Chocolate University Online Blog
Here is a question that was sent to me recently…
“How should I make chocolates with liquor filling? What other various fillings can I choose from?”
If you bite into a chocolate-covered cherry, chances are you will drip sugary fluid down your chin and onto your shirt. There is a secret to making chocolates with liquid fillings, with or without alcohol.
The secret is invertase, a magic ingredient that does all the hard work for you. Invertase is an enzyme that liquefies sugar (sucrose) crystals.
Let’s use the chocolate coated cherry cordial as an example. Making one would look a little like this: drain a jar of preserved maraschino cherries, set the syrup aside and add some invertase. Coat each cherry with several alternating layers of powdered sugar and the invertase enhanced cherry syrup. Dip each into tempered chocolate coating. Invertase starts to break down the sugar immediately and does not stop even after enrobed in chocolate. It is important to apply the chocolate layer extra thick. If the coating has any weak spots or cracks, the liquid will leak out.
It can take up to a couple of weeks for the sugar to totally dissolve. Store in a cool room, but not in a freezer. Freezing temperatures will slow down the liquefaction.
This illustration is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many variations of cream and fondant fillings that turn to liquid. There are lots of books and websites that give step by step instructions on making cordials and liquor filled chocolates. That is where you should go to find recipes and tips and all kinds of helpful ideas to get you started.
Good Luck!
Categories: chocolate Q&A
Tags: chocolate covered cherries, chocolate science, enzymes, invertase
I live in Wisconsin and, believe it or not, we have wineries and vineyards here! We are not as well known as California or Virginia but we do all right. If you haven’t had a Wisconsin wine recently, try a selection from Parallel 44 in Kewaunee, WI.
I have fallen in love with their Malbec/Cabernet Sauvignon blend called “44”. It is dry, bold, and intensely fruity up front. I am a fan of Malbec for many reasons, but the main reason is that it pairs so well with chocolate.
Malbec is a medium-bodied wine, with flavors of cherry, plum, raspberry, and most of the time, a hint of chocolate. If the Malbec is aged in oak, you’ll also taste vanilla.
This great combination of flavors naturally matches up with dark chocolates that carry similar flavors. Choose a mid to high range cocoa content dark chocolate, say 60% to 70%, that presents flavors of red berries or dried fruit (raisin) mixed with pronounced cocoa notes.
I enjoy the “44” with a 70% Lindt Excellence bar. The Valrhona Manjari 64% is also an excellent choice with Malbec.
Because of the robust tannins, Malbec wine also goes good with grilled steak. (OK, that’s not chocolate, but I do have to eat other things from time to time.)
This is making me hungry. I think I know what I’ll make for supper!
Categories: chocolate pairings
Tags: malbec, wine
It’s sad but true… Sometimes children are sold or tricked into forced labor on cocoa farms.
In 2001, stories about the lives of children forced to work on farms instead of going to school started to emerge from West African countries. Investigations into this problem drew the attention of Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Rep. Eliot Engel of N.Y.
After much time and effort, Harkin and Engel announced on Sept. 13, 2010, the U.S. government and the chocolate industry pledged $17 million to help see an end to child labor.
The plan is to reduce unacceptable child labor by 70% by 2020. (Hmm, that means 30% remains.)
The money will be used for building schools and supporting families in two of the African countries that produce most of the world’s cocoa supply; Ivory Coast and Ghana.
The idea is to provide more income for these families so they don’t have to rely on their children’s wages for survival.
The Hershey Company is one of the major participants in the Harkin-Engel Protocol.
Many human rights groups are happy to learn that Hershey is stepping forward to help but would like an even greater commitment. They call for Hershey and other large chocolate companies to put Fair Trade labels on their products. These certificates would help consumers identify which chocolate comes from farms with fair labor practices in place.
Read more about what’s happening in the fight against child slave labor:
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/13/2221137/us-industry-pledge-millions-to.html
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: fair trade, Hershey Company
I am a label reader. In fact, I judiciously read labels because it is a matter of life or death for my daughter who has serious food allergies. But just because I read labels doesn’t mean I understand everything on them!
Luckily, I have experience understanding what’s on a chocolate label. When I was developing product for a large chocolate manufacturer, part of my job was to create the labels that went on our chocolates.
