CHOCOLATE

WHAT IT IS

Its been called an aphrodisiac and its botanical name translates to “Food of the Gods”

It is made from the beans of the cacao, a South American tree first cultivated in southern Mexico by the Pre-Columbian Olmecs. The beans are fermented, dried, roasted, and

ground to make various types of chocolate

WHAT IT IS

The vast majority (about 90%) of the world’s chocolate comes from one type of cacao tree, the Forastero grown in Africa, Asia, and Brazil. Forastero trees are hardy and produce bold-

flavored cacao beans. Criollo trees produce cacao beans with more

delicate, complex flavors, but they are less hardy Criollo chocolate and Forastero, originating in

Trinidad, yield beans that range widely in flavor and also account for less than 5% of the chocolate produces worldwide.

WHAT IT IS

Cacao beans are seeds that grow in ridged oval pods that hang from trees. To develop chocolate’s signature texture and

flavor, the beans are removed from the pods and fermented for several days.

The beans are then dried (often sun-dried) and roasted at a relatively low temperature (250 to 320 F) for less than an hour to preserve their delicate aromas.

The inner pieces, or cocoa nibs, are removed from the roasted beans and repeatedly ground, forming a brown paste called chocolate liquor. This alcohol-free “liquor” contains about 30% cocoa

solids and 55% cocoa butter, the cream-colored vegetable fat responsible for chocolate’s velvety texture.

CONCHING To make most chocolate products, the cocoa solids

are filtered from the cocoa butter and then recombined with extra cocoa butter during conching. Invented by Swiss candy maker Rodolphe Lindt in 1879,

conching creates an exceptionally smooth texture by kneading, rolling, and gently heating the chocolate liquor (between 130 and 190 F) with additional cocoa butter for several hours or several days. It’s essentially controlled friction.

Longer conching creates smoother-textured chocolate. During conching, manufacturers also add ingredients

like sugar to make bittersweet chocolate, dry milk to make milk chocolate, and flavorings such as vanilla.

As a final step, the molten chocolate mixture is tempered, a process of cooling and reheating the chocolate to precise temperatures, which creates glossy, smooth-textured chocolate that snaps when broken.

WHAT IT IS

Chocolate liquor is processed into most of the solid chocolate, candies, and powdered cocoas that we enjoy.

Solid chocolate is a suspension of very fine cocoa solids in its own fat, cocoa butter.

Cocoa powder is dried chocolate liquor from which 70-90% of the cocoa butter has been removed.

The more cocoa butter that’s left in cocoa powder or added to solid chocolate, the richer the texture of the final product.

NATURAL COCOA POWDER

This dried form of chocolate liquor has the most concentrated chocolate taste, contains no sugar, and is naturally acidic with a pH slightly higher than 5.

DUTCH-PROCESS COCOA POWDER In the 1830s, Dutch

chocolate maker Conrad van Houten began treating cocoa powder with alkaline salts like potassium carbonate to reduce its acidity and allow the powder to mix more easily with water.

“Dutched” (also called European-style or alkalized) cocoa powder has a milder flavor, darker color, and higher pH (around 7 or 8) than natural cocoa powder. It contains no sugar.

INSTANT COCOA POWDER

This precooked cocoa product is formulated to mix easily with water or milk to create cocoa beverages.

It contains about 80% sugar, includes an emulsifier, and generally is not used for baking.

UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE

When pure chocolate liquor is cooled and solidified, it’s known as unsweetened, bitter, or baking chocolate.

DARK CHOCOLATE

Adding vanilla and sugar to chocolate liquor during conching creates dark chocolate that may be bittersweet, semisweet, or sweet.

MEXICAN CHOCOLATE

Flavored with cinnamon, almonds, and vanilla, this chocolate has a more grainy texture than other dark chocolates.

MILK CHOCOLATE

Adding vanilla, sugar, and milk to chocolate liquor creates the North American favorite, milk chocolate.

GIANDUJA

Adding hazelnut or almond paste (about 50% by weight) transforms dark or milk chocolate into gianduja, a popular chocolate in Italy and Switzerland.

COUVERTURE CHOCOLATE

These high-quality dark and milk chocolates contain additional cocoa butter (a minimum of 32% in the final product) to create easy melting chocolate suitable for making candy.

WHITE CHOCOLATE

Without cocoa solids and their distinct chocolate flavors, white chocolate isn’t really chocolate at all.

It’s a candy made from cocoa butter, lecithin, milk, sugar, and vanilla. The best-quality brands use a relatively high percentage of cocoa butter.

