More On Chocolate - 10/2/2002

Looking over notes, I see Turnberry's and Silmaril's, and I can't help but giggle a little.

OK, the average consumer needs only the tiniest bit of education in the school of chocolate - enough to know your cheap "chocolate" chips from your finely made Belgians, and how to take care of them, and everything in between, so you don't ruin the taste and texture. A little knowledge can go a long way to enhance your enjoyment of the stuff.

So, as a public service, here's the Quick and Dirty Chocolate Education Guide for the average consumer:

Kinds of Chocolates

Not kinds of chocolate, but of chocolates. Those yucky Whitman's samplers and hollow Palmer Easter bunnies and the like? Throw them out. Those aren't good chocolate. Why do you want that expensive crap, when you can get the good stuff for less?

Truffles: round or dome shaped candies consisting of a soft, creamy center ("ganache"), covered by finely ground nuts, fine quality cocoa, glossy chocolate shell ("coverture"), or some combination of these. Truffles are purely a "pleasure" candy. You can cut them into pieces and put them in your cakes or ice cream, but you'll ruin them. Don't do it, please. Just eat them as they were meant to be eaten - at room temperature, and within a week (2 for hardier varieties) of purchase.
Easiest truffles to find: Lindt, Ghirardelli, Godiva.
Best truffles to enjoy when you're feeling decadent: Fran's of Seattle, Nirvana, Joseph Schmidt of San Francisco.

Belgians: Molded or sculpted filled chocolates, made with fresh cream and fresh butter. Fillings range from slightly firm praline style, to super soft creams, in any flavor imaginable. Fine Belgians are very delicate, and should be purchased in small quantities and consumed within a week.
Easiest Belgians to find: Guylian's Seashells.
Best Belgians to enjoy when you're feeling decadent: Bernard Callebaut, Nirvana, Le Piron of Evanston.

Glacees: Sugar preserved fruit, dipped in fine chocolate. Orange peel, cherries, pineapple and apricots are all favorites. These are occasionally decorated with nuts. Though they are hardier than Belgians, they really shouldn't be kept for too long.
Easiest glacees to find: Godiva, Aunt Anne's Kitchens.
Best glacees ever: DeBrand.

Honeycomb: Also called "sponge". Spun-sugar, crisp and light centers, enrobed in chocolate. Melt in your mouth when fresh, chewy and tough if they're left alone too long. Keeps for a couple weeks in a well sealed bag, in a cool, dark place.
Easiest Honeycomb to get: Ghirardelli.
Best Honeycomb ever: Antoinette's of Buffalo.

So there are the "common" specialty chocolates. Of course, I'm leaving out things like barks and turtles and covered carmels. Everyone knows what those are, right?

Then there are your "simple" chocolates - candy bars, squares, blocks, chips, ground chocolate and cocoa.

Chocolate chips are pretty self explanatory. Nestle does a passing fair job with their "toll house morsels". My own personal preference is Ghirardelli double chocolate baking chips - they're larger, have a nicer consistency when melted, and turn beautifully glossy when melted for quick fudge. Just stay well clear of anything called "chocolate flavored" chips. Those are an abomination. If you care about yourself or the people you're making chocolate anything for, use REAL chocolate.

For home candy making, blocks of chocolate from Ghirardelli, Scharffen-Berger, Callebaut and Guittard are wonderful. You can make your own truffles, filled chocolates, chocolate dipped fruits and nuts, fudges, chocolate cheesecakes and rich chocolate frostings and glazes with these. Melt them carefully in a double boiler, and don't get water into the liquid chocolate, or you'll make it turn grainy. Add other ingredients slowly - cream, butter and liquers should be added a little at a time.

The beauty of these block chocolates is that they can also be eaten out of hand, just like a plain old Hershey bar - but they're SO much better than a Hershey bar (sorry Mavis!). That's not to say you can't do these things with Hershey products - they are perfectly serviceable chocolate products - but for richer texture and taste, try the better quality chocolates.

Chocolate ranges from "white", which isn't really chocolate, to milk (which contains milk products and has a signifcantly different taste and texture from "regular" chocolate), to semi-sweet, to bittersweet, to dark. Dark chocolate contains anywhere from 60 (semi-sweet) to 99 (unsweetened) percent cocoa - the darker the chocolate, the more bitter the finish. Tastes vary - some people prefer exclusively milk chocolates, others gravitate towards darks. Milk chocolate contains more sugars than dark, and tends to make one thirsty and crave more chocolate. Dark chocolate, OTOH, can satisfy a chocolate craving with just a small amount. (I'm biased, leaning heavily toward dark chocolate.)

Care of Chocolate

Yes, you have to take care of it to preserve quality and texture.

--Keep it tightly wrapped, in a cool, dark, DRY place. DON'T let your chocolate get wet - it will completely ruin the texture, and make it taste flat and grainy.

--DON'T put it in the refrigerator unless you absolutely must. If it's 95 degrees and you just don't have a cool place anywhere in the house, DOUBLE BAG IT before you put it in the fridge. Use good quality freezer bags, and if any condensation forms inside the bags, open them up and wipe it off immediately.

Refrigerating your chocolate will change the texture, and may even cause it to "bloom" (turn a funky flat grayish color, and lose its sheen). Bringing it back to room temperature won't correct that. Most people don't notice the change, but if you start paying attention to your chocolate and the way it tastes both before and after such storage, you'll notice. (This caveat does not apply to frozen Snickers or frozen Midnight Milky Way, as long as you smack them around and eat them while still frozen.)

And there's the Quick and Dirty version. Obviously, if you wanted to cook regularly with the stuff or get heavily involved in candy making, you'd need more detail, but this is plenty for the Regular Guy out looking for a bit of sweet stuff, and for the lucky girl just handed a box of exquisite Belgians.

Go forth. Be merry. Eat chocolate.

It's good for you.

--Missy