So, what exactly are things like “chocolate liquor,” “cocoa butter,” “soya lecithin,” or “butter fat” (by the way, isn’t butter fat a bit redundant)?
It would be nice if labels had a glossary printed on the back so we could learn the basics of what we’re eating. Since that great idea hasn’t taken off, I have gathered some commonly used chocolate terms, along with their meanings, and put them here for your enjoyment and education.
Chocolate Liquor or cocoa mass or cocoa solids or cocoa liquor
These are interchangeable terms for ground up, roasted cacao beans. Chocolate liquor is a thick, dark brown liquid that does not contain alcohol. In this case, the meaning of “liquor” is “essence.” In the US, chocolate liquor is also called unsweetened baking chocolate. Chocolate liquor contains about 48% fat, or cocoa butter.
Cocoa Butter
Cocoa butter is the fat extracted from cocoa beans (cacao seeds).
Soya Lecithin or Lecithin
Lecithin is a yellow-brown liquid (phospholipids) extracted from soybeans. It is added to chocolate to increases the flow-ability of the chocolate (by decreasing the viscosity).
Butter Fat or Butterfat or Milkfat
These are interchangeable terms referring to the fatty component in milk. There is no butter fat in cacao (remember, that is called cocoa butter). Butter fat is added to chocolate for a soft texture and to extend the shelf life by resisting bloom.
Chocolate terminology is pretty consistent across manufacturers and countries. Chocolate production is strictly regulated with standards that limit the types of ingredients added to chocolate. However, there are differences. And depending on where the chocolate is produced, ingredients allowed in one chocolate bar may not be allowed in another.
My advice? Read the label! Enjoy.
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate Q&A
Tags: butter fat, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, cocoa solids, lecithin
What on earth are jimmies?
Jimmies are small confectionery candies used mainly as decorations on top of cakes, cup cakes, doughnuts, and ice cream. Some popular alternative names are sprinkles, hundreds and thousands, or ants.
I grew up understanding that “sprinkles” are a multi-colored version of the candy, while “jimmies” specifically meant chocolate sprinkles.
Chocolate sprinkles were invented by a Dutch company in 1936. Many Dutch children will put chocolate sprinkles on top of buttered bread for a tasty after school snack.
Some American households celebrate birthdays with Chocolate Jimmy Cake.
I had never heard of the Jimmy Cake before so, of course, I made one. This recipe is delicious. The jimmies add texture and a bit of color to the cake. It is quite rich, so I recommend enjoying a slice of this cake with a steaming cup of Simply Decadent (by North Star Fine Coffees).
Chocolate Jimmy Cake
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 cup cold coffee
• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup chocolate jimmies
• ½ cup chopped pecans
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks appear. Set this aside also.
Beat butter and sugar until creamy and then add egg yolks. Add flour mixture while alternating with coffee. Fold in egg whites and jimmies and pecans.
Pour into greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 325 F for one hour. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert on rack until completely cool. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with ice cream. |
Categories: chocolate recipes
Tags: chocolate cake, jimmies
Chocolate is fun. It is fun to eat, it is fun to make. And apparently, it is fun to use to set Guinness Book World Records.
The Grand Candy factory, located in Yerevan, Armenian, qualified on September 11, 2010 as the new Guinness World Record holder of the world’s biggest chocolate bar.
The bar weighs 9,702 pounds – almost 5 tons! The chocolate bar is made of 70% cocoa mass, measures at 224 inches long, 110 inches wide and 10 inches thick.
Now that is extreme chocolate love.
Here is some more evidence of chocolate gone wild:
BullRush Handmade Chocolates set a Guinness World record for the longest chocolate bar at 14.58 meters. BullRush Chocolates of Ashburton is in New Zealand.
The world’s tallest chocolate skyscraper goes to pastry chef Alain Roby. He made a skyscraper out of dark chocolate that is 20 feet, 8 inches tall.
The Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas is the home of the world’s largest chocolate fountain. Rivers of white, milk and dark chocolate flow over glass shelves creating an edible fountain over 27 vertical feet high.
South Africa beat out Brazil for the world’s largest chocolate bunny. The Easter bunny is 12 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs more than 3 tons. Brazil’s bunny only weighed a mere 2.8 tons.
