Call Back The Chocolate
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Today we call back the past, look at what we’ve written about chocolate in the past year and then add to it to create a truly chocolate bonanza. The first evidence of chocolate was discovered by archeologists at the end of 2007 at Puerto Escondido in Honduras. It dated back to 1100 – 1400 BC and it seems that the white pulp around the cacao beans was used as an alcoholic drink at first because it was such good source of fermentable sugar. In 400 AD the Mayans were growing trees near their homes and made a bitter drink (xocatl) from it - it was used for both every day life and ornate ceremonies.
They believed it kept them awake and was considered an important luxury at first and later even used as currency and to cure diarrhea and the the Aztecs taxed it and made a chocolate drink called nahuatl. Then the Spanish arrived, slaughtered most of the Aztecs and soon introduced it to the Europeans where it became wildly popular very soon. A thriving trade soon developed and despite the use of African and Mid-American slaves to cut costs to a bare minimum, it remained a pricey commodity, used by the rich and the doctors for medicinal purposes at first as it was very scarce. The first chocolate house was opened by a Frenchman in London only in the mid 1600’s which illustrates the time it took to become commercialized. However, with the industrial revolution machines were developed that ensured cheaper and quicker production and that gave more people access to this incredible bean. Today there are many kinds of chocolate, but one can divide it roughly into:
- Milk chocolate is rich in sugar, cocoa butter and milk solids has a minimum of 15% chocolate liquor for the Americans and 35% for the Europeans.
- Dark chocolate is produced by adding cocoa butter and sugar to the cacao mixture (a liquid obtained which is the beans are fermented and after they’ve been dried quickly to prevent mould). Cocoa beans are cleaned, roasted, ‘smashed’ and the shells are removed to obtain the nibs. The nibs, are also ground and melted and this is how the cocoa butter and the chocolate liquor is made! It is a rich source of antioxidants and thought to reduce the possibility of a heart attack if we eat it often enough in small quantities.
- Cooking chocolate – pure chocolate liquid, unadulterated chocolate that has a strong, deep chocolate flavour.
- White chocolate is obtained by adding milk solids, usually vanilla and sugar to the cocoa butter/cocoa liquor mix – because there’s no theobromine in the white chocolate, animals should be able to eat it – but, please see your vet for confirmation.
Chocolate goes through quite a few processes, but two main processes to get it ready for the market: conching and tempering.
- A conche is a container of metal beads, that grinds the chocolate so that the refined and blended chocolate mix is in liquid form. Before conching it is gritty and the process makes the cocoa and sugar particles so miniscule and smooth that they’re not felt by the tongue.
- In the final process, the chocolate is tempered to prevent crystallization – should the cocoa butter crystallize out of control, crystals of differing sizes will form that make the chocolate seem mottled and matted and the chocolate will crumble when a piece is broken off, the snap not audible – dull, grey chocolate isn’t appetizing!
FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
Ingredients
- 400g Lindt 75% dark chocolate (of course you can use another brand)
- 6 large eggs
- 95g very dark sugar (muscovado is best)
- 2 tablespoons good brandy
- 25g thick cream
Method
Preheat oven to 180 C
- Grease and line spring-form cake tin.
- Melt chocolate the way you normally do and allow to cool.
- Now break the eggs into a heat-proof dish over a pan of simmering water.
- Add the brandy and sugar and whisk madly until it doubles in size
- Take off heat and fold in cooled chocolate, then the thick cream and mix well
- Put the mixture in prepared tin, place right at the bottom of the oven in a roasting pan filled half way with hot water.
- This steam helps to cook it evenly.
- Bake for 40 minutes until skewer comes out clean.
- The timing is essential and because each oven differs, the first time is nerve wracking!
- The cake is versatile so serve as the moment requires or with whipped cream or berries or both.
COINTREAU CHOCOLATE TART
Ingredients
450 Lindt chocolate – 75% cocoa solids
250 ml milk
225g softened unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
175 g fine castor sugar
60 ml Cointreau (Grand Marnier is just as good)
Blind baked sweet, short-crust shell
Shaved dark chocolate shavings – use a thick slab or block to make good shavings
Unsweetened cocoa powder to garnish
Method
- Pour milk into a heavy-based pot on very low heat, add chocolate and stir constantly until chocolate just melts
- Remove from stove and stir until both are well blended, setting aside to cool
- Cream butter and sugar until light and pale, using electric mixer and add yolks, one by one and whisk very well
- Whisk the chocolate mixture into the cream and butter mixture and finally whisk in the Cointreau
- Pour the filling into the blind baked shell and chill until set.
- Garnish with more chocolate, dusted cocoa.
- Serve with cream on the side if you wish.
A massive tourist industry has grown around chocolate and much needed funds are starting to trickle into the cocoa producing countries that, after centuries of economic abuse, are starting to spend money on their own future – their children.
COCOA BEANS
The biggest producers of cocoa beans are from Brazil and Africa (more particularly the Ivory Coast.) The best come from Central and Southern America and the best of the best from Hawaii. Chocolate is one of the most important things in all our lives – imagine a world without it!
- Criollos (as per our earlier article) come from rather fussy trees that need loads of care, but they are special and they produce almost perfumed and slightly bitter chocolate.
- Forasteros are divided into many categories and they are found all over the world. What’s really great about them is that produce a bean that reflects the flavour of the area in which it grows because the cocoa bean itself has a more neutral taste.