COMPOUND COATINGS These faux chocolates

contain chocolate liquor but no cocoa butter. Instead, they use less expensive fats like coconut oil, palm kernel oil, cottonseed oil, or soybean oil and are easier to work with because they lack cocoa better and its sensitivities to heat. They are formulated with fats that coat foods like doughnuts, or melt at a higher temperature, which is required for mass-market candies that will be stored during the warm summer months. These products lack the luxurious textures of real chocolate.

FORMS Mass-market chocolates tend to contain only the

minimum amounts of chocolate liquor. Some contain no chocolate liquor at all (neither cocoa butter nor cocoa solids).

Many manufacturers have lobbied the U.S. government to allow products made without cocoa butter to be labeled “chocolate,” but current regulations require all products called “chocolate” to contain at least 10% chocolate liquor, a portion of which must contain cocoa butter.

Fine chocolate makers use the best cacao beans and ample amount of chocolate liquor, and list the percentages of chocolate or cocoa, which refers to the total combined weight of the cocoa solids and cocoa butter. For instance, 72% chocolate contains 72% cocoa butter and cocoa solids and about 28% sugar by weight.

WHAT IT DOES

Many bakers prefer unsweetened natural cocoa powder for its concentrated chocolate flavor and so that they can control the addition of fat, sugar, vanilla, and other flavorings.

Naturally acidic, cocoa powder is often used to help activate chemical leaveners like baking soda.

On the other hand, Dutch-process cocoa powder is not acidic, so the two cocoa powders are not interchangeable in baking. An acid ingredient must be added when using Dutch-process cocoa in combination with chemical leaveners. To replace 45 ml natural cocoa powder with the same

amount Dutch-process cocoa in baking, add 0.5 ml cream of tartar to the recipe.

MELTING

Solid chocolate is essentially a suspension of cocoa powder in cocoa butter, which is very sensitive to heat.

Cocoa butter melts at relatively low temperatures of 87-97F, so gently heating is best, especially for milk chocolate and white chocolates.

Even a tiny drop of water can cause melting chocolate to quickly “seize,” or harden into a stiff, grainy paste that will not melt. Make sure your pans, bowls, and utensils are bone-

dry and avoid using pot lids, which can trap moisture. Adding more warm liquid will saturate the seized

paste and eventually make the chocolate fluid again, but it will thin out the texture of the melted chocolate.

MELTING

To melt chocolate without seizing, chop or break the chocolate into small, fairly uniform pieces so that it melts evenly, then carefully melt: In a pan over direct low heat: This method

requires constant stirring and risks burning the chocolate, but it can be done in a hurry.

In a heatproof bowl over gently simmering water: This method, often done in a double boiler, provides gentle heat and requires less stirring but risks seizing the chocolate because of the presence of water and steam.

MELTING

In a preheating or low oven: Many cooks prefer this simple method for its even, gentle heat and complete absence of water. If the oven is already preheating for making chocolate desserts, why not simply melt the chocolate there? Just be sure to remove the chocolate from the oven as soon as it is melted enough to be stirred smooth and before the oven gets too hot (no more than 300F).

MELTING

In a microwave oven: Microwave cooking melts chocolate easily but may subject the chocolate to extreme hot spots and requires frequent stirring. Melt dark chocolate at medium (50%) power Milk and white chocolate at low (30%) power, stopping

to stir every minute until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Keep in mind that some chocolates such as chocolate chips may be melted enough to be stirred smooth even though they retain their shape.

MELTING

On a warming tray or heating pad: If you have a warming tray or heating pad handy, put it on the lowest setting and place the bowl of chocolate on it, stirring occasionally until smooth.

In a pan or bowl with ample warm liquid: When chocolate will be combined with hot cream, melted butter, or other warm liquid, you can heat both ingredients in the same pan using any of the methods above, stirring frequently until the ingredients combine. Alternatively, you can heat the liquid first, then add the solid chocolate to the warm liquid, stirring until smooth and combined.

TEMPERING Because cocoa butter is heat sensitive, solid chocolate

is tempered by manufacturers. This process of cooling the melted chocolate in a controlled

way stabilizes the cocoa butter and created glossy, smooth-textured chocolate that snaps when broken.

If melted chocolate is cooled in an uncontrolled way, the fat molecules form loose crystals that will re-melt at low temperatures (63-83F), creating greasy chocolate that melts too easily. The crystal that melts between 90 and95 F, just a few degrees below out body temperature, is the crystal that creates chocolate’s melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Tempering is a process of eliminating the other crystals to create the tightly packed, stable crystals that give chocolate its incomparable snappy texture that melts luxuriously after just a second or two on our tongues.

