Homemade Chocolate

It is easy to make impressive and delicious homemade chocolates for family and friends at Easter or anytime. You can purchase Easter chocolate molds at most specialty or discount stores and a wide variety of chocolate at your local supermarket. With a bit of time and patience you will soon be turning out gorgeous homemade chocolates.

Types of Chocolate

Dark chocolate contains cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and vanilla. It is stronger and richer than milk or white chocolate and is usually the preferred choice for cooking.

Milk chocolate contains the same ingredients as dark chocolate but has added milk solids. It is sweeter, creamier, softer in texture and less intense than dark chocolate.

White chocolate doesn't contain cocoa solids, only cocoa butter blended with sugar, milk solids and flavourings, such as vanilla. It is rich, creamy and sweeter than milk chocolate.

Eating chocolate - dark, milk and white - can be used for cooking. Dark varieties include bitter, semi-sweet and sweet. Bitter chocolate has up to 80% cocoa liquor and butter with a minimal amount of sugar. Sweet chocolate has a higher proportion of sugar and vanilla to cocoa butter.

Good-quality cooking chocolate can be found in the baking aisle of supermarkets. It is similar in taste to eating chocolate, but a small amount of cocoa butter has been replaced with vegetable fat to make it easier to melt, able to set without tempering. Cheaper than normal eating chocolate.

Compound chocolate is sold in blocks or buttons and can be found in the baking aisle of supermarkets. The cocoa butter has been replaced with vegetable fat or oil, making it easier to melt and to set at room temperature without tempering. It lacks the flavour and texture of other chocolates, but is perfect for kids' cooking.

Melting Chocolate

Chocolate can be melted in several different ways including on the stove, in the microwave or in the oven.

Stove Top - put chocolate in a clean, dry, heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Make sure no water or steam enters the bowl of chocolate, or it the chocolate could seize. Stir constantly over medium to low heat until the chocolate has melted.

Microwave - put chocolate in a clean, dry, microwave-safe bowl. Cook for 1 minute on medium/high then stir. Cook for another 30 seconds then stir again, continue until chocolate has all melted.

Stove - preheat oven to 160 C. Put chocolate in a clean, dry, heatproof bowl. Turn oven off then place the bowl in the oven for 10 minutes minutes. Remove and stir, then place back in oven if required for several minutes, remove and stir again.

Tips for Melting Chocolate

* Break chocolate into even sizes pieces before melting.

* Use a metal spoon to stir chocolate; wooden and plastic spoons retain moisture that can cause the chocolate to seize.

* Always use a metal, glass or ceramic bowl to melt chocolate.

Making Homemade Chocolates

1. Melt your chocolate, (see above), then stir thoroughly to remove all lumps.

2. Pour melted chocolate into the moulds until they are filled to the top.

3. Tap the moulds with your fingertips to remove air bubbles from chocolate.

4. Let chocolates set, until hard.

5. After your chocolates have completely set and hardened, carefully pop them out of the mold.

6. Use a butter knife to trim off any excess chocolate around the edges.

Tips for using Chocolate Moulds

* Never wash your chocolate molds with soapy water. The soapy water will remove the shine of the mold, making it difficult to get the chocolate off. Just wash in hot water.

* Always dry your molds carefully after washing. Water spots can also cause spots where the chocolate won't release easily from the mould.

* If your molds are sticking, very lightly coat them with a thin layer of vegetable oil.

* If you make a mistake, or if extra chocolate dribbles in the wrong places - don't touch it while it's still wet. Place the chocolates in the fridge or freezer to harden, then you can easily just pick off the parts you don't want there.

How to Store Chocolate

Chocolate should be wrapped in alfoil and placed in an airtight container. Store in a cool dry place away from direct sunlight. Do not store in the refrigerator.

Unopened chocolate has a shelf life of 12 months and opened chocolate, properly wrapped and stored has a shelf life of 3 months. (However it would never last this long at my house!)

Chocolate Terms

Seize - Chocolate will seize up when small amounts of liquid mix with it, it becomes a thick grainy mass that cannot be remelted or used.

Chocolate Bloom - White spots that appear on chocolate, caused by the chocolate being heated and cooled too quickly. This can also occur when chocolate is refrigerated, it does not affect the quality and can still be eaten.

Tempering - A technique used to stabilize chocolate with a high cocoa butter content through a melting and cooling process so the chocolate will set firm and shiny at room temperature.

By Sandy Prosdocimo

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/516953

Fri's most expensive chocolate in the world

After diamonds, chocolate is the best friend of every woman. Maybe you will make it a "cheap friendship", but not the administration. Premium chocolates made ​​by the top chocolate with excellent ingredients and a price that goes with it all. The chocolate may not be as expensive diamonds, but they are not eternal. Payments you, evaluate yourself.


