Chocolate

Taste test of chocolate chips:

Ghiradelli 60% (not the semi-sweet, must say 60% on the bag)

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/06/what-are-the-best-chocolate-chips-brands-for-baking-cookies.html?ref=se-bb1

Fine Cooking:

All real chocolate comes from the cacao bean, the fruit of a tropical tree, Theobroma cacao. Chocolate is made from roasted, pulverized cacao beans, which are then combined with sugar, and in some cases vanilla and lecithin. Much of the quality of the chocolate will depend on the origin and quality of the beans. Chocolate is labeled unsweetened, bittersweet, or semisweet depending on the percentage of cacao the chocolate contains. Here's a rundown of the various types of chocolate:

• • Semisweet & bittersweet chocolate - Traditionally, these can be used interchangeably, with semisweet giving a slightly sweeter result. Bittersweet generally contains less sugar than semisweet, but the distinction between the two types becomes hazy between brands.

  • Unsweetened chocolate - Unsweetened chocolate contains no sugar and so is about 99% chocolate liquor. It's extremely bitter and cannot be used interchangeably with semisweet or bittersweet chocolate.

  • Milk chocolate - Although popular to eat out of hand, milk chocolate is used less widely in baking than semi- or bittersweet chocolate. In the U.S., milk chocolate must contain a minimum of 10% chocolate liquor and 12% milk solids.

  • White chocolate - Technically, this isn't really chocolate at all since it contains no cocoa solids, only cocoa butter mixed with sugar, milk solids, and flavorings.

don't have it?

Since most recipes calling for bittersweet or semisweet chocolate were developed using chocolate with a cacao percentage around 35%, substituting some of the super-high percentage chocolates that are increasingly available can cause cakes to be dry or ganaches to curdle. If you want to experiment with using these higher-cacao products, chocolate guru Alice Medrich recommends using 25% to 35% less chocolate than called for in the recipe and adding up to 1-1/2 teaspoons more granulated sugar for each ounce of chocolate originally called for.

how to choose:

Chocolate for baking is manufactured in squares, thin bars, and thick blocks. Thin bars are convenient to store and can be easier to chop than blocks, which take a bit of elbow grease to knock apart (but are better for making decorative shavings and curls).

Some better quality chocolates only come in huge blocks, which are great for pros but may be too big a quantity for home cooks. Luckily, specialty stores often sell smaller chunks of these blocks wrapped in plastic.

how to store:

Chocolate will keep for a year at room temperature, if kept below 70°F. Wrap it in a few layers of plastic wrap to keep it as airtight as possible and put it in a dark cupboard, away from strong-smelling foods. (Chocolate, like butter, will absorb strong aromas.)

You can store chocolate in the refrigerator or freezer, but a moist environment isn't ideal. If you do chill your chocolate, bring it to room temperature while still wrapped to prevent condensation from forming, as any water on the chocolate can interfere with its ability to melt smoothly.

If your chocolate has a white film on it (also called bloom), it means it has either been stored too warm, causing the cocoa butter to separate out, or some condensation has occurred, melting its sugar surface. Either way, though the chocolate may not have the same texture eaten straight, it will work just fine in baking.

ust a few years ago, selecting dark chocolate for your dessert recipe seemed pretty simple: You went to the supermarket and bought a bar of baking chocolate. These days, there are dozens of choices, and you can spend hours poring over the cacao percentages and exotic provenances on the labels. You can pay a lot more, too. But does any of it really matter? Does spending more get you better chocolate flavor? And can your choice of chocolate change your baking results?Chocolate Basics

First, we looked into the definition of "dark chocolate" and discovered it's a pretty loose term. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't distinguish between bittersweet and semisweet chocolate-it simply requires that products by either name contain at least 35 percent cacao (the cocoa solids and cocoa butter from the cacao bean).

Companies use the names cacao and cocoa interchangeably, but in general, when there is more cacao in the chocolate, there is less sugar, and bittersweet chocolate tends to be less sweet and have more cacao than semisweet. Even darker chocolates, with higher cacao percentages, will be correspondingly less sweet (100 percent cacao chocolate is completely unsweetened). Any number of variables-the type of bean, where it's grown, and when it's harvested; the length and conditions of fermentation; the roasting and grinding methods; and the quality and quantity of any additives (such as vanilla)—can contribute to differences in flavor and texture. Chocolate makers claim that every detail is critical-and are loath to share too many specifics.

