From Dark to Light: Checking Out Types of Chocolate in .NET

Painting QR Code ISO/IEC18004 in .NET From Dark to Light: Checking Out Types of Chocolate

Although you can make many different candies with the recipes you find in this book, few results are more rewarding than candies made with good, rich chocolate Frankly, many of the recipes in this book involve chocolate in some form, although the kind of chocolate you use in different recipes varies Exact definitions of the types of chocolate vary slightly due to variations in taste and production values worldwide I based the following descriptions on the Food and Drug Administration s standards; these descriptions give you an understanding of the differences among chocolates

To make the best chocolate candies, use premium chocolate, commonly called couverture in the chocolate trade Couverture is considered the top of the line of fine chocolates because of its high cocoa butter content and extremely smooth texture Chocolatiers commonly use this type of chocolate to mold better pieces and to coat such items as truffles To keep all types of chocolate fresh, store it in a closed plastic container in a cool, dark area (if possible) A good storage temperature is around 70 degrees To find out more on the care and storage of chocolate, flip to 14

When you purchase unsweetened baking chocolate in a store, you re usually buying what those in the chocolate trade call chocolate liquor This ingredient has nothing to do with alcohol Chocolate liquor, the purest form of chocolate that you can buy, is made of cocoa butter and cocoa solids and contains no milk or sugar Unsweetened chocolate is available in bars, chunks, or chips the size of quarters, requiring little work to prepare for melting If you were to melt this chocolate and taste it, you would taste something very similar to what the Aztecs drank when Hernando Cortes made his discoveries of cacao beans in 1519 This chocolate has a bitter taste Unsweetened chocolate is an ingredient in a number of recipes, including fudge (see 9), chocolate butter creams (see 17), and chocolate caramels (see 7)

Cocoa powder, unsweetened as I use it, is pretty much ground pure chocolate (Sweetened cocoa has sugar added, and I don t use that cocoa in any recipes) Cocoa powder tastes the same as unsweetened chocolate: very bitter Yet if you re a chocolate purist, you ll love adding it to a chocolate piece For example, I roll a truffle dipped in dark chocolate in cocoa powder and shake off the excess This combination creates a nice effect because the taste buds get the bitter taste just before the dark chocolate taste At this point, the dark chocolate seems sweeter by comparison (Hungry for a truffle now Check out 18 for some great recipes)

Dark chocolate falls into a few categories based on the content of chocolate liquor in the product Because chocolate liquor is very bitter, the higher the chocolate liquor content, the more bitter the chocolate will be

Milk chocolate is the most popular chocolate consumed in the United States although, in recent years, more Americans have acquired a taste for dark chocolate Nevertheless, the percentage of chocolates manufactured in the United States still leans heavily toward milk chocolate On the other hand, Europeans usually prefer dark chocolate; the ratio of dark chocolate to milk chocolate consumption in Europe is nearly reversed from American tastes In fact, in some parts of the United States, European heritage may partially account for preferences for dark chocolate Tastes vary in different parts of the United States, and areas that have had a large influx of European immigrants over the years tend to favor dark chocolate over milk chocolate

To be considered a dark chocolate, the chocolate must contain at least 35 percent chocolate liquor, although many premium chocolates have an even higher percentage Because dark chocolates also contain sugar, they fall into a category called sweet chocolates, but that term can be misleading The three types of dark chocolate are Extra dark chocolate: You can find extra dark chocolate with a chocolate liquor content exceeding 70 percent talk about a bitter chocolate! Bittersweet chocolate: This chocolate has a high chocolate liquor content and a very dark color Its chocolate liquor content is higher than 35 percent; a content of 55 percent chocolate liquor is fairly common Bittersweet chocolate contains sugar, but the amount of sugar is lower than the amount of sugar in a semi-sweet chocolate Semi-sweet chocolate: This chocolate falls at the bottom of the dark chocolate spectrum because of its high sugar content Semi-sweet chocolate is quite good to eat, and I like using it to produce dark-chocolate molded candies, clusters, and other forms of chocolate for people who prefer something with a stronger taste than milk chocolate