Creamy Concoction

Chocolate is a happy one ... which comes in all forms!
There are a thousand and chocolates to suit all tastes and desires of all times.

Shelves

They focus almost endless, dark chocolate filled with chocolate, through those with milk, nuts, puffed rice, honey, nougat ... without forgetting those that are intended for manufacturing desserts. The rocks, bites, candy, chocolate bars.

They are made with chocolate in combination with other ingredients: nuts, puffed rice, raisins, marzipan, liqueur, candied fruits, nuts, dried fruit, nougat, praline, etc.. The interior bars may be made of caramel, dried fruit, puffed rice, cereals, cookies, nougat, etc..

Some chocolates are made seasonally for Christmas and Easter and on 1 April (Easter eggs, bunnies, fried, etc..)



The cocoa powder for drinks, breakfast pastries.

Used for the preparation of hot and cold beverages, instant breakfasts and desserts.
We distinguish:
• pure cocoa
• Sweet cocoa, powder
• powders containing various chocolate products (milk, malt, flour ...).

The spreads

A mixture of hazelnut paste, milk, fat and sugar.

"A gourmet harmony of colors, smells and sense tangles, add and create fun. "
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

"I could not take off my mouth delicious edge of his cup. A chocolate to worry about dying, soft, velvety, fragrant, intoxicating. "
Guy Maupasssant

"Love chocolate background, without complexes or shame because remember: without a touch of madness, it is reasonable man. "
Maxims

"Take the chocolate so that the more companies you nasty looks good. "Marquise de Sevigne

"Happy chocolate, which after having run the world through women's smiles, was killed in a delicious kiss basis of their mouth.
Thus in the nineteenth century Brillat-Savarin summed up the happiness associated with chocolate ...

Its magic lies in its dual power comforting, says Patrick Mac Leod, a neurobiologist. Indeed, "it is both sweet and palatable, with sugar and vanilla flavors that may contain, and satiating because of its rich and creamy consistency. This happy marriage carbohydrate-lipid own chocolate, activates the brain reward system inducing pleasure and instantly frees us from anxiety.

The chocolate was so soothing and acts as an antidepressant.
Of the 800 chemical molecules that compose it, phenylethylamine is a transmitter that provides the nervous feeling of happiness and anti-depression. Caffeine and theobromine strongly psycho, cause a feeling of increased vigilance and well-being. They are distributed, however, in such small quantities that it is impossible to measure the effects during normal consumption. Chocolate and happiness are intimately linked ...

"And the pleasure is important," adds Claude Fischler, sociologist. Built in cultural value, it is a condition of our health and our vitality, a component of our happiness. A condition to be shared and reasoned!

Chocolate happiness declines in daily life: greed savored, favorite food breakfast and lunch, award given to a child or a welcome gift for the holidays.

Chocolate cultivates the art of wine tasting. The speech on chocolate became scholar: it talks about the origin of beans, raw cocoa, conching (operation used to make chocolate smoother and refine his taste), but also flavors, aromas and textures. .. Here the taste and symbolism combine to leave room to dream and refinement. It is a very French way to address food said Claude Fischler, chocolate embodies happiness "reasoned".

Happiness "physiological" and fun "cultural", the chocolate definitely has everything to seduce us!

Made from a mix of past legends and epics, the object of all the passions and the result of an exceptional craftsmanship, chocolate is a food like no other. Famous Men and women, young and old, gourmets, few are those who resist this daily pleasure and (now) very accessible. And besides, why not use it?

Food universal, indispensable partner to traditional festivals and celebrations of all kinds, chocolate is part of our history and our lives for our pleasure!

Selection, drying, roasting, grinding the beans, mixing the cocoa paste with sugar and milk, tempering, molding. chocolate production results from a real know-how that no fewer than 15 steps, from harvest of the pod at the other end of the world, and the food delicious, ready to be enjoyed by young and old !



The cacao tree is a tree that grows only in fragile tropical countries.

From about 7 meters in height at maturity, it produces 500 g to 2 kg of beans per year. There are three varieties of cacao:

Forastero (70% of world production), which produces cocoa bitter flavors slightly acidic,

Trinitario (20% of world production), which develops a fine cocoa high in fat,

Criollo (nearly 10% of world production), which is the source of a fine cocoa and aromatic.

Fruit: pod

The pods, which contain the cocoa beans, grow on the trunk and branches. They need four months to mature and develop a beautiful orange yellow color. Each cocoa pod yields about 40 per year.

Harvest

The picking of pods is a very delicate operation, which involves picking the fruit without damaging or hurting the tree. For fruit placed vertically, using a curved blade attached to a pole.

The cocoa cracking and fermentation

The cocoa cracking: as soon as picked, the pods are broken with a club or a machete to extract the cocoa beans. Inside, the seeds are coated with a white pulp, called "mucilage". Each pod contains 20-50 seeds. On average, twenty fresh pods give a pound of dried beans.

Fermentation is a critical step for quality cocoa. Plus it is done quickly, the better the cocoa. The operation took place on the production sites. The seeds are placed in bins for fermentation. The mucilage liquefies and flows. As a result of natural chemical reactions, the precursors of colors and aromas develop.