We'd heard a lot about the type of cacao bean being extremely important. There are only three types. The most prized (and expensive) bean, the criollo, grown mainly in the Caribbean and Central America, makes up less than 2 percent of the world's cacao. Most chocolate is made from forastero beans, generally from Africa. These beans are harvested from hardier trees, which makes them cheaper. The third, trinitario, is a hybrid of the other two beans and comprises about 5 percent of the total harvest.

The Cook's Chocolate-60 Percent Cacao

To choose chocolate for our testing lineup, we ignored "bittersweet" or "semisweet" nomenclature and concerned ourselves with chocolate containing roughly 60 percent cacao-the type that most recipes calling for dark chocolate have been developed to use. (Even darker chocolates, with 70 percent or more cacao, usually require recipe adjustments to get good results; see "Understanding Cacao Percentages," below). Not confining ourselves to baking chocolate, we included chocolate from the candy aisle in selecting 12 widely available brands.

Prices varied wildly: We spent from 44 cents per ounce to nearly four times as much. Seeking a chocolate that would perform well in various applications, we held three blind tastings: first eating the bars plain, then melting them into chocolate pots de cräme, and finally baking them into brownies. In each tasting, we rated the chocolate on sweetness, intensity of flavor, texture, and overall appeal. And since many chocolate makers are secretive about their proprietary methods and formulas, we sent samples of each to an independent laboratory to confirm levels of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and sugar.

Chocolate Myths and Chocolate Truths

So which chocolates won favor with our tasters? The results were surprising. The chocolate with the fanciest pedigree in our lineup, El Rey, made exclusively from Venezuelan criollo beans, wound up in the lower half of the rankings. The other single-origin sample, produced by Lindt from criollo and trinitario beans grown in Madagascar, came in last. Our two top-rated chocolates, Callebaut and Ghirardelli, came from blends relying primarily on the inexpensive forastero bean. Both were purchased at the supermarket, and they cost just 53 cents and 75 cents per ounce, respectively.

Our second discovery also defied expectations. We assumed that if one brand of chocolate is 60 percent cacao, it would be pretty similar in sweetness, chocolate intensity, and creaminess to another brand's 60 percent cacao chocolate. Not so. When chocolate makers grind shelled cacao beans, known as nibs, to create the thick paste called chocolate liquor, this paste contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Most manufacturers then add even more cocoa butter, in varying amounts, to help create the texture of the final chocolate. A few, like our winner, also add extra cocoa solids to intensify the chocolate flavor.

Ultimately, however, the cacao percentage on the label of a chocolate bar is a total that includes both cocoa solids and cocoa butter—meaning that different chocolates can have different proportions of each and still share the 60 percent cacao designation. As our lab tests showed, the cocoa solids in our lineup ranged from about 17 percent of a bar's total weight to more than 30 percent, while fat ranged from a third of the weight to nearly half of it. Sugar levels varied by nearly 20 percent as well.

So would the chocolate with the most cocoa butter make the biggest splash, bringing richer, extra-creamy flavor to your desserts? No. In fact, our lab results revealed that the chocolate with the lowest fat won the day, while the one with the most fat came in dead last. And would having the most cocoa solids make a chocolate superior? Again, no. Our tasters preferred chocolates with only a moderate amount. Sweetness wasn't the explanation, either: Chocolates in the middle range of sugar levels were preferred over those with the most sugar, though overall the top half of the rankings had more sugar than the bottom half.

In the end, we preferred dark chocolate that achieved the best balance of all three major components-cocoa butter, cocoa solids, and sugar. Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate L-60-40NV was favored for its rich chocolate flavor, moderate sugar and cocoa solids, and comparatively low fat. Tasters appreciated its "intensely chocolaty," "rich," "espresso" flavor and "caramel aftertaste." It excelled in every application. San Francisco-based Ghirardelli's Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar came in a close second, with praise for its "smoky," "fruity" notes. It also demonstrated that balanced chocolate flavor derived from moderate levels of sugar, cocoa solids, and cocoa butter.