- Trinitarios are hybrids, natural hybrids of the Criollos and the Forasteros and that means that they have characteristics of both beans – they produce gorgeously bitter and complex chocolates that are a must for any chocoholic.
- Nacionals are dying out and are becoming more and more rare – they produce exquisite, fine chocolate named ‘arriba‘.
Chocolate manufacturers have encouraged good quality for years which has led to grand cru production (see the Amedei range) and managed to give the consumer a chocolate that is infused with the flavours of the areas in which it grows, thus providing us with a variety to choose from.
COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN
- MADAGASCAR is still relatively underdeveloped but they produce rather aromatic chocolates that are becoming more readily available to those that are prepared to pay.
- IVORY COAST chocolates are delicious with smoky, nutty tones but a single origin is very rare – often the chocolates are mixed with beans from São Tomé, Nigeria, Cameroon and even the Congo – the latter producing a reasonably good bean lately, albeit rarely.
- GHANA produces an excellent chocolate – thick, rich and classy – certainly worth trying and good in a blend.
- MEXICO is where chocolate originated and they still produce delicate, fine and smooth chocolate as does Costa Rica.
- VENEZUELA brings very dark, strong but aromatic grand crus to the table as does Colombia and Ecuador.
- BRAZIL produces huge amounts of usually bitter but fruity chocolate.
- THE CARRIBEAN ISLANDS includes (for the purpose of my purpose here) Jamaica (with her outstanding grand crus), Grenada, Haiti and Martinique who all deserve mention in this article.
- ASIA AND THE ISLANDS a little sharp but the Javanese produce an aromatic, full, round cru most certainly worth trying.
- As promised, here’s our recipe for
CHOCOLATE DACQUOISES
Ingredients
4 large egg whites
50 g chopped hazelnuts
130 g ground hazelnuts
30 g bitter cacao
50 caster sugar
150 g icing sugar – plus some for dusting
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 160 C
Line the baking sheet with parchment paper
- Put the ground hazelnuts, icing sugar and the cacao in a mixing bowl and whisk at high speed for about 10 seconds.
- Whisk the egg whites to soft peak stage, add the caster sugar and whisk for about 1 minute.
- Fold this into the hazelnut mixture where the egg white mixture will collapse a little and the meringue will become ribbony.
- Put the whole mixture into a piping bag (you can easily make on yourself at home) and simply pipe 20 dacquoises.
- Make sure you space them evenly on the parchment paper.
- Sprinkle them with the chopped hazelnuts and then bake for about 12 minutes – but check the oven as a hot oven may require a little less time.
- Take out of the oven and allow to cool.
- Peel of the baking sheet and sprinkle with icing sugar.
CHOCOLATE MAKERS AND CHOCOLATIERS
Making chocolate is an art and the skill and knowledge that goes into bean selection takes years of dogged determination, knowledge accumulation and the soul of an artis. Each chocolate maker must absorb over 200 years of knowledge before even begining to select the best beans, roasting them by hand and mixing them to get a couverture unique to the chocolate maker. In 1945, Maurice Bernachon, aged 26, opened the Bernachon Chocolate Factoryin Lyons, after having studied chocolate making since the age of 14. The Bernachon factory is still going strong and is famous all over the world. Modern chocolate making started in 1660 when Debauve, was appointed the “Royal Chocolate Maker“, by the French King Louis XIV, shortly after he had received a wedding gift of chocolate from his wife Marie Therese. Debauve’s family continued making chocolate and opened world famous chocolate shops, totaling 60 by 1804! In 1823 the name of his shops changed to Debauve & Gaillais. Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X also appointed the Debauve family Official Chocolatiers of the French Court and so continuing the tradition. Although Sulpice Debauve died in 1836, his legacy still continues with the company he founded in 1804. We need to salute the French for starting an industry that has become world famous and frankly, one without which many lives would not be the same. The first chocolate factory, the Chocolaterie Royale opened in 1776 and from that day forward, the great masters started making chocolate - Meunier in France; Lindt, Nestle & Suchard in Switzerland, Van Houten in the Netherlands and Fry & Rowntree in England. Rotterdam became the centre of cocoa beans but if you wanted to consult with the experts, you went to Bordeaux The chocolate maker selects, roasts, balances, grinds and adds the sugar & vanilla to the beans and then, to remove the bitterness & acidity and to make the chocolate malleable, agitates them in a vertical turning mill for a minimum of 24 hours (but usually up to 3 days, some of the time in a vacuum). This cocoa bean paste is added to cocoa butter to make chocolate and the chocolatiers creare the various chocolates, blending and tasting and adding anything they desire to create a chocolate with their own special signature – be it tea, coffee, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, chilli’s, nuts or fruit – it’s up to them. Chocolate must be stored at 20 C for a maximum of three weeks.
MOUSSE AU CHOCOLAT D’MARTHA
Ingredients
- 300 g Lindt (75%) chocolate
- 4 egg yolks
- 130 g sugar
- 8 egg whites
- 60 ml whipping cream
Method
- Melt the chocolate in double boiler or in fire proof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water;
- Whisk the egg yolks with about 4 teaspoons of sugar until they are light and fluffy and begin to become pale and take the cream, merely stirring it in to combine everything;
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and the rest of the sugar until it is stiff and then folded into the chocolate mixture as lightly as possible with the largest whisk you can find;
- Spoon into glasses or molds and refrigerate.
- Serve chilled.