I wonder what happens to all that chocolate after it is officially documented?
They better be handing out samples!
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate bars, chocolate bunny, chocolate fountain
 The Lindt A Touch of Sea Salt chocolate bar is a new addition to the Lindt & Sprungli Excellence line of chocolates. Dark chocolate (47% cocoa solids content) is enhanced by adding Fleur de Sel, a French sea salt.
Adding salt to any food makes the flavors “pop.” This phenomenon happens to chocolate, too. Some of the complex cocoa notes, that are normally too subtle to detect, will jump right out at you after adding a pinch of salt.
This chocolate bar is nutty, with caramel and a little spice coming off at the end. At random, a tiny salt crystal would release a burst of salty, coffee, creamy flavor – tasted like I was drinking a latte!
I was disappointed in the soft, almost chewy texture brought on by the addition of butterfat in the chocolate. The softness and quick melt diminished the experience for me slightly.
Overall, I really enjoyed this bar. The salt did not overpower the intensity of the chocolate and was able to detect unique flavors coming from the crystals.
I’m a fan of sweet and salty. You’ll find me choosing chocolate-covered pretzels over chocolate-covered strawberries. I prefer chocolate nut clusters over chocolate-coated cookies.
How about you? Let me know what you think of this chocolate. Enjoy!
Categories: chocolate review
Tags: chocolate bars, dark, grocery product, sweet and salty
Vegan foods cannot contain any animal products.
Most dark chocolates qualify as vegan because all the ingredients are sourced from plants. A dark chocolate label will list sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soya lecithin (from soybean), and vanilla.
There are some dark chocolates that add butter oil, but you would know this by reading the ingredient statement on the label.
All ingredients must be declared on the label so that consumers know exactly what the product contains and can make informed decisions based on these ingredients.
Milk chocolate, of course, contains milk which is a dairy product from an animal. Candy bars, boxed chocolates and other confections and novelties may have a variety of additives that make them ineligible to be vegan.
Always read the label to be sure.
You probably won’t find dark chocolate marketed as “vegan” because it is normally free of animal products, not specially made as a vegan option.
I guess you could say chocolate is vegan by accident!
Categories: chocolate Q&A
Tags: dark chocolate
My mom came for dinner last week and she  (as any properly trained mother should do) brought with her a bottle of wine. We enjoyed a remarkably delicious Green Truck Organic Sauvignon Blanc.
After dinner, I (as any properly trained daughter should do) brought out chocolate for dessert. I was in the mood for a Lindt Excellence Intense Orange Dark Chocolate bar. As I took a bite, I noticed I had a swallow of wine left in my glass and drank it. The chocolate was still in my mouth, and the result of this accidental pairing was, well, it was meant to be!
 Green Truck Organic Sauvignon Blanc had crisp flavors of lemon peel, grapefruit and orange blossom. The citrus flavors from the wine brought out the delicate orange notes from the chocolate as well as the bitter, dark cocoa flavors.
The combination was out of this world good.
The Sauvignon Blanc grapes are organically grown by the Bartolucci Family of Mendocino, California for Red Truck Winery. Their organic line of wines are under the Green Truck label.
My mom is coming for dinner again tonight. I wonder what after-dinner discoveries are waiting for us!
Enjoy!
Categories: chocolate pairings
Tags: chocolate covered fruit, dark chocolate, grocery product, wine
Muslims celebrate Eid Al-Fitr, a three-day feast that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Special foods are prepared and eaten during Eid. Some of those dishes are prepared days before Eid because it takes so long to prepare and cook them.
It’s interesting that chocolate has become a recent tradition to help celebrate Eid. The younger generation prefers the chocolate over some of the more tradional sweets.
As a result some chocolate shops may experience the highest sales orders of the year at the beginning of Ramadan.
In the Muslim home, guests are often served Arabic coffee (sometimes called Turkish style coffee) with an assortment of chocolates. If it’s anything like the Turkish coffees I’ve had then a dark chocolate would make a great pairing with great compatibility of flavor notes.
To learn more about the Eid celebration and chocolate, read the article at http://arabnews.com/lifestyle/art_culture/article130760.ece.
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate holidays, coffee, dark chocolate, holidays, world chocolate
« Newer Posts — Older Posts »
|
