Chocolate University Online Blog
There are two basic types of chocolate ice cream coatings, “real” chocolate coatings and chocolate flavored compound or confectionery coatings.
Both types of coatings must be thin enough to cover and bend over the ice cream, thick enough not to crack open and let the ice cream seep through, and simultaneously be crunchy and melt in your mouth. That’s not asking too much, is it?
Most of these demands have to be met by the fat system used in the coating.
The first type, real chocolate, ice cream coatings are made with cocoa butter. This type is quite tricky. Cocoa butter contracts quickly and is prone to cracking. Adding milk fat or butter oil will soften the coating and make it more pliable and resistant to cracks. Also, it works best to bring the fat content up to about 40 to 45%.
The second type is the most common ice cream coating. It is a chocolate flavored confectionery type made with oils like coconut and palm kernel. These coatings are much easier to work with because they harden quickly and coat evenly.
Coconut oil combined with a small quantity of softer oil like peanut or sunflower, will quickly form a hard and thin shell while at the same time maintaining plasticity that covers almost any shape of molded ice cream. Typically the amount of fat is much higher than its cocoa butter counterpart. These coatings have around a 60% fat content.
In the consumer market the confectionery types of coatings are often sold as being fun for kids because they go on easy and harden quickly, though much of the chocolate flavor gets lost in the formulation.
Speaking of all this ice cream coating, how about that raspberry chocolate sauce I wrote about a few days ago? Maybe it’s time to try some of that over ice cream!
Categories: chocolate education
Tags: chocolate coating, confectionary coating, ice cream
Did you know that one the most important steps in making chocolate taste like chocolate is cocoa bean fermentation?
Cocoa beans grow inside a thick-walled pod surrounded by a sugary pulp that provides nutrients to the beans (seeds). The pulp is made up of about 12% sucrose which gets broken down by microbes, mostly yeasts.
During the harvest, pods are cut down from the tree, opened, and the cocoa beans scooped out by hand. Large mounds or heaps of pulp and beans are built in order to start the fermentation process. To speed things along, big leaves (like banana) are used to cover the heaps in order to seal in the heat generated by the microbial action.
The temperature can reach 40C to 50C in the fermentation heap. Many chemical reactions take place, and it is here during fermentation that chocolate acquires its color and flavor.
While the yeasts break down the sugar, ethyl alcohol and heat is produced. Then, both the alcohol and the heat kills the yeast. The heap has to be stirred and turned in order to aerate it and eventually stop the fermentation. The whole process takes about 5 days. Fermenting any longer than 5 days and the microbes will begin to attack the beans instead of the pulp. Over-fermentation can result in creating off-flavors and odors in the cocoa beans.
The beans are dried thoroughly in the sun after fermentation to drive off all moisture and prevent further chemical and microbial activity. At this time, the flavors are locked in and ready for transporting to the manufacturer for roasting, grinding, and making into chocolate coatings and bars.
Categories: chocolate education
Tags: cocoa beans, fermentation
Take a look at an ingredient label on a bar of chocolate. 9 times out of 10 you will see soya lecithin listed there.
Is using lecithin as an ingredient in chocolate important, and what is the benefit of using it?
 Lecithin is a phospholipid typically derived from soybeans or eggs. In its liquid form, it is a yellow-brownish fatty substance with a fairly thick viscosity.
Lecithin is very important to chocolate because it reduces viscosity, replaces expensive ingredients such as cocoa butter, improves the flow properties of chocolate, and can improve the shelf life for certain products.
Viscosity reduction, or making a coating thinner, can certainly be done by adding cocoa butter or other fats and oils, but it takes greater amounts to accomplish this and is therefore more costly.
What percentage of lecithin is used in chocolate?
If 3.0 % or 4.0% additional cocoa butter (could be even greater depending on the viscosity of the finished product) is needed to thin down a coating, only 0.5% of lecithin would be needed to get the same result. A little lecithin goes a long way.
However, there is a limit for lecithin. After 0.5%, the reducing effects on viscosity stop and can even start to go the other way and increase the viscosity.
Chocolate manufacturers know just how much to use in each formulation to maximize the advantage in viscosity.
Categories: chocolate Q&A, chocolate education
Tags: chocolate lessons, lecithin
 Every now and again you will come across an article, a chocolate bar, or a chocolate company that will draw attention to Bean To Bar processing.
Bean to bar means quite literally that the product was manufactured from the roasting and grinding of the bean to the tempering and packaging of the chocolate.
What’s so special about claiming to be bean to bar?
