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.

This presents an excellent technical lesson in working with chocolate.

The issue is moisture.

“Curdle” is not the correct term, but I think the idea is clear – chocolate will not function properly if moisture is introduced.  Even the tiniest drop of water is problematic.  When water and chocolate mix, it will “seize.”

Fresh fruit, including the peel of an orange, is moist and adding it to a chocolate coating spells disaster.  For this reason, chocolate candy bars use dried fruit, candied fruit, or an oil based flavoring.

You can cheat a little (and get away with it) by adding a fruit zest or juice to a ganache and then enrobing the ganache in chocolate.  If the candy is eaten within a few days, the moisture captured in the creamy center should not be a problem.  Truffles tolerate this process the best.  Don’t add the moisture to the coating.  Instead, add it to the candy center.

Another common problem arises when dipping fresh strawberries in chocolate.  Make sure you dry the outer skin completely before covering in chocolate.  This will buy you some time before the moisture makes it way through the fruit and to the surface of the chocolate coating.  When this happens, the moisture will destroy the appearance (with bloom) and texture (making it bumpy or grainy) of the surrounding chocolate.

The U.S. FDA has produced formal standards of identity that legally define chocolate and all its related ingredients and by-products.  But, read through all that and you will discover there is nothing that defines the “quality” of chocolate. 

Of course there are standards of “Quality Assurance” within each processing step of making chocolate.  These control standards start with the cocoa bean and follow through to the finished product.  But following these rules means that pretty much any final chocolate available for purchase could be defined as being a “quality” chocolate.

So the real definition of quality in chocolate is pretty subjective, and it depends on who you talk to and what product you are referring to.  Here’s an example…  In this case let’s say you consider me your favorite chocolate guru (wow, it’s great you admit that!) and you ask me what I consider as quality in a truffle.

I would say that a quality chocolate truffle tastes fresh, is hand rolled or hand molded, and feels velvety smooth in my mouth.  Mmm.  But ask someone else and you may get a completely different answer.

And that’s just an answer for a truffle.  I would not have the same quality factors when considering a solid chocolate bar.

Taking a look from a consumer prospective, there are some guidelines that indicate quality…

Flavor preferences aside, I believe every type of quality chocolate should include:

1. a good appearance (gloss and sheen, no bloom)
2. a clean snap (showing proper temper)
3. an even melt (proper cocoa butter to cocoa solids ratio)
4. expected flavor delivery (in other words, no off-flavors)
   1. if milk chocolate it should deliver milk and chocolate flavors
   2. if dark chocolate it should deliver components of the blended or single origin flavors
5. satisfaction (I would buy it again)

For the most part, “quality” is a real good marketing term.  Truly, any chocolate company can claim their products are high quality, gourmet, and/or premium.  As long as there is an agreement among the customers that the chocolate meets their personal definitions of “high quality” then I suppose their claims can be true.

A good rule of thumb:  quality chocolate is chocolate at its best.

The first group for pairing includes dark beers such as porters and stouts…

These beers are made using a good deal of roasted or burnt barley malt.  In fact, one of the burnt barley malts is even called “chocolate malt.”  It doesn’t really have any chocolate in it, but rather the malt has been roasted or kilned until it acquires more of a chocolaty color.

“Chocolate stout” is a name brewers will sometimes give to certain stouts that have a noticeable dark chocolate flavor through the use of chocolate malt.  In some cases, to give a real chocolate flavor, the beers are brewed with a small amount of actual chocolate; this can impart a powdered cocoa flavor or a creamy, dark, bittersweet chocolate flavor. 

Brewers will also use a good deal of pale malt and some caramel malt in making porters and stouts.  These beers provide roasted, toasted, caramel and coffee-like flavors that match well with any chocolate, especially a caramel truffle, a chocolate turtle with caramel and nuts, or a caramel-infused dark milk chocolate bar. 

Strong stouts, especially Imperial stouts, can provide perfect matches to chocolate desserts.  Classic dry Irish stouts such as Guinness are not a good match because they don’t have the proper intensity.  Another stout that doesn’t work well is a Cream Stout.  It’s simply too sweet due to the addition of lactose, causing a conflict with the sweetness of the dessert.  Instead, you should find a beer that offers a little break from the sweetness of the dessert.

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.

If you are not familiar with s’mores, it is like a marshmallow and chocolate sandwich with the bread replaced with graham crackers.  First roast a marshmallow skewered on the end of a long stick or fork over the coals of a camp fire or grill. 

Meanwhile put a piece of chocolate on a graham cracker.  After the marshmallow turns a golden brown, you pull it off the stick, place it on top of the chocolate, and top with another graham cracker.  The warm marshmallow melts the chocolate and voilà! a s’more is born.

