Eight secrets for perfect chocolate enjoyment

Advent season - Eight secrets for perfect chocolate enjoyment

There is already a queue of chocolate Santas on the supermarket shelves, the smell of opening a fine bar and the sight of chocolatey confectionery can turn any dull or cold Advent afternoon into a gourmet experience. The secret of good chocolate:

Conching

Chocolate, which first came to Europe in the middle of the 19th century, was highly coveted, for example to increase the desire for love. However, it was drunk because the pieces were dry and crumbly. The Swiss chocolate manufacturer Rodolphe Lindt wanted to produce smooth chocolate. He tried a lot in 1879, stirred the chocolate mass, but nothing worked. One Friday evening he left the factory in frustration, but left the stirring machine on. When he returned on Monday, he was amazed to find a creamy, shiny chocolate mass that melted smoothly on the tongue. This was the invention of conching. To this day, chocolate mass is stirred for several hours at different temperatures. This allows rather sour aromas to evaporate and cocoa particles and butter to combine perfectly.

Melting

To make your own chocolate creations, chocolate must be melted over a bain-marie. Whether light, dark or block chocolate makes no difference in terms of quality, says Géraldine Müller Maras, a professional chocolatier. In 2015, she was the only woman to make it into the top ten in the world in the "World Chocolate Masters" competition. Müller Maras works at Maison Cailler, the oldest chocolate brand still in operation in Switzerland, founded in 1819 by François-Louis Cailler. Today it is part of the Nestlé Group. Important when using a bain-marie: turn off the hob when the water is boiling. The bowl must not touch the water to prevent the chocolate from burning. At around 45 degrees, the chocolate is ideally smooth and liquid.

Tempering

Tempering is essential to ensure that the chocolate is liquid enough to be poured into molds, but still solidifies properly later on: "The mass needs stable and unstable crystals," says Müller Maras. She therefore spreads two thirds of the dissolved mixture onto a cold marble slab. She pushes it together again and again with a spatula and spreads it out so that it cools down to around 27 degrees. The mixture slowly solidifies before Müller Maras adds it back to the liquid third and mixes it well again. Precision is the key to success: the processing temperature for dark chocolate is 30 to 32 degrees, and 28 to 30 degrees for milk and white chocolate.

Danger of liquid

Water must never get into the chocolate bowl during a water bath. "It clumps immediately and you can't melt it," says Müller Maras. Unfortunately, cognac or any other alcohol also has the same effect: "Liquid chocolate and liquid don't work at all," she says. Chocolates are possible: There, the alcohol filling can be poured into a chocolate mold that has previously been poured and solidified.

Cocoa butter

The cocoa beans, i.e. the seeds of the cocoa tree, consist of 50 percent cocoa butter. They are lightly fermented and roasted so that the aromas can develop and the shell comes off, then ground until the cocoa mass is produced, which is then refined with sugar and other ingredients. A high fat content makes chocolate thinner, like couverture chocolate. It is suitable for coating something with a thin layer of chocolate. You can also replace cocoa butter with other fats, which makes it cheaper, but Müller Maras recognizes good chocolate by the fact that no other fats are used.

Incidentally, white chocolate only contains cocoa butter in addition to milk and sugar. Dark chocolate has more cocoa mass than light chocolate, but there is no difference in quality, says Müller Maras: "It's purely a matter of taste." If you pay attention to your diet: Generally speaking, "the more cocoa mass, the less sugar".

Ingredients for your own creations

Apart from alcohol and other liquids, there are no limits when it comes to refining with dry ingredients. Salt, cloves, cinnamon, chili, pepper, nuts, chocolate balls or salted brittle - there are no limits to the imagination. Müller Maras has already tried chocolate with Roquefort cheese in France. When describing the taste, however, she just grimaces sourly.

Storage

Chocolate does not belong in the fridge. "Too moist," says Müller Maras. "The sugar can dissolve and appear as stains on the surface, and the chocolate can also take on odors from other foods." Chocolate also doesn't like excessive temperature fluctuations or too much heat: the fat can then escape and appear as a gray coating on the surface. This doesn't affect the quality, but it looks unappetizing. A cellar temperature of around 18 degrees is ideal for storage. But don't forget: chocolate should not be stored beyond its expiry date because nuts, for example, can go rancid, says Müller Maras.

Saving overheated or older chocolate

If water gets into the bowl during melting or the bowl is submerged in water and the chocolate burns and becomes crumbly, the creamy mass is no longer ready for further processing. But you don't have to dispose of the result, says Müller Maras: "It's still suitable for chocolate brownies."

And Santa Clauses or chocolate Easter bunnies that have not yet been eaten are ideal for chocolate mousse, says Müller Maras and reveals her favorite recipe: melt 100 grams of chocolate with 100 grams of warmed cream, place in the fridge overnight and whip vigorously with a mixer over an ice bath the next day - a pot with ice cubes that can touch the bowl. "It's not as fluffy as beaten egg whites, but it's very, very tasty," she says.