

If you want to find out more about other classes, visit the website. Also, you can watch us cook. Go to exploreLI.com/kidsday.