No one is certain when or who invented the s’more.  The accepted idea is that the Girl Scouts made “Some Mores” at Girl Scout Camp back in the 1920’s.

Here’s my theory:  someone forgot it was a bad idea taking candy bars camping during the summer heat and the whole lot melted before dessert time.  Because the dim-witted person was also frugal, there was a strong need not to waste the chocolate.

This is how chocolate and I get along in the heat…  If I purchase a gift of chocolate from my favorite chocolate shop during summer, I go into game show contestant mode.  The game is called “Get Home Before It Melts.”

If I succeed, I declare myself the winner and treat myself to some chocolate (go figure! ).   There is strategy involved.  I have to pick the most efficient route home, and I must place the chocolate directly under the AC vent on the floor of my car with it blowing full blast.  I yell at all the drivers to get out of my way as I precariously drive the line between speeding and simply going slightly over the limit.

Back to s’mores.  The real reason I bring this up today is because of an article I read from Global Exchange.  They remind us to use fair trade chocolate when making our s’mores this summer.  No, sad to say, Hershey is not fair trade, so what this really means is that you might have to step out of your flavor comfort zone and explore a new taste while supporting the fair trade initiative.

To learn more about their project, visit this website: www.globalexchange.org/smoresaction.

The Fair Trade chocolate model is intended to ensure cacao farmers receive a fair price for their harvest. Fair trade seeks to create more trade links between farmer and buyer with the intent of eliminating the “middleman.”

It is about sustainability, responsible farming, and supplying a community of growers with better education, health care, and the elimination of child and slave labor.  It all sounds like good stuff.

You know the chocolate you are buying is fair trade certified when you see it on the label.

Importers and manufacturers have the opportunity to buy from Fair Trade certified
farms.  The number is still small, but it is growing.

To be certified fair trade, a farmer or co-op must comply with certain standards and inspections.  In return, the farmer or co-op gets a better price for their beans.  Getting cacao farms to comply, and manufacturers to source only certified beans, is not a quick and easy process.  

Imagine for a moment that you commit to eating only certified organic and fair trade foods.  Your commitment would bring about a change in where you buy your food, the amount of money you spend on the food, and the availability of certain foods.  Perhaps your choices would be limited so there is a change in diet.  Some of your favorite foods may not be on the “list.”  Clearly your commitment would not be easy. 

It is similar in the chocolate world.  Committing to Fair Trade is not impossible, but it requires changes in the way things are done. 

When the process changes, the end product can change.  Perhaps that is why a common complaint I hear is that the flavor gap between fair trade and non-fair trade chocolates is noticeable.  Sometimes it is enough to discourage purchasing of that fair trade item. 

To the credit of the fair trade effort, I believe this gap has been decreasing over the years, and flavor improvements have been vast. 

I do believe that chocolate companies, large and small, do commit to one thing:  sourcing good quality ingredients to make the best chocolate possible.  In the future, I hope that commitment includes fair-trade practices.

Tannins in red wine can make dark chocolates seem more bitter, and the acidity in wines often does not  balance well with the chocolate.  Because of the variation in wine styles, even within varietals, it’s often difficult to generalize about ideal wine and chocolate pairings.

This is not the case for beer!

Beer is every bit as complex as wine, perhaps more so.  There are more than 60 recognized styles of beer.  Styles of beer include stout, porter, India pale ale, bock, Oktoberfest, amber ale, lager, and many more.

While each style is unique, most brewers create beers within the style guidelines for that beer type.  Beers within a style are recognizable cousins of each other, unlike wines within a wine varietal.

One of the things that makes a chocolate and beer tasting great is the fact that it is unusual, yet it works!  Even people who say they don’t like beer, often do like chocolate so everyone can enjoy the event.  Serious beer aficionados can find toasty, caramel, toffee, roasted, chocolate, coffee and fruity notes in beer.  All these same notes can be found in chocolate.

Through years of experimentation, beer drinkers have discovered that a number of different beer styles can pair well with the unique flavors in, and sweetness of, chocolate.

Three general categories of beers usually do well when paired with a range of chocolate selections.  We’ll take a look at each of these categories in upcoming posts.

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.

Inferior?  No.

Not as “in”?  Yes.

People that work in the chocolate world do not view milk chocolate as inferior to dark.  A good quality milk chocolate is just as complex in flavor as a good quality dark chocolate. 

One might argue that the milk chocolate enthusiast is at a disadvantage when it comes to experiencing the undiluted flavors of cacao.  Still, bringing forth layers of toffee and honey flavors from a precisely conched (cooked) milk chocolate is an art form.

It really comes down to your flavor profile preferences.