TEMPERING

When melting chocolate, be sure the melted chocolate isn’t heated above its tempering range, which tops out at 90 F.

When melted chocolate is used to “enrobe” or coat the surface of a food, it will lose its temper and must be re-tempered Finely chop the chocolate and then melt 2/3 of it

to 115 F -120 F Cool chocolate to 95 F – 100 F and add the

remaining 1/3 chocolate to the melted chocolate, stirring gently until the chocolate is smooth and reaches a temperature of 88 F – 90 F

TEMPERING

While working with tempered chocolate, keep the bowl of chocolate in a bowl of water just a few degrees warmer than the chocolate or by setting the bowl on a warming tray

MOLDING, MODELING AND CURLS

Tempered chocolate can be painted or spread onto molds as simple as a leaf, flat sheet, or metal bowl (to create a dome shaped chocolate shell) or as elaborate as a multipart mold to create candies like hollow Easter bunnies.

Chocolate molds should be kept at about 78 to 80 F to prevent the tempered chocolate from cooling too quickly, which could create a less snappy texture. When molded chocolate cools, it will shrink slightly and pull away from the mold, making it easy to unmold.

MOLDING, MODELING AND CURLS

Tempered chocolate can also be mixed with sugar and/or corn syrup and kneaded into more pliable chocolate used for modeling simple or elaborate chocolate structures. To make chocolate, temper about 10 ounces dark

chocolate, mix it with 75 ml corn syrup to form a kind of dough, then cover and chill it for eight hours. Let it warm up until pliable.

MOLDING, MODELING AND CURLS

To make chocolate curls, Warm the chocolate briefly in a microwave oven

at low power (30%) in 10 second increments, set it under a 40-60 watt light bulb for a few minutes, or let it rest at about 80 F for an hour or two.

Then hold the block between paper towels (to avoid melting it with your body heat) and drag a paring knife or vegetable peeler across the surface. If you don’t dig too deeply, the chocolate will scrape

off in long, thin “pencil” curls (with a putty or bench knife) or wider curls (with a spoon).

STORAGE Stored in a place that’s cool (about 60 to 65 F), dark,

and not too humid, chocolate should last a year or more.

If the temperature fluctuates wildly or goes above 75 F for several months, as in the summer, the chocolate may develop a cloudy, pale-grey “fat bloom” of melted and then recrystallized cocoa butter on the surface.

Similarly, if the humidity is high, excess moisture may dissolve some of the sugar in the chocolate and create a similar looking, blotchy “sugar bloom” on its surface.

Regardless of bloom, chocolate is still usable, although chocolate with sugar bloom may seize more easily when melted because of the presence of moisture.

STORAGE

In the warm summer months, you can refrigerate chocolate, but that may cause condensation to form on the surface as it cools, leaving behind moisture that can create sugar bloom and interfering with smooth melting.

Chocolate can also be frozen, but it should be thawed completely in the refrigerator.

After refrigerating chocolate, minimize condensation by gradually cooling it to room temperature before melting it. Just remember, cocoa butter prefers gradual temperature changes.

HOW IT WORKS

The silky-smooth, mouth-filling texture of chocolate comes mostly from cocoa butter. This remarkable fat is solid below 88 F (31 C) but

begins to melt above 93 F (34 C). This is the temperature that happens to be just below our body temperature, which creates an incomparably lush sensation as solid chocolate gradually melts into a luscious puddle on our tongues.

High-cocoa-butter chocolates feel distinctly more luscious than low- or no-cocoa butter chocolates, so they cost more.

Conching (fine grinding) and, to a lesser extent, the emulsifier lecithin also smooth out the texture of solid chocolate, enhancing its mouth feel.

HEALTHFULNESS

Most of chocolate’s healthfulness comes from antioxidants that reduce the everyday oxidative stress on our bodies. Cocoa powder is the most concentrated source of these antioxidant compounds, which account for 8% of cocoa powder’s weight.

Studies show that hot cocoa beverages contain more antioxidants than wine and tea. However, alkalizing, or Dutch-processing, cocoa powder destroys most of the antioxidants in cocoa powder, so stick with natural cocoa if you’re looking for a health benefit.

HEALTHFULNESS

The health-promoting antioxidants in chocolate are called polyphenols, and they can reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing clots and improving blood flow. Polyphenols are most concentrated in high-

quality cocoa powder and solid dark chocolates that contain a high percentage of chocolate liquor or cocoa solids. The more bitter the chocolate, the more antioxidants it will deliver to your body. That’s one reason why some chocolate manufacturers promote the percentage of cocoa in their bitter chocolate products.