Chocolate University Online Blog
We all have our fair share of sickness and sadness. And more often than not, at those certain points in our lives, we cling to our go-to food, our comfort food, and everything just seems better. They make us feel calm, relaxed, and of course, comforted, as they touch our palate.
Chocolates are known to be the universal comfort food. And chocolate’s reputation as a mood-booster makes it a common and appreciated gift, especially to those who are going through tough times, say, breakups.
The term “comfort food”, which was added to the Webster’s Dictionary in 1972, is defined as “food that gives a sense of emotional well-being,” or “any food or drink that one turns to for temporary relief, security or reward.”
Science explains that the brain releases feel-good hormones into the body to compensate for the bad vibes that overpower us in our everyday life like stress, illness, fatigue, among many others. The said hormones are also released in our brains during happy times such as when we hug someone, as bizarre as it may sound.
One’s comfort food is another’s dieting archenemy. We all know how figure-conscious people muster everything they can just to avoid a single scoop of a cold and delightful treat, ice cream, and not just ice cream, but chocolate ice cream. And these figure-conscious people include celebrities.
Apparently, they should be watchful with their weight because all eyes are on them, but not Rihanna. The singer reportedly prefers to eat chocolate ice cream even when she is on a strict exercise regime as she considers it her comfort food, according to her personal trainer, Art Nunez. Even though she is not on a certain diet, she eats healthily, especially when on tour.
Nunez said: “She loves protein-rich foods, water, olives and fruit. She’s in tune to how her body reacts to different foods.” But Nunez knows better as he never deprives Rihanna of this calorific treat as it might lead to disaster.
These comfort foods don’t necessarily have reasons why they give us comfort and uplift our spirits as we eat them, but they do make our lives a little easier and get us back to our sense of self.
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate dessert, ice cream
It’s a new year and there are new chocolate products on their way to your neighborhood. Here are just a few brand new chocolate sensations introduced as 2011 arrived…
Nestle: Cherry Raisinets made with Dark Chocolate
Nestle’s Raisinets has a new variety, dark chocolate covered whole dried cherries. They are available in the candy aisle of supermarkets at a little over $3 for a 4 oz. re-sealable bag.
According to www.raisinets.com, the cherries are plump and tart and the dark chocolate is smooth. They are a natural source of antioxidants and provide ½ serving of real fruit in every ¼ cup.
Baskin-Robbins: Chocolate Escape ice cream
Chocolate Escape is the flavor of the month during January. Baskin-Robbins plans on introducing innovative and decadent flavors each month in 2011.
The VP of Marketing said, “When crafting the first new flavor of 2011, Baskin-Robbins strove to find a unique way to marry many different layers of the ultimate comfort flavor, chocolate, and offer dessert enthusiasts a sumptuous treat that beats the post-holiday blues.”
This new flavor combines Baskin-Robbins Chocolate & Swiss Chocolate ice cream with pieces of chocolate ganache cake and chocolate chunks.
Krispy Kreme: The Dark Chocolate Kreme™ doughnut
Krispy Kreme says: “The Dark Chocolate Kreme™ doughnut has a rich, dark chocolate Kreme™ filling, and is hand-dipped in a delicious dark chocolate icing and then drizzled with chocolate”.
Hurry, these doughnuts are only available until February 14, 2011.
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: Baskin-Robbins, chocolate covered cherries, doughnuts, grocery product, ice cream, Krispy Kreme, nestle
 I noticed something interested the other day while grocery shopping. Breyers has changed its chocolate ice cream. It says so right there on the package, “Now with 33% more real Dutch Cocoa!”
I was intrigued. My scientific self pondered what kind of formulation adjustments had to be made to compensate for the increase in pH from the cocoa (“dutch” means processed with alkali). Don’t laugh, my brain works differently.
I have mentioned in past blog posts why it is necessary to add a Dutch-Processed or Alkalized Processed cocoa powder to dairy products like ice cream and milk. Dutch cocoa is treated with an alkali to neutralize its acids. Acidity has a negative effect on diary – it causes it to curdle.
I know you are dying to know why this happens. When you add acid to milk, let’s say lemon juice for example, the positively charged proteins are attracted to negatively charged caseins and they begin to clump together. When the clumps become big enough to see, we call that curdling. That’s good if you want to make cheese curds, and bad if you want a smooth chocolate ice cream! So in dairy applications, Dutched cocoa has a clear benefit.
I was about to continue on my way down the aisle when my primal self forced me to buy the ice cream (I never argue with myself in matters of food, especially chocolate).
As usual, Breyers did a superb job. The cocoa enhancements really did bring out extra chocolate flavor notes while remaining rich and creamy and velvety smooth.
Enjoy some!
Categories: chocolate education, chocolate review
Tags: chocolate science, dutched cocoa, grocery product, ice cream
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
Try this taste sensation over ice cream to elevate the experience of your taste buds. Your ice cream will taste better than your usual ice cream.
Keep a bag of frozen raspberries on hand for an all year ‘round treat…
Ultimate Raspberry Chocolate Sauce
• 12 ounces frozen raspberries (individually quick-frozen), defrosted
• 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
Puree the raspberries in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, then pass them through a fine strainer. Or pass them through a food mill. Set aside.
In a medium-size heavy saucepan, whisk together the cocoa and heavy cream. Add the butter, sugar, corn syrup, and raspberries and stir until well blended. Place the pan over medium heat and slowly bring the mixture to a boil, stirring often. Once it reaches a boil, let it continue to boil slowly for 8 minutes without stirring. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the sauce into a container.
Let it cool for 15 minutes if serving hot, or cover and refrigerate until needed. It will last for at least 1 month. The sauce may be reheated slowly. Makes 2½ cups. |
Enjoy!
Categories: chocolate recipes
Tags: chocolate sauce, ice cream, raspberries
About a month ago, ice cream retailer Baskin-Robbins retired 5 flavors on their menu. The company wants to make room for new flavors so they put these five into “the deep freeze.”
One of the flavors being retired is Super Fudge Truffle which was introduced in 2007. Superfudge Truffle is a chocolate fudge ice cream with chunks of chocolate ganache and toffee truffle pieces.
In my opinion, you should never retire an ice cream flavor that includes chocolate ganache!
Baskin-Robbins was founded in 1945 by Burton Baskin and Irvine Robbins, a pair of brothers-in-law in California. They have been known for their 31 flavors which stood for a different flavor each day of the month. Over the years, they have created over 1,000 unique flavors.
Baskin-Robbins has a history of creating ice cream flavors with themes of historic events and pop cultural icons, real or fictional.
In the early 60′s when Beatlemania hit the US they created the flavor Beatle Nut. When astronauts landed on the moon there was Lunar Cheesecake. In 2002, Shrek Swirl was inspired by the green ogre from the hit movie, “Shrek.”
I went to the Baskin-Robbins website to find out plans for replacing the five retired flavors, but so far I have come up empty handed. What I’m really dying to know is if they plan on replacing Super Fudge Truffle with another ganache loaded ice cream.
Long Live Chocolate Ice Cream!
(** Even the Baskin-Robbins website show Super Fudge Tuffle with 3 word spelling and the two word Superfudge Truffle. So I used both too.)
Categories: chocolate in the news
Tags: chocolate truffles, ice cream
Summer time is ice cream time – with hot fudge sauce of course!
Wow – it seems there are about as many different recipes for hot fudge sauce as there are types of ice cream to put them on.
From what I can tell (after reviewing many recipes) hot fudge sauce is different from ordinary chocolate sauce in that it’s really a chocolate fudge that never sets. Cream or milk, sugar, and butter are boiled until thickened so that it gets nice and gooey.
I wonder if the first hot fudge sauce was simply a fudge failure?
Fudge making appeared on the scene in American history in the late 19th century. At some point, people began to deliberately make under-cooked fudge and serve it warm over ice cream.
Here are two hot fudge sauce recipes for your eating pleasure. Enjoy!
Hot Fudge Sauce
1/4 cup butter
3 cups sugar
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 tsp salt
1 can evaporated milk
Melt butter and chocolate, then add sugar and salt. Slowly add milk and bring to a rolling boil until thickened. Serve warm over vanilla ice cream.
Microwave Hot Fudge Sauce
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
Mix sugar and cocoa and milk. Stir. Bring to a boil in the microwave. Add butter and continue to boil until butter is completely melted. Serve warm over ice cream. |
Categories: chocolate recipes
Tags: chocolate history, fudge, ice cream, nostalgia
Green and Black’s Organic Chocolate. Have you seen these chocolate bars in the stores and pharmacies of your neighborhood? Green and Black’s is definitely all over London! G&B is an English chocolate company started in 1991. The founders “set out to bring to the masses the world’s first organic chocolate.” You can visit them at www.greenandblacks.com.
 The Green and Black’s 70% Organic Dark Chocolate was the first on the scene. Since then, the product line has expanded to include more varieties of chocolate bars, baking chocolate, hot chocolate, and ice cream.
Yes – Ice Cream!
I just finished a bowl of Green and Black’s Organic Chocolate Ice Cream with bittersweet dark chocolate made with fresh cream. They do not use cocoa powder, they use real dark chocolate. The intense chocolate flavor notes come off at the beginning and last through out the entire mouthful.
There is a short melt in the mouth and that means the chocolate is quick to finish. I wish it wouldn’t. The texture is fluffy and light and perhaps that is what slightly disappoints me. The airiness of the chocolate makes the flavor dissipate too quickly. Overall the flavor is simply delicious and decadent, but over too fast.
I learned that the name Green and Black’s comes from the company’s commitment to both the tradition of great chocolate and the support of responsible farming, thus Green for the environment and Black (or almost black) for the rich color of chocolate.
If you can’t find the ice cream, indulge yourself with a Green and Black’s chocolate bar. You’ll be doing yourself and the planet a favor.
Categories: chocolate review
Tags: chocolate bars, dark chocolate, grocery product, ice cream, organic chocolate
Low fat chocolate ice cream has come a long way. Maybe I’m dating myself, but I remember when lowfat and fat free icecream was first introduced into the marketplace.
 The chocolate ice cream had little chocolate flavor and tons of sweetness which was not worth eating as far as I was concerned. Over the years things have changed (thank goodness!!!!) and now I can enjoy a great tasting light icecream.
For example, after a couple BLT’s (with turkey bacon for less fat) and a glass of Pinot Grigio, I was in the mood for a chocolate dessert (what else?). Dean’s makes a Country Churn Light Chocolate Ice Cream that is delicious and is a reduced fat version.
The cocoa used in this ice cream is processed with alkali (dutched) which is what I would expect in an ice cream. Dutched cocoa is used to produce a deep brown color and reduces the acidity so that the cream (milk protein) in the ice cream doesn’t clump.
Although dutching reduces the overall chocolate impact it does impart a less bitter chocolate flavor which is quite compatible with the sweet creaminess of ice cream.
So, my impression of this ice cream is quite favorable. I really enjoyed the formulation, but more importantly I did not have to sacrifice flavor to reduce my intake of fat. As far as I am concerned no reduction in fat is ever worth loss of chocolate flavor, but when I can have flavor with less fat I am a happy woman!
Categories: chocolate review
Tags: chocolate dessert, grocery product, ice cream
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