Drying

To lower the moisture content of 60-8%, the seeds are sun dried on racks or in artificial dryers. This operation, which requires one to two weeks, should be neither too slow (moldy grain) or too fast (they become acidic). Throughout the duration of the operation, men and especially women of the plantation, turn and return the seeds. They sort them by hand, the rake, remove the remaining pulp and debris. In parts of South America is still practiced an ancient custom: the dance of cocoa. A dance without music, in which only the feet moving.

The seeds are brown in color, so characteristic: they are now called cocoa beans. Summarily cleaned, they are ready for operation or export.

Roasting

Like coffee, cocoa does not develop its flavor and color that once roasted.
The beans are roasted at 120 ° C and 140 ° C.

The degree and the roasting time varies depending on the origin of the beans, the type of cocoa or chocolate that is sought.

Crushing

Once crushed, the cocoa beans are transformed into a liquid paste called cocoa liquor (or cocoa paste or liquor). It is from this dough that we can make cocoa powder, bar cocoa or chocolate.

The manufacture of powder and cocoa butter

The cocoa paste, once crushed, is pressed in hydraulic presses equipped with metal filter cloths for two products, a liquid, cocoa butter, the other solid, shaped cake, cake. The deodorized cocoa butter is then poured into molds to form blocks after solidification, while the meal will be crushed and then ground to give cocoa powder.

Mixing

The cocoa paste is also used to make chocolate by adding sugar, cocoa butter, and possibly milk. The cocoa mass base is mixed with other raw materials in a mess. The mixing continues until a smooth paste. It then passes through flail-pulverizing, grinding process known to reduce the size of the mass and minimize the size of solid particles.

Conching

To make the chocolate as its basis, its creaminess and flavor, the chocolate paste shall then conching, mechanical agitation - 12 to 48 hours - depending on the desired result.


Tempering

Conching completed, the chocolate must be tempered to go from liquid to solid state. He therefore undergo a cycle of temperature to promote crystallization, fine and stable, cocoa butter. The gloss of chocolate, its stability and its "breaking" depend.

Casting

The chocolate is then poured into molds or drizzled around to coat interiors (candy, chocolate bars, rocks and logs ...).

After storage and packaging, it is finally ready to be savored by gourmets around the world!

Where are the Easter eggs?

The custom of giving eggs at the beginning of spring dates back to antiquity. In many cultures, eggs are a symbol of fertility and renewal. There are about 5000 years, the Persians were available already chicken eggs as gifts lucky to celebrate spring! In Egypt, the myth of Osiris, god benefactor and savior, was honored with eggs painted red in token of fertility and eternity. The Romans, who also lent their good effects, in breaking the day of spring to purify the atmosphere. The ritual offerings are also rooted in the Christian world since the Middle Ages. While we followed strictly the rules of Lent, eggs selected and decorated by the students were blessed by the priest.

But it is really from the thirteenth century that the first painted eggs made their appearance in Europe. Originally colored red and decorated with drawings or currencies, chicken eggs were exchanged at the end of Lent, thus symbolizing the end of the privations of winter. From the Renaissance, chicken eggs were replaced by the golden eggs in the courts of European monarchs. Decorated with precious metals, gems and even paintings by famous artists, these objects reached their climax with the famous Faberge eggs in the Russian court in the late nineteenth century. From the goose that lays the golden eggs to the pot of chocolate, there is only one step!

It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that these gifts become delicious chocolate treats. It was then discovered that the confectionery art of molding chocolate eggs. It glides love letters or jewelry. Some are magnificent: the legend of a great admirer of Sarah Bernhardt, the actress was wearing a sigh of seven kilograms, and an English ordered a three meters high topped with a huge bouquet of flowers!

DATES

1776, the first machine for grinding cocoa mechanically: This is a hydraulic, a revolution!

1825, the first chocolate factory in the industrial world: Noisiel-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne), Antoine Menier Chocolate Factory installs the first industrial worldwide.

1828 1st patent chocolate powder: Conrad J. Van Houten filed his patent chocolate powder.

1847 the first chocolate bar casting is created. The addition of cocoa butter makes the dough more pliable, allowing it to be poured into molds.

1875, Nestlé launched the first milk chocolate crunch.

1923 the first chocolate bar is sold in the United States, Minneapolis, by Frank Mars.
On the eve of the Industrial Revolution, the 1820s marked the debut of "Chocolate for all".

Men enthusiasts have embarked on the adventure, and even today some of their names are part of our daily lives. Through their research and perseverance, the first chocolate for the elite is now accessible to everyone in the world ...

Founder of a dynasty chocolate, Antoine-Brutus Menier (1795-1853), chemist specializing in powder and flour, also sells chocolate in the form of tablets wrapped in yellow paper.

His son, Emile-Justin - who is nicknamed the Baron Cocoa - gives the factory paternal Noisiel expanded considerably from 1850. Twenty years later, he transforms the plant - which employs 2,000 employees - in a real city which can accommodate the "chocolate", a nickname given to workers. By the early twentieth century, the Menier chain is fully automated, allowing a large number of manufacturing tablets and chocolate products.