Understanding Cocoa Percentages

In a recipe specifying a bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, can you substitute a chocolate with a higher cacao percentage than the 60 percent generally used for cooking, making no other adjustments? Not if you expect identical results. We tasted brownies and pots de crème made with our two top-ranked dark chocolates, by Callebaut and Ghirardelli, which have 60 percent cacao, alongside ones made with the same brands' 70 percent cacao offerings. While all four versions were acceptable, tasters strongly preferred the 60 percent cacao chocolates in these recipes, complaining of the 70 percent versions' dryness and lack of sweetness (and in the case of the pots de crème, a thicker, stiffer consistency), although some tasters noted their "deeper" chocolate flavor. When chocolate manufacturers increase cacao content, they correspondingly decrease the amount of sugar and usually add less cocoa butter. With less sugar and fat, it's no wonder the results were distinctly different.

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/155/Tempering-Chocolate

Chocolates are one of the most popular treats in the United States (some sources claim that over 50% of the candy sold in America is some form of chocolate). Some chocolate creations are simple in shape (like a standard chocolate bar) and some are extravagant sculptures. At home, it's not always easy to get chocolate to melt and set properly. Sometimes the chocolate burns, sometimes it seizes, and sometimes it just doesn't seem to harden as expected. In order for melted chocolate to harden (and shaped) properly, it needs to be tempered. In this article, I'll hit on the basics of melting and tempering chocolate.

What's the big deal? Don't I just melt chocolate like melting butter?

Chocolate, the popular product manufactured by roasting, fermenting, and processing the beans of a cacao tree in combination with sugar (and milk in some cases), is a pretty amazing food. Chocolate (when used in the singular form typically refers to the basic ingredient, while the plural chocolates is often used to refer to candies made with chocolate as a primary ingredient) has a complex flavor that can change and develop as it melts. Since its melting point is just below human body temperature, this means that while eating chocolate, both the texture (as it changes from solid to creamy liquid) and its flavor gradually changes in the mouth. This low melting point does makes it very easy to melt. Unfortunately, chocolate can burn if heated over 200°F (95°C) which is very likely when heated directly over an open flame. This need not be a concern if the proper precautions are taken.

Another potential problem when working with melted chocolate is "seizing". Chocolate is an extremely dry food. It's odd to think of a melted solid as dry, but imagine molten metal - it's a liquid, but has no water content. If a little water comes into contact with melted chocolate, the sugar and cacao in the chocolate will immediately absorb the moisture and clump up. This event is called seizing. The only solution to this is to add more water (or cream or milk) until the chocolate is saturated and becomes a syrup. Unfortunately, this chocolate cannot be tempered or used as pure chocolate anymore, but can be used in a variety of other recipes that call for chocolate and whatever watery ingredient was added.

Melting Chocolate 

There are several easy ways to melt chocolate. I'll discuss two of the most useful ones.

The microwave oven method is the easiest but works best when using a small amount of chocolate (less than 1 pound). The chocolate should be in relatively small pieces (chocolate chips also work well), so if you're using chocolate bars or blocks, you'll want to cut the chocolate into smaller pieces first. Microwave in short bursts, about 30 seconds at a time, and stir between each microwave session to provide even heating. At some point, the chocolate will be warm and the pieces will hold their shape as you pull it out of the microwave oven, but they will be slightly shiny and mush as you stir it. Keep stirring and allow the residual heat to melt the rest of the chocolate. If done properly and gently enough on high quality tempered chocolate, this method can result in melted chocolate that is still tempered. Heat it too much and you'll lose the temper, so it's important to stop as soon as the chocolate is about to melt.

The double boiler method uses a little more equipment, but gives you the most control while melting chocolate. You can melt larger quantities of chocolate with this method and use larger pieces (up to 2 ounce blocks). Select a heat proof bowl to place your chocolate in. Put about 1/2-in. water into a pot and place the bowl on top of the pot. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Now you have a double boiler.

Put the bowl aside and bring the water to a boil. If you're melting a small amount of chocolate, you can simply take the pot of water off the heat. If melting a larger quantity of chocolate, keep the pot on the heat and turn it down to a bare simmer. Place the bowl of chocolate on top of the pot of hot water and stir the chocolate using a silicone spatula until it has melted. Be careful not to allow any steam or condensation to enter the melting chocolate or it can seize. This is usually not a problem if you are watchful and have a lip on the bowl. You can remove the bowl from the pan whenever you need to slow down the heating process and place it back on to introduce more heat. This will prove vital while tempering.

