Various Kinds of Chocolate

Various Kinds of Chocolate

A variety of chocolates can be produced depending upon what is added to the chocolate liquor, also known as liquefied cocoa butter. Depending upon what flavors have been added, every chocolate acquires a distinct make-up. Some chocolate flavours are also obtained by varying the time and temperature during roasting of the beans.It helps to learn that different chocolates react differently to heat and moisture. You must follow the storing instructions on the chocolate cover to keep your chocolates fresh and crisp?.just the way they are meant to be.

Unsweetened chocolate

It is also known as baking chocolate. Unsweetened chocolate contains chocolate liquor in its purest form. The mixture has a strong and rich chocolaty flavour. It is generally used in recipes for cakes, brownies, confections and cookies.

Dark Chocolate

Some chocolate lover?s favorite, the dark chocolate does not use milk in its processing. It is also known as bitter chocolate and usually has a concentration of 15-35 per cent of chocolate liquor

Milk chocolate

Milk chocolate uses milk powder or condensed milk. The chocolate liquor is mixed with cocoa butter, milk, sugar and vanilla. It is the most popular eating chocolate.

Semisweet Chocolate

Semisweet chocolate is mostly used in preparations and recipes. It contains chocolate liquor, extra cocoa butter and sugar. Sweet cooking chocolate is alike with a difference of more quantity of sugar.

Bittersweet Chocolate

Bittersweet chocolate is prepared using chocolate liquor, sugar, extra cocoa butter, lecithin and vanilla. It has more liquor than semisweet chocolate and is less sweet. The best quality bittersweet and semisweet chocolates are produced as couverture. One golden rule for bittersweet chocolate is that higher the percentage of cocoa, less sweet the chocolate will be.

Couverture

Couverture is a popular term that has been used for chocolates that have generous proportions of cocoa butter that can go as high as 70 per cent. The fat contents are comparitively much lower.

White chocolate is a confection using cocoa butter without the cocoa solids.

Cocoa powder

You will find two distinct types of unsweetend baking cocoa?natural and Dutch-processed cocoa. The process is called pulverisation. Semi-defatened chocolate liquor is pulverised to remove cocoa butter. The difference lies in the color. While natural cocoa is light with an acidic strong chocolaty flavor that is crude and hits the taste buds. The Dutch cocoa is much milder with a rich colour. Dutch-process cocoa is used for producing chocolate drinks like hot chocolate as it is much easier to blend with fluids.

Nowadays, chocolates come in a variety of flavors and ingredients like almonds, nuts, peanet and caramel adding to the rich unforgettable taste of crunchy chocolate. Chocolates carry so much more than flavor?.they carry a history marked with discovery, secrecy, trading and the undying craze. No wonder, chocolates still rule palates and are considered the best gift for one and all.

Chocolate Lovers

Chocolate Lovers

Nothing can compare to the experience of tasting a delectable bar of chocolate. There are many events that go into the history of chocolate and for chocolate fans, the journey gets all the more exciting with each chapter. Since centuries, chocolate has been welcomed with smiles. You simply can?t go wrong with chocolates and it makes a special gift for friend, colleagues, relatives and family.

There are many popular chocolate brands that have left chocolate lovers satisfied for years. There are many manufacturers and hand-made chocolate confectioners all over the world. Following are just a few from the huge list of popular chocolate makers,

Cacao Chocolates
Burdick Chocolate
Bridgewater Chocolate
Bissinger French Confections
Candinas Chocolatier
Chocolate Connoisseur
Cocoa Bella Chocolates
Elk Candy Company
Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
Godiva
Linda Grishman Chocolates
Harbor Sweets
H餩ard
Jacques Torres Chocolate
Jean-Paul H鶩n Chocolatier
Knipschildt Chocolatier
Lake Champlain Chocolates
Len?
Leonidas
Mendocino Chocolate Company
Neuhaus
Nirvana Chocolates
Plan败 Chocolat
Saratoga Chocolates
Teuscher
Valentino Chocolatier
Chocolate lovers are often seen seeking new chocolate recipes. Here is one of the most popular and easy recipe for preparing a layered Chocolate cake

Layered Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

? cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
? cup buttermilk
? tsp vanilla
? lb softened butter
1 beaten egg
1 cup cake flour
? tsp baking soda
? tsp salt
2 oz chocolate, bittersweet
? cup heavy cream
? tsp vanilla
First of all, preheat the oven or microwave to 375 degree F. Then butter and flour two six-inch rounded layer cake pans. Beat ? cup sugar, cocoa, ? cup buttermilk and vanilla together. Set aside.