Greed is democratized, it is no longer the preserve of an elite.

Dutchman Van Houten chocolate manufacturer in Amsterdam, invented in 1828, the solubilization of cocoa. A new process to extract the beans ground most of their fat - cocoa butter. After crushing and sieving, the remaining part gives the cocoa powder.

Rodolphe Lindt (1855 -1909) filed a patent in 1879 marked the creation of chocolate. Using a mechanical agitation, this process "conching" can give the chocolate all its finesse and aroma.

Henri Nestlé (1814-1890) broke by accident in the history of chocolate. Through the process of condensing milk he invented the Swiss chemist in 1875 allows the invention of milk chocolate.

The Englishman, Charles Barry, in 1842 develops an activity of trading in London. A cocoa processing plant in Meulan born in the early twentieth century.
Wholesale of food, the Swiss Charles Amédée Kohler discovered the chocolate hazelnut in 1830.

Very young, Philippe Suchard chocolate interested. At twelve, by going to the chemist to buy a pound of chocolate for her sick mother, he discovered shocked, it costs three days of wages of a worker. In 1825, he then between 25 and 30 kg of chocolate per day with a single worker. The famous Chocolate Suchard was born. Later, in 1901, came the invention of the famous milk chocolate in purple packaging.

In 1884, Albert Poulain invented in turn sold 5 cents a product that will revolutionize morning habits of millions of children, the "breakfast vanilla cream" (the forerunner of the famous "sprayed" in the orange box).



In 1912, Jean Neuhaus created the praline and launches in Europe its generous shelves, powerful taste, adorned with the famous elephant trumpeting.
After the first world war, Charles Callebaut is due the clever idea to give chocolate, not chocolate cake, but as a hot liquid carried in tankers. Cheaper process, which has been generalized.

In 1923, Franck Mars invented and launched in Chicago, the first chocolate bar, creating a new way to eat chocolate, more convenient and more fun. A new market was born: chocolate confectionery!

Recently, traces of cocoa have been found in pottery from the Maya civilization, dating from 600 years before Jesus Christ! Scarce commodity like gold and currency exchange, food of the gods and secret pleasure reserved for the great kings of Europe ... provided that the history of chocolate does not date from yesterday!



THE FOOD OF THE GODS

Before the chocolate, there was first the cocoa. Or rather, the tree whose fruits are the cocoa tree from four to eight meters high, which drove thousands of years in the jungles of Central America long before Europeans arrived.

The Maya, the original inhabitants of the country, called the tree Cacahuaquchtl, which meant colloquially as "cocoa", but also the "Tree". In those times, the Mayans worshiped gods who, like all the gods of the world, do not feed like ordinary mortals. In Olympus Greek for example, was the ambrosia of immortality; in Mexico and Guatemala, we had this state to the decoction of kernels of the tree which fell within the maintenance care of Quetzalcoatl, the extraordinary Plumed Serpent, god of heaven gardener. And if one has never really knew the recipe for ambrosia, the preparation of tchacahoua, as it was in Mayan or Aztec tchocoatl, was known to all, at least by hearsay. For the gods, in their generosity, enabled the elite of the nation, well codified in circumstances, consume their food to have miraculous powers.

The scientific name is Theobroma Cacao, which means "food of the Gods". No wonder then that the most popular feast of the world is still adorned with such virtues!

In May, do what you please ... So I took out the ice cream of the closet!

This year I made a resolution: find recipes for ice cream or fruit by reducing the amount of sugar added. But apart from the strawberries, which are expensive in the early season, and I have not yet found in my bio corner, wait for the fruit.

So here is a recipe for chocolate ice cream, which contains the dose of cream and sugar, and is directly pumped Desserts summer from her to eat! I have made with organic ingredients, and very very dark chocolate ... For us enjoy waiting in the implementation of my resolutions!

I recommend you also use your favorite chocolate tasting. It is like cheese: it is not because it will cook the chocolate he would use a product that we like least taste! The economy that you would achieve by purchasing a plate of "baking chocolate" or "dessert" (52-65% sugar, therefore less cocoa) not really worth the candle. And your bio you return home ice in any case less than a tank of ice trade!

10 people
125 g dark chocolate 70% cocoa
50g cocoa powder
1 / 2 l of whole milk
75g raw cane sugar
15 cl cream
4 egg yolks

* In a saucepan, combine milk and cocoa powder, and boil. Then let cool.

* During this time, break the chocolate bar into pieces.

* In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until fluffy. Pour the warmed milk and cocoa-flavored mix. Transfer this mixture into the pan, then put on fire. It does warm up a few minutes to thicken while stirring. It should not boil.

* Remove from heat, add the chocolate bar into pieces, and stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. It must then cool completely and even be refrigerated for some time before being put into ice cream maker.

* To make ice cream maker in time for a regular meal ... It is near for dessert!

* I put the rest in the freezer over ice in a tray, but molds Eskimos: In fact, my great homemade ice cream harden in the freezer (mine anyway), and are difficult to serve balls ... With the Eskimos, no problem presentation or service: it's ready to taste :-)