Three types of cacao bean: Forastero, Criollo, Trinitario
History of chocolate: For centuries, if not millennia, the cacao bean was kept tucked away in Central and South America. Although the precious bean was restricted to such a small sphere of influence, it played a huge role in the local culture. For the Mayans, who were the ruling tribe in this area, the cacao bean was the economy. It was used as money. It was used in religious ceremonies, as a status symbol for the royalty, and even in wedding ceremonies. The Aztecs, later, discovered the bean, and did much trading with their southern neighbors in order to experience this wonderful elixir.
Chocolate, as we moderns would think of it, in a hard, bar shape, was not produced until much, much later. At this time, the cacao bean was used to make a frothy drink. It was not until long after being brought to Europe that chocolate metamorphosed. Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the bean, but it did not really have much impact in Europe until Hernando Cortez began establishing trade relations with the Aztecs. The Spanish then began to plant the cacao beans in their other colonies along the equator. It was the Spaniards who first added sugar to the chocolate drink of the Mayans. Thus chocolate begins its multi-national transformation into an international sensation.
In 1615, Maria Theresa of Spain married the king of France. At this point, the love of chocolate really began to spread. The French aristocracy loved the drink! A frenchman later opened a chocolate house in England, and the drink made its way from a favorite of the elite to a favorite of all. Chocolate became very popular, but it was still expensive. The French and Spanish planted cacao trees in all of their colonies that were capable of growing the beans. Then, with the onset of the industrial revolution, production became cheaper.
The industrial revolution did more than just ease the time and expense of producing chocolate, though. It also made significant innovations in the way we consume cacao. In the early 19th century, a Dutchman began making powdered cocoa by extracting the cocoa butter. Then, an Englishman took this powdered cocoa and added the cocoa butter back into it to produce the world’s first chocolate bar! The swiss (Mr. Nestle) then gave us milk powder and, with it, milk chocolate.
[Chocolate has a history with slavery. When the Europeans first became entranced with chocolate, they traded with the mesoamerican indians for the bean. As the demand grew, they enslaved the indians and forced labor on their chocolate plantations. This caused a drastic fall in the indigenous population. In order to sustain their lifestyle of chocolate consumption, they transported slaves from Africa to continue work on the plantations. John Cadbury led the way in condemning this. He encouraged other chocolate producers to abandon the plantations using slave labor. Slavery was officially outlawed in the late 19th century. Legislation was enacted in the early 20th century to boycott any plantation proven to use slave labor.
Most people think that slavery is a non-issue in this modern day and age. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In the Côte D’Ivoire, most especially, there is rampant use of slave labor–child slave labor, at that. More than forty percent of the world’s chocolate comes from West Africa, where over 100,000 children are subjected to long hours, little food and little to no wages. Many of these children are believed to be victims of human trafficking. The famous chocolate companies of Hershey, Nestle and Mars all use chocolate from these plantations. These West African countries have not been boycotted solely because chocolate is their economy. A boycott would result in the collapse of their economies. The farms who cannot say that their fields are free of child-labor, though, can be boycotted. Fair trade chocolates and chocolates with a single origin label are free of this taint.]
How chocolate is made: The Cacao pods are harvested from May to June and October to November. The pods are split open and placed in piles or in boxes and left to ferment for 3-9 days. This removes the bitterness. The beans are then spread out on bamboo matting and sundried. They are then packaged and sent to manufacturers. Once there, they are first cleaned. Then they are roasted in large cylinders in much the same way coffee is roasted. The beans are then cooled quickly and the shells are removed. Next, the beans are ground to produce two elements: cocoa liquid (chocolate liqueur) and cocoa butter. The liquid is pressed to removed the cocoa butter, and the residue left is sifted into cocoa powder. Now that the cacao bean is all separated, is must be put back together in order to become chocolate. This process is called conching. The cocoa paste and the cocoa butter are mixed together with sugar and whatever else the company decides to add, and the chocolate is then kneaded for 42-72 hours. The chocolate is then tempered and shaped into bars.
Melting Chocolate: Water vapor can make double boilers a poor means of melting chocolaet. If you choose to use a double boiler, be sure that the bowl the chocolate is in is bigger than the pot of boiling water, so that the steam does not escape. Forty to forty-five degrees celsius is sufficient to melt chocolate, 45˚ is the perfect melt, at 60˚ you have burnt chocolate. Tempered chocolate should be between 28˚ and 31˚ (C). To temper the chocolate: melt chocolate (in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds) to 45˚, pour 70% of chocolate onto a marble surface, spread and let cool to 26˚-28˚ mix back into the rest of the chocolate (for 1 minute) and bring to 28˚-31˚.
Tempered Dark Chocolate: 30˚-31˚
Tempered Milk Chocolate: 28˚-29˚
Ganache: La Crema Principessa
It has a short shelf life, 15-90 days. Main ingredients: cream, chocolate, butter. (invert the recipe for a nice sauce) To lengthen the shelf life, add alcohol and glucose.
300 grams Dark chocolate
150 grams cream
20 grams butter
(30 grams glucose and 5 grams alcohol)
You can do just about any flavor in the world with this basic recipe. Ways to variate:
Infusion: option 1) put, for example, lavender in cream and let sit for 12 hours in fridge
option 2) add lavender to cream, bring to boil, let sit for ten minutes, taste, boil again if
necessary, remove lavender.
powders-add directly to the chocolate
pieces-infusion
liquids-add to cream
How to make milk chocolate: 1 kilo white chocolate + 80 grams dark chocolate or cocoa paste
Chocolates are 85% filling, 15% chocolate shell
Cremino:
Cremino originates in the Piemonte (Piedmont) region of Italy. It is White chocolate and Milk Chocolate mixed with hazelnut paste, and layered.
500 grams chocolate
400 grams hazelnut paste
temper to 22-24˚
alternate milk and white chocolate layers e presto: cremino
Sacher Torte: Sacher Torte was invented by a sixteen-year-old apprentice chef, Franz Sacher, in Vienna. It is a light, spongey cake with apricot jam in the center and a dark chocolate icing. It should be served with unsweetened whipped cream.
Praline: In Italy, there are praline and there are praliné. The latter (praliné) are what we in the South would call pralines. Sugar-coated, toasted nuts; we use pecans, they use hazelnuts. Praline, though, are any hand-made candy. Praline Fiorentine are basically little chocolate rounds with an assortment of nuts and candied fruits on top.
Andrea Bianchini:
http://andreabianchini.net/Next, Pastry Shop.
It could almost be compared to a cocktail hour, except that it is just a normal, everyday occurrence. People stand around socializing, sometimes inside the given establishment, more often, on the sidewalk (or even the middle of the very small streets).
