Learn to distinguish the varieties of this decadent treat and choose the perfect type for baking, melting, or nibbling.
Related Links
Recipes for Chocolate Desserts
Chocolate 101
Molded Chocolates
Tempering Chocolate
Chocolate Ganache
Chocolate with a Conscience
You can choose to support farmers and their families by buying chocolate with the Fair Trade Certified label.
Fair Trade principles include:
guaranteeing a minimum price for cacao beans
limiting use of agrochemicals
prohibiting child labor
Many farmers also follow strict guidelines for producing organic cacao beans, a way to earn premium prices for their product.
Sensual and seductive, chocolate inspires powerful passion and cravings. With its dusky aromas and voluptuous silken texture, chocolate flavors can be complex, fruity, or delicately acidic.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chocolate Grows on Trees?
Cacao trees, native to Central and South America, bear bright yellow, red, or orange fruit that look like elongated squashes. The pods are spilt to release seeds called cacao beans. The beans are fermented to develop flavor, aroma and color, and then roasted much like coffee beans to intensify their rich chocolate flavor. And, like coffee trees, there are different varieties of cacao trees: Criollo, which product the finest beans but are more difficult to grow and have low yields, and Forasteros, which provide the bulk of the world's cacao beans.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Making Chocolate
The heating process releases the nib or inner seed, which bears the essence of chocolate. Grinding cacao nibs produces a liquid or paste form of chocolate called chocolate liquor. The liquor is composed of cocoa butter--a creamy vegetable fat--and cocoa powder, the two essential ingredients (along with sugar and vanilla) in making the chocolate we eat. Further grinding and kneading--a process called conching--smoothes the texture of the chocolate liquor, releasing residual moisture and acidity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Types of Chocolate
Chocolate varieties are identified by the amounts of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids each contain. Typically, chocolates with higher percentages of cocoa butter have more intense and rich chocolate flavor, with a distinctive "snap" and melt-in-your-mouth quality. Lower-quality chocolate includes other fats, which raise the product's melting point, and have a less distinct flavor. Chocolate quality can vary enormously, depending on processing, bean quality, added ingredients, and artificial flavoring. You taste what you pay for.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baking Chocolate--best for cooking and baking.
Also called bitter or unsweetened chocolate, this type is hardened cocoa solids and cocoa butter with no added sugar. Since its taste is astringent and fairly unpleasant, it's used primarily as a baking ingredient. U.S. standards require unsweetened chocolate to contain 50 to 58 percent cocoa butter by weight.
French Silk Chocolate Pie I
Chocolate Decadence Cake I
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bittersweet Chocolate--best for baking, cooking, and eating.
Adding sugar, lecithin to enhance smoothness, and vanilla or vanillin to the chocolate liquor produces bittersweet chocolate, the darkest of all eating chocolates. By U.S. standards, bittersweet chocolate must contain at least 35 percent chocolate liquor. Some premium bittersweet chocolate can have a cocoa butter and cocoa solid content of 70 percent or higher. Bittersweet chocolate has a more pronounced chocolate taste because of its higher concentration of chocolate liquor and less sugar. It can be used in cooking and baking, as well as eaten for a treat.
Costa Rican Coffee Panna Cotta with Bittersweet Chocolate-Rum Sauce
Chocolate Ganache
Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse Brownies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Semisweet and Sweet Chocolate--best for baking, cooking, and eating.
Semisweet and sweet chocolate are similar to bittersweet since they also contain sugar and lecithin, but they have a higher percentage of sugar and thus have a sweeter taste. Their required chocolate liquor content is lower, averaging between 15 to 35 percent. Both kinds can also be used for cooking, as well as eaten as candy. Semisweet chocolate can usually be interchanged with bittersweet chocolate.
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Lovers' Favorite Cake
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Milk Chocolate--best for eating.
Creating the sweet, creamy taste of candy bars, milk chocolate contains at least 12 percent dry milk solids and 10 percent chocolate liquor along with sugar and added cocoa butter. Milk chocolate is generally not used in baking or cooking, as its delicate flavor is easily overwhelmed by other ingredients. It's the favorite chocolate of most Americans, preferred over dark or semisweet varieties by two to one.
Chocolate Trifle
Aunt Teen's Creamy Chocolate Fudge
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
White Chocolate--best for baking, cooking, and eating.
This variety is not "true" chocolate, since it contains no chocolate solids. However, it contains cocoa butter, the vegetable fat that gives chocolate its snap and luscious mouthfeel. The confection also contains sugar, butterfat, milk solids, lecithin, and flavorings. When the cocoa butter is replaced with other, less expensive fats, it's no longer white chocolate: it's referred to as Almond Bark or confectioners' coating.
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
White Chocolate Cream Pie
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Couverture--best for baking and confections.
A glossy form of chocolate used by professional pastry chefs and chocolatiers, this chocolate contains a minimum of 32 percent cocoa butter, which allows it to flow more easily when it's melted and tempered. You'll find this type of higher-grade chocolate in professional pastry and cake supply shops, as well as high-end groceries and online. Both dark and milk chocolate couvertures are available.
Chocolate Mousse Cake IV
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cocoa Powder--best for baking and beverages.
When most of the cocoa butter is removed from chocolate liquor, a dense cake forms. This is then ground into powder containing 10 to 22 percent cocoa butter. "Dutched" or Dutch Process cocoa is cocoa powder treated with an alkalizing agent such as baking soda to make it darker, less bitter, and more soluble in liquids.
Best Brownies
Chocolate Frosting I
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cocoa Nibs--best for baking.
Cocoa nibs are roasted and broken up cocoa beans, which have a very delicate chocolate flavor. They add crunch to cookies and are a delicious addition to shortbreads and other butter cookies.
More chocolate recipes to swoon over:
Death By Chocolate III
Double Chocolate Mocha Trifle
Deep Dish Brownies
White Chocolate Cheesecake with White Chocolate Brandy Sauce
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment