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The Zen of Chocolate

Working with chocolate is tricky, but the rewards are worth it. There are all kinds of rewards for making things with chocolate...

Here's what you need to know about how it is made and how to handle it.

Not all chocolate is the same. Not by a long shot. As in wine, the source of the fruit and how it is handled makes a massive difference in taste and price. Chemically it is amazing stuff, and working with it can be tricky. It's important to know how it is made.

Chocolate comes from the ripe football shaped fruit of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which translates roughly to "food of the gods". It can be grown only within 20 degrees of the equator. Both the species of tree (Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario are the most common), the soil, climate, and grower's expertise influence the quality. The bright red, green, and orange fruits, called cocoa pods, have a thick skin, about 50 hard almond shaped purple beans inside, and a thick white jelly like sweet pulp surrounding them.

After harvest, the beans and pulp are fermented in bins and the heat turns the beans brown and develop complex flavors. The beans are then spread in the sun for about a week to dry after which they are shipped to chocolate manufacturers around the world.

There they are then roasted like coffee in revolving drums, shelled, and the center, the nib, is extracted. The nibs are ground and liquefied, producing something called chocolate liquor, which contains no alcohol. It is then pressed and filtered and separated into cocoa solids and a complex oil called cocoa butter. Neither are sweet.

The manufacturer then creates blends by mixing varying beans from different plantations around the world and different amounts of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, milk extracts, flavorings, sugar, and emulsifiers. The blend is then conched, a process of squishing or polishing the liquid chocolate with rollers that further develops flavor and makes the texture even finer. This conching can be done for a few hours or for as long as a few days. The final step is tempering, when the chocolate goes through heating, cooling, and stirring cycles to help form the desired texture. It is then ready to be made into bars or candy. So many things influence the quality. The species of tree, how and where it is grown, how the beans are fermented and dried, how long they are roasted, graded, and liquefied, and then the ratio of the ingredients in the blend and the fineness of the grind from conching all contribute to producing each house's signature style.

Here are the different types of chocolate.

Cocoa powder is mostly cocoa solids although it contains 10-35% fat. It is very dense and is used in baking, cooking, and making hot chocolate drinks.

Dutch process cocoa is a type of cocoa powder that has been processed with an alkaline to change its acidity and color. It is used for making really black things, but because it is chemically different than other chocolates, it should be avoided by amateurs like us unless the recipe calls for it specifically.

Unsweetened chocolate contains only cocoa butter and cocoa solids. It is used in baking and cooking.

Semisweet and bittersweet chocolate contain cocoa butter, cocoa solids, and sugar. The amounts vary from company to company, but US law requires at least 35% cocoa product. They are used in baking and cooking and can be eaten straight.

Dark chocolate contains cocoa butter, cocoa solids, sugar, and occasionally vanilla. The best dark chocolate blends are at least 70% cocoa solids and cocoa butter. It is popular as a candy.

Milk chocolate contains cocoa butter, cocoa solids, sugar, vanilla, and milk powder or condensed milk. Milk chocolate usually contains about 50% cocoa product, but the law says it can be as little as 10%. Invented in Switzerland, this is the most popular type in the US.

White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla, and milk powder or condensed milk. There are no cocoa solids in the blend. White chocolate is about 33% cocoa butter. It is used as a candy and in baking.

Compound chocolate usually contains cocoa solids, vegetable oils rather than cocoa butter, imitation vanilla, milk powder or condensed milk. It is used in cheap candies.

Flavored chocolates can be made from any grade by adding flavors including caramel, mint, coffee and fruits such as raspberry or orange.

Working with chocolate

Because chocolate is such a complex compound, it can be tricky to work with. It melts at body temperature, which is why hard chocolate becomes molten in your mouth. If you get it to hot or get too much water into it, it can do weird things, like "seizing" and separating into hard chunks swimming in oil, and you cannot put it back together. This can be a terribly expensive mistake.

The best advice I can give you is to work with a well tested recipe from a reputable source, use high quality ingredients, and follow the recipe exactly. Don't experiment, make substitutions, or try variations. For example, unsweetened chocolate is 100% cocoa solids and cocoa butter. But bittersweet may be only 50%. So if a recipe calls for unsweetened and you use bittersweet, it will have only have as much chocolate flavor as intended.

There are several ways to melt chocolate. You should chop it fine first and put it in a metal or ceramic or glass bowl. When it is melting, you must stir constantly to make sure the heat is even throughout. You must keep water and steam out of the bowl. It's like garlic to vampires.

1) Add warm milk or cream. Never add cold or boiling milk or cream.

2) Use a double boiler or put water in a saucepan smaller in diameter than the bowl and bring the water to the lowest simmer possible. Then put the bowl on top of the saucepan being sure the bowl is not touching the water.

3) Sit the bowl in a pan of hot tap water. Never put it in boiling water or water on a burner. When the chocolate is melted, get the bowl out of the water.

4) You can also melt it in the microwave on half power for 30 seconds. Then stir it for at least a minute. The chocolate melts slowly. If it does not dissolve thoroughly, give it another 30 seconds. Stir for another minute. Repeat as necessary.

You should store chocolate at room temp, not in the fridge. Ideal temp is 60-70F, so if you have a wine cellar, put it there.

Which brand? I usually use Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips, because they are readily available at my local grocer. When I can find them, I prefer Scharffen Berger chocolates. My friend, Chef Tom Beckman, a baking instructor at Chicago's branch of Le Cordon Bleu recommends Callebaut or Valrhona.

This page revised 2/18/2009

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