However, there is no disputing the fact that right now, at this moment in time, dark chocolate is The Chosen One.  Chocolate manufacturers and the press inundate consumers with messages that dark chocolate is not only better in flavor, but is better for us. 

From this point of view I can see how the “chocolate world” makes it look as if milk chocolate is inferior (and sends the milk chocolate lover into hiding).
 
Not too long ago, the opposite was true.  People had difficulty appreciating dark chocolate and it was also difficult to find. 

In the past plenty of my friends learned that my favorite chocolate contained 70% cacao and they screwed up their faces in disgust.  “How can you stand that bitter stuff?” they would ask me.  “That reminds me of the time I ate a piece of my mom’s baking chocolate out of desperation.  I could just gag!”

So, the pendulum swings back and forth.

In spite of trends, within the sphere of chocolatiers and artisans, there will always be respect and appreciation for great chocolate no matter the color.

Now that you’re caught up, here are my Extra Special Helpful Hints when working with chocolate molds.

1. Cool at room temperature…
   I do not recommend using either a refrigerator or freezer to cool the pieces.  These cool the chocolate too fast and they are too cold for crystals to form properly on the surface of the chocolate.  Colder chocolate will not be as shiny as chocolate cooled at room temperature.
    
2. Place the chocolate in front of a fan while cooling…
   This will remove the heat quickly and reduce the surrounding humidity to promote the best gloss, set, and snap.  (Be careful not to operate the fan at too high a speed.  You don’t want to blow debris onto the chocolate.)
    
3. Invert a cookie sheet or use a wire rack for cooling…
   This will allow heat to disperse evenly from all sides.  This is particularly important if you are using a flat mold.  The design or shape of the mold is face down as you pour and cool the chocolate.  It is common to have chocolate stick to the face of the mold if it remains flat against the counter or table while cooling. The trapped heat melts the surface crystals and sends the chocolate out of temper.
    
4. Use a mold at room temperature…
   Do not cool the mold or heat the mold at any time during the process.  Warm molds can soften the surface of the chocolate as it cools.  This promotes Fat Bloom that can appear quickly or as late as 24 hours later.  Cold molds can shock the surface crystals and make a dull looking chocolate piece.
    
5. Do not coat the inside of the mold with oil or fat or a “releasing agent”…
   Sure, adding a coating inside the mold sounds like a really good idea.  But, these products will interfere with the temper of the chocolate.  So while it might make it easier to remove your chocolate you would sacrifice shine and your nice temper in the process.
    
6. Clean the mold with hot water, NO soap, and dry really, really well…
   Soap can leave a layer of residue that will interfere with crystallization.  A moist mold can cause the chocolate to seize and turn into a hard, crumbly mess.
    
7. Avoid condensation…
   Condensation happens when chocolate is removed from a cold environment and begins to warm up to room temperature.  Little droplets of moisture will form on the surface of the chocolate as its temperature rises.  The moisture will dissolve a small amount of sugar from the chocolate’s surface.  After the water droplets evaporate, the sugar that is left behind forms a thin dusting of white powder on the chocolate. This is called Sugar Bloom.

There you have it.  Keep these hints in mind and  your molding success rate will go way up!

Most chocolate molds are made of either metal or plastic. They can be flat, to shape chocolate like a candy bar, or three dimensional, to shape like an Easter bunny.

If you are a beginner at working with chocolate, start with a flat plastic mold with small cavities of simple shapes.  You can buy these at craft stores or baking/candy supply stores or online at a number of candy-making supply websites.

Here are some tips for molding chocolate…

1. Temper your chocolate.  (If you need a refresher on tempering, please refer to my earlier chocolate tempering blog post.)
    
2. Pour the tempered chocolate into the mold using a tablespoon or pastry bag to fill the cavities.  Fill slightly over the rim.  Don’t worry about spilling a little over the top.  After the mold is filled, gently tap it to level the chocolate at the top.  Carefully drop the mold on the counter or table several times.  This will remove air bubbles that are trapped in the chocolate.
    
3. Scrape excess chocolate off using a spatula.  Sometimes I use a clean plastic ruler (the same kind children use in school) as a straight edge to remove the excess chocolate.
    
4. It is best to cool your chocolate at 65-70° F in a room with good air
   circulation and low relative humidity (50% or less).
    
5. Release the chocolate from the mold.  The chocolate will contract or pull away from the edges when it is ready to be popped out.  Reverse the mold over a flat, clean surface and press firmly on the sides of the mold with your fingers or tap lightly on the counter.  The chocolates should just fall out.  If they don’t, let the mold cool for a few more minutes and try again.

Coming soon, I’ll provide you with some extra helpful tips when working with molded chocolates…