Mix softened butter and ? cup sugar in another bowl and beat the mixture till it turns creamy with a consistent lather. Add beaten egg by pouring a little at a time. Beat until smooth and then add cocoa mixture and beat.

You can now mix flour, soda and salt and sift it together. Add ? of this mixture to the butter/cocoa mixture and beat. Beat in ? cup buttermilk. Now it is time to beat second half of the dry ingredients.

Pour batter into the greased pans and bake at 375 F. You can check the cake after 30 minutes. Allow the cake to cool on its own.

Split in half and fill the with desired filling.

For Glazing: Place the top of double boiler in boiling water. As you do so, take care not to let the top touch the water. You can add bittersweet chocolate and vanilla to the top pan. Stir concsistently until the chocolate melts. Stir, cool and pour over cake. Your layered chocolate cake is ready to be served.

We hope you the chocolate lover in you keeps discovering new recipes and best chocolates available online. Wishing you many fond years of chocolate eating?bon appetite.

After the emulsifying, the mixture goes through a tempering interval heating, cooling and reheating process. The last it is put into moulds to be customized into specific shape. The moulds are made of unique shapes and sizes. The history and process of chocolate making often lead people to cherishing the valuable delicacy more than ever before.

How Chocolate is Prepared

How Chocolate is Prepared

After taking a glimpse at the history of chocolate, we can now turn our attention to chocolate preparation. The process is laborious and takes many pains to finally turn into your favorite bar of eating chocolate. The origin of cocoa beans is very important as regional cocoa beans have their own distinct taste. The end product is what makes it a deciding factor for selection of cocoa bean. Bean segregation starts as the very first step in chocolate making.

It is important to note that manufacturing of chocolate is specific to every cocoa variety of plant. However, there are a few generalized processes that are followed in chocolate preparation. Following are the common processes every chocolate manufacturer undertakes,

Cleaning and Blending

Even before the blending process begins, coffee beans are stored carefully to avoid any odd mangling of flavours. The area for coffee storage is generally away and secluded as coffee beans are sensitive to aromas. After segregation, a machine cleans the cocoa beans by filtering cocoa pulp, pod and other dirt particles.

The most primary factor that determines the taste is the selection of coffee beans. After thorough cleaning, the beans are weighed and blended as per the company regulations. Generally, the blending is done based upon experience and the desirable chocolate product. The next process brings out the rich chocolaty aroma, which is so popular worldwide.

Roasting

Appropriate roasting gives a rich flavour to the coffee beans. Roasting is normally a half to 2 hour long process. The beans are roasted in large revolving cylinders. The temperature varies depending upon the desired chocolate. The beans are roasted at 250 degrees F and even higher sometimes. At this stage, the beans lose all its moisture and turn a dark and rich brown. The lingering aroma of roasted cocoa beans can be compared to a few fine aromas in the world. The beans are cooled and their shells are removed using cracker and fanners, a machine that winnows the beans while they pass through the cones, cracking them. A chain of mechanical sieves segregates the pieces while the fans blow away the unwanted shells. The roasted nibs contain 53 percent cocoa butter, which is then conveyed to mills, where they are crushed using large grinding stones along with the help of heavy steel discs. This process leads to liquefied form of cocoa butter, popular as chocolate liquor. For bitter chocolate, the liquid is poured into moulds to solidify the cakes.

Most chocolate manufacturers follow the same process till this point. There are different by-products of cocoa like cocoa butter, vegetable fat that determine the flavour. Depending upon the desired chocolate product, the process takes different forms. Generally it is the proportion of chocolate liquor that varies in different varieties of chocolates in addition to flavours and ingredients.

Preparation of Cocoa Powder

Chocolate liquor is pumped into a massive hydraulic press and pressure is applied. This results in fat drainage in the form of yellow liquid. The fats are collected for use in chocolate manufacturing. Cocoa butter is so important in the chocolate production that it can be easily said that no chocolate would taste the way it does, without it.

The pressed cakes after removing the cocoa butter are cooled and pulverised and then sifted to cocoa powder. The "Dutch" process of manufacturing treats the cocoa with an alkali to develop a slightly distinct flavor. It gives the cocoa a darker appearance, a mark of Dutch processing.

Eating Chocolate

Eating chocolate is made by adding cocoa butter. Dark and bitter sweet, all chocolates preparations use cocoa butter that enhances the flavor while making the chocolate more flowing. Sweet chocolate makes use of sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter and a little vanilla. The contents are melted and mixed using a machine till the dough gains the desired consistency. Milk chocolate is also mixed like sweet chocolate while using less unsweetened chocolate and by adding milk to concoction.

The mixture goes through a series of heavy rollers set one atop the other. Under the grinding that takes place here, the mixture is refined to a smooth paste ready for "conching." Conching is a process involving kneading of chocolate for flavor. The process has derived the name from shell-shaped containers. The conches are equipped with heavy rollers that knead the chocolate mass. The process may take a few hours or days. Under regulated speeds, these rollers generate different degrees of shake-ups and aeration essential for developing and modifying the chocolate flavours.

After the emulsifying, the mixture goes through a tempering interval heating, cooling and reheating process. The last it is put into moulds to be customized into specific shape. The moulds are made of unique shapes and sizes. The history and process of chocolate making often lead people to cherishing the valuable delicacy more than ever before.

After the emulsifying, the mixture goes through a tempering interval heating, cooling and reheating process. The last it is put into moulds to be customized into specific shape. The moulds are made of unique shapes and sizes. The history and process of chocolate making often lead people to cherishing the valuable delicacy more than ever before.

Enjoy With Chocolates

History of Chocolate

A few experiences wrap as much pleasure as a piece of delicious chocolate. The vivacious story of chocolate from historical times finds roots in the Mayan civilization of Yucatan. Facts point to cacao tree that is believed to have been discovered 2,000 years ago in the tropical rainforests of the Americas.

It is also believed that the Aztecs of Mexico who cultivated cocoa crops also began consuming cocoa beans with a unique preparation called Chocolat. A popular myth says that Emperor Montezuma drank 50 or more portions of bitter Chocolat daily! The first written evidence also leads us to the times of Columbus. The myth goes around that the Court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in Spain had their first glimpse of chocolate when Columbus, after his return from the Americas, presented them with brown cocoa beans along with many valuables. The beans that looked like almonds did not initially stir any interest. These were cocoa beans, our source today to chocolate and cocoa.

It is known that Don Cotes recognized the commercial value of cocoa as a delectable drink. It is noted that he introduced cocoa beans to Europe. To make the concoction more enjoyable to Europeans, Cortez sweetened the drink with cane sugar. He sent back some chocolate preparation recipes and Spanish cocoa beans. Linnaeus, a botanist from Sweden is also credited with plantation of cocoa. He named the genus ?theobroma? which means the food of gods. The Aztecs of Mexico are also known to believe in mystical origin of the cocoa tree.

Spaniards did not find the bitter version of Chocolat delightful enough. They sweetened the drink using cane sugar. The popularity of the cocoa drink in Spain eventually led to its secret cultivation and preparation. Historical evidence points at Spaniards cultivated cocoa in an isolated area in Trinidad in an attempt to keep it a secret from rest of the world. The Spanish later started growing cocoa in West Indies and also in Philippines. It is interesting to discover that the Spanish kept the art of the cocoa production a secret from the rest of Europe for about a century.

The popularity of the chocolate drink was soon to reach the corners in Italy, France and parts of Holland, till it finally arrived in England in 1600. The drink was expensive and became popular in elite class. The 18th century saw commercialization of the popular drink and the prices began to drop in Bristol in England. Sir J.S. Fry set up the first commercial factory of chocolate in 1728.

The discovery of solid cubes of chocolate is not very ancient. An English company in 1847 is accredited with production of ?eating chocolate? with the use of fondant chocolate with a smooth and velvety look. However, the full-fledged production of chocolate is traced back to 1765 in New England. Till then, grained chocolate dominated the world market. One significant development took place in Vevey in Switzerland in the year 1876. Switzerland?s Daniel Peter discovered a way of adding milk to chocolate, the crude version of today?s popular milk chocolate that we enjoy so much.

There are many amusing facts related to the history of chocolate. From the first bitter drink to a refined version of chocolate, the world of chocolate lovers has many chapters to reveal and amuse itself. However, chocolate by any name tastes just as delicious and rich as the name goes?