Tempering Chocolate

When melted chocolate returns to solid form the cocoa butter in the chocolate forms a crystal structure. The strange (or cool depending on who you're talking to) thing about cocoa butter is that the crystal structure they take on depends on the temperature at which they are formed. If the chocolate is allowed to cool on its own, the crystals of fat will be loose, resulting in a chocolate that is dull in appearance, soft & malleable, and greasy to the touch. This loose crystalline structure has a slightly lower melting point than tempered chocolate crystals. If, instead, while cooling, the chocolate is kept at 88°F (31°C), the loose crystal structure will not form (88°F is above the formation point of the loose crystals). At this temperature the cocoa butter actually forms a dense crystalline structure. Holding the chocolate at this temperature and stirring will allow a whole bunch of these stable crystal structures to form providing a lot of seed crystals to form in the chocolate. When the chocolate is finally allowed to fully cool, if there are enough stable seed crystals, then the chocolate will harden into a very stable hard chocolate with a slight sheen, snap when broken, and will keep for months at cool room temperature. Tempered chocolate provides enough stability to be worked into a variety of shapes - sheets, painted onto leaves and peeled off, flowers, cups, and molds. It also helps prevent the cocoa butter from rising to the surface of the chocolate and blooming into unsightly light brown markings or coatings.

To temper, most chocolate books will tell you to fully melt the chocolate and then to pour 3/4 of the chocolate onto a marble slab and repeatedly fold the chocolate onto itself and smear it across the marble until the chocolate is a uniform 82°F (28°C). The chocolate is then returned to the remaining hot chocolate and stirred in. The final mixture is either reheated or the residual heat is enough to bring the temperature back up to 88-90°F (31-32°C). This technique is can be a bit tricky and requires a marble slab (or other large, flat, cool surface like a sheet of aluminum or upside down sheet pan), a plastic scraper for smearing the chocolate (a spatula will also work), and a chocolate thermometer (an instant read that can measure accurately to the degree like the Thermapen will also work fine). The chocolate needs to be worked sufficiently on the marble slab for enough seed crystals to form, so you have to work relatively quickly as the chocolate cools. A good way to tell when you've reached the right temperature and stage is to pay attention to the viscosity of the chocolate. When the chocolate begins to thicken a little, you've reached the point where seed crystals are forming and you should be able to reincorporate it into the rest of the chocolate. The tempered chocolate must then be kept at tempering temperature, 88-90°F (31-32°C) until used.

I find that the seed method (as described in The Professional Chef) is a little easier. Since almost all the chocolate that is sold is already tempered, we can use a piece of this already tempered chocolate as a plentiful source of seed crystals.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler while stirring to ensure unform temperature.

Once the chocolate has fully melted and reached a temperature of over 105°F (41°C), remove it from the heat. At this temperature, all the crystals, loose or stable, should be melted. Add a piece of unmelted chocolate to provide the seed crystals. This piece can be as big as 2 ounces (if you're melting a sizeable amount of chocolate) or can be chopped up into a few smaller pieces.

Stir until the chocolate's temperature enters the tempering range, 88-90°F (31-32°C). The chocolate should be kept at this temperature until used.

Specific Tempering Temperatures

Depending on the cocoa butter content of the chocolate and introduction of other ingredients, the tempering temperature of chocolate varies. 

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking provides these values for the three broad categories of chocolate:

Type of ChocolateTempering Temperature

Dark (no milk content) 88-90°F (31-32°C)

Milk 86-88°F (30-31°C)

White 80-82°F (27-28°C)

Note that although white chocolate does not contain any cacao solids, it is still subject to the same tempering procedures since it is made of cocoa butter.

Storage

Tempered chocolate can be stored for several months without blooming at constant cool room temperature, 60-65°F (15-18°C).

Wikipedia

The final process is called tempering. Uncontrolled crystallization of cocoa butter typically results in crystals of varying size, some or all large enough to be clearly seen with the naked eye. This causes the surface of the chocolate to appear mottled and matte, and causes the chocolate to crumble rather than snap when broken.[59] The uniform sheen and crisp bite of properly processed chocolate are the result of consistently small cocoa butter crystals produced by the tempering process.

The fats in cocoa butter can crystallize in six different forms (polymorphous crystallization).[59] The primary purpose of tempering is to assure that only the best form is present. The six different crystal forms have different properties.