Many chocolates are made by purchasing already made chocolate couvertures that get melted down and used for coating or molding into truffles, pralines, or chocolate bars. While there is certainly nothing wrong with buying pre-made chocolate, there are advantages to controlling each step of the process.
Bean selection is critical from a quality standpoint. Cocoa beans that are fermented properly will contain the best flavors to come out during roasting. Creating proprietary bean blends will provide a distinct flavor for the companies’ products.
Roasting beans in-house will ensure a consistent signature flavor profile, and mixing and refining to formula specifications will make smooth, sophisticated chocolates.
Boasting a bean to bar product is something not all chocolate makers can claim. These companies have the strong belief that the quality of their chocolate is the best it can be when they control the entire process from bean to finished product.
You be the judge. Here is a small list of bean to bar chocolate companies to get you started on your tasting journey.
Valrhona
Hachez
Amedei
Cadbury
Nestle
Lindt
Scharffen Berger
Divine
Equal Exchange
Green & Black’s
Categories: chocolate education
Tags: chocolate bars, chocolate lessons, chocolate manufacturing, cocoa beans
I can’t talk about caffeine without mentioning another similar chemical called theobromine. So, I’ll discuss both and even compare some things between them.
There are two chemicals present in chocolate that qualify as stimulants (alkaloid molecules known as methylxanthines), caffeine and theobromine. Theobromine affects people in a similar way to caffeine but is much weaker. Although there is significantly more theobromine in chocolate than caffeine, it triggers these “caffeine affects” on a much smaller scale.
Both caffeine and theobromine occur naturally in cocoa beans. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and makes us feel less drowsy and more alert. Theobromine has stimulant properties but does not act upon the central nervous system. It produces relaxing effects by lowering blood pressure.
According to the Hershey Chocolate company website, a cup of Hershey’s chocolate milk contains 36-45 milligrams (mg) of theobromine and only 3-4 milligrams (mg) of caffeine.
Caffeine is found in varying quantities in coffee, tea, and chocolate. Compared to coffee, however, chocolate has a very small amount. For example, a brewed cup of coffee has between 60–120 mg of caffeine while a cup of hot chocolate has between 4-5 mg. In fact, a cup of hot chocolate (or even chocolate milk) contains the same amount of caffeine as a cup of DECAFFEINATED coffee (1-5 mg).
Since both caffeine and theobromine are found in the cocoa solids, dark chocolate will contain more of these chemicals than milk chocolate. The amount of theobromine in a Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate bar is 184 mg and caffeine is 31 mg. Compare that to the Hershey’s milk chocolate of 74 and 9 respectively.
Categories: chocolate Q&A, chocolate education
Tags: caffeine, chocolate science, grocery product, theobromine
 One of my email subscribers was wondering how chocolate candies made with high water content fillings, like caramel, can seemingly withstand blooming or other adverse effects?
It is true that even the smallest amount of water and chocolate don’t get along. The combination often leads to problems like seizing and sugar bloom. Yet, you can buy chocolate-covered caramels and see for yourself that they look good and tastes good. They have a fairly decent shelf life, too.
So what is the secret for getting this to work?
Let me say, first of all, that it isn’t so much a secret as it is strategy. It is a timing game. How long can we keep nature’s forces at bay because eventually the issues between a high water content filling and the chocolate coating will come to life.
Tip #1 – Find the right caramel formula. During the caramel making process, boiling the ingredients will allow most of the water to evaporate and the remaining water should be trapped among the sugar solids. But this behavior depends on the right recipe. Finding the right formulation will take experimentation and practice.
Tip #2 – Wrap a thick coating of chocolate around the filling to slow down the migration of any water or liquid fat from reaching the surface. You’ll know pretty quickly if the coating is not thick enough because bloom will appear early and the shelf life will be shorter than expected.
Tip #3 – Store and package the final product correctly to prolong the arrival of bloom. It is optimal to store at a room temperature of 70F and 50% relative humidity.
Categories: chocolate Q&A, chocolate education
Tags: bloom, caramel, chocolate questions, working with chocolate
The chocolate world divides cocoa beans into two general categories: Flavor Beans (varieties Criollo or Trinitario) and Bulk Beans (variety Forestero).
 There are some exceptions to this system, but general speaking this is how the cocoa market categorizes cocoa beans.
The percentage of flavor beans in the total world production of cocoa beans is only around 5% per year. Virtually all the cocoa harvested is classified as bulk cocoa.
A pure Criollo variety is rare these days but was the major variety in the 18th century.
Trinitario variety is considered to be a cross between Criollo and Forastero. Trinitario planting started in the country of Trinidad and then spread to Venezuela, Ecuador, Cameroon, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Java and Papua New Guinea.
Some companies are dedicated to restore more Criollo and Trinitario growing farms. Xoco Fine Cocoa Company of Nicaragua is one such entity.
Xoxo’s mission is produce a high quality flavor, consistent flavor bean, bringing back a genotype from superior Criollo/Trinitario varieties.
Categories: chocolate education, fun chocolate facts
Tags: cacao farms, cocoa beans
In the opening post of this series I mentioned that there are three categories of beer that pair well with chocolates.
 The third group of beers include pale, bitter beers, such as India Pale Ales. These also tend to do well when paired with chocolate…
India Pale Ale was created in the 1820’s for the voyages between England and India. The three month voyage would have to cross the equator twice. So not only was the journey long, but it was also quite warm. Since time and high temperatures are bad for beer preservation, typical beers sent to India arrived in very poor condition.
The Pale Ales however were brewed to last up to a couple years. First, the beers are higher in alcohol, a natural preservative. The higher the alcohol content, the longer beer will survive. So the beer is made with a lot of barley malt so the increased starches become sugars and then ferment into alcohol.
Second, more hops are used. Hops, the flowering cone on the hop plant, are also a natural preservative. They make the beer bitter and impart a floral aroma. The more hops you use, the longer the beer will survive, but it will also become more bitter.
With these two factors combined, the beer could better survive the long, warm voyages. Strong, malty, alcoholic and bitter are ways to describe this style. Such beers tend to pair well with malt-flavor truffles, gourmet malt balls, and even a variety of chocolate and nut combinations. The malty flavors pair well together even though the bitterness of the beer and sweetness of the malt are opposites. This creates a contrast that works quite nice.
Pairing chocolate and beer is easier than pairing chocolate and wine, and the outcomes of the pairings are more predictable with beer than they are with wine. Try it for yourself!
Sue Langstaff, a member of the Primal Chocolate Club, has contributed this series about chocolate and beer pairing. Her company Applied Sensory, LLC offers analytical sensory services for the wine, brewing, and food industries.
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate pairings
Tags: beer, chocolate lessons, tasting
I was recently asked about the spread of Cocoa or Cacao trees around the world.
 Cacao is believed to have originated in South America. There is a lot of evidence suggesting that the ancient Maya in Central America were the first to domesticate Theobroma cacao as a crop.
The Aztecs ground cacao into Xocoatl, a chocolate drink used mostly for spiritual and ceremonial rituals.
Hernan Cortés is credited with bringing cacao to Spain where it spread throughout Europe in the 1500’s and 1600’s.
Spanish friars began to grow cacao in Ecuador around 1635. The French introduced cacao to Martinique and St Lucia, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil in the mid to late 1600’s. England started growing it in Jamaica and the Dutch in Curaçao. All of this effort just to meet the ever growing demand for the affluent in Europe.
When demand exploded again in the 1800’s even more had to be cultivated. Cacao from Brazil was taken to Principe and Sao Tomé, islands off the coast of West Africa around 1830. From there, it spread to Nigeria and Ghana.
Today, the largest cacao producing country is Ivory Coast, Africa.
Categories: chocolate education, fun chocolate facts
Tags: cacao tree, chocolate history, cocoa beans, world chocolate
In the opening post of this series I mentioned that there are three categories of beer that pair well with chocolates.
 A second group of beers are the Belgian-style ales…
These beers are typically amber to brown in color, with high alcohol content (often greater than 8%) and are usually quite fruity in their aroma. Candy sugar (like a hard rock candy) may be added to the barley malt to increase the alcohol level without darkening the color or making it too malty.
The beer style is flavorful, yet smooth. The yeast used in these Belgian-style ales has a lot of underlying fruit tones, especially among the Trappist-style dubbels (doubles). As a result you might notice caramel, layers of banana, apple, apricot and peach, with cinnamon, nutmeg, or clove spices.
Fruit-flavored Belgian Lambic beers pair well with 60%+ cacao dark chocolate. The tartness of these fruity beers pairs nicely with the not-too-bitter dark chocolate. For an extra wow factor, combine any berry-flavored truffle or chocolate bar with dried berries and amber ale.
Amber ales are made from barley malt that, in some cases, is called “caramel malt.” This malt doesn’t really taste like caramel, but it does have an inherent sweetness and can give a nutty flavor.
Sue Langstaff, a member of the Primal Chocolate Club, has contributed this series about chocolate and beer pairing. Her company Applied Sensory, LLC offers analytical sensory services for the wine, brewing, and food industries.
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate pairings
Tags: beer, chocolate lessons, tasting
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