Chocopologie

Chocolate dessert is the most expensive in the world. It is a real company Knipschildt, and a pound costs $ 2600. Made of 70 percent Valrhona chocolate and heavy cream and 24 hours soaked in pure vanilla and truffle oil. Cocoa powder is added manually.

Noka

Noka true best dark chocolate, thanks to the selection of the best cocoa from plantations in Venezuela, Côte d'Ivoire, Trinidad and Ecuador. It consists of 75% cocoa and other ingredients such as cocoa butter, etc. What is special about this chocolate is that it does not add any additives or vanilla flavor. The taste is 100% authentic. Products is Noka Vintages Collection, and costs $ 854 for a pound.

DeLafée

For those who prefer to eat chocolate gold DeLafée is the right choice. Instead of real chocolate with hazelnuts or almonds, for every ball manually add the right edible 24-carat gold. Among the other ingredients in chocolate has sugar, coconut oil, cocoa butter, milk powder and vanilla. Delfee first Swiss chocolate and a pound costs $ 504.

Richart

Richart chocolate is perhaps the fourth most expensive chocolate in the world, but is made from 70% Criollo cocoa from Venezuela, which are considered the best quality cocoa for chocolate in the world. Cocoa beans are finely divided so as to give a unique taste of chocolate. Richart chocolate is added to most types of almonds, blackberries, strawberries and lots of exotic spices. Richart is produced in France, for $ 120 you get a pound of chocolate.

Godiva G

The famous Belgian chocolate Godiva, recently presented a "G" collection. Chocolates are made from different ingredients, such as a mixture with 100% cocoa butter, Tasmanian honey and Mexican hot chocolate. Godiva G Collection is the cheapest. It cost "only" $ 177 for a pound.

Is Chocolate That Healthy?

It is great news that research has found a food that lowers blood pressure and is healthy for the heart and maybe more. The problem is that the chocolate Americans consume most is not the kind that was studied. The more popular kinds of chocolate have little or no positive effect on your health. Only certain chocolate may be healthy.

Dark chocolate is the chocolate that was found to have positive effects on blood pressure. Participants, either given dark, milk, or white chocolate every day were evaluated in different studies. It turns out that dark chocolate contains important antioxidants called phenols. These natural compounds from the cocoa bean are known to increase nitric oxide, reduce platelet aggregation, and inhibit oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Cocoa can decrease blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, and increase your insulin sensitivity. Milk and white chocolate are low in these antioxidants and do not have the same effect.

The problem is how chocolate is processed in this country. White chocolate, regardless of where you get it, actually contains no cocoa at all and is made only from cocoa butter; just the fat from the cocoa beans. It also contains no phenols. Most of the other chocolate we eat is made with "dutched" cocoa. The cocoa beans are treated with an alkaline solution to make them dark in color and reduce the natural bitterness from the plant. But it also reduces almost 90% of the phenols and most of its healthy benefits. The other problem is that when made into milk chocolate, the milk seems to prevent the phenols from being absorbed and, thus, negating any possible benefit from the chocolate.

The best chocolate for your health appears to be dark chocolate. In the European studies done, participants ate 100gm of chocolate a day (100 grams equals approx. 3.5 ounces). This is the equivalent to 2 1/2 regular size Hershey's bars. It also added about 550 calories to their diet. They were instructed to substitute this amount of calories from other foods they normally ate each day. You would have to do the same or forego its healthy benefits by increasing your waistline. European chocolate in general is healthier than that found in America due to the fact that it is less processed than ours and contains more of the heart healthy antioxidants. Dark chocolate is an acquired taste for most Americans since it is much more bitter than its milky counterpart.

So why is this research being touted as the 'best medical news in ages'? It appears to be one more way we look to justify the unhealthy diets we follow. When people hear that chocolate is now healthy, they don't hear any of the other restrictions involved, and don't want to. In fact, most people wouldn't want to change to a more bitter tasting chocolate and also cut out over 500 calories from their diets as they did in the studies. Our diets already have enough sweets and this type of news only fuels the diabetic and obesity epidemics. This kind of medical news will only make most people add extra calories to their diets and increase their health problems.

These studies do look promising but there still is no information on how long these benefits last, how many phenols need to be eaten or how often. Stick with the darkest chocolate, if you must, and balance out your calories. Until we have more information, chocolate should remain a treat and not a treatment.

Gerald Meyer is a registered pharmacist and provides advice on the many weight loss programs available today. More information on the benefits of green tea and its antioxidant powers can be found at http://www.natural-weight-loss-programs.com/greentea.htm . Free trials of green tea patches and instant beverages are available while supplies last. Find out the benefit of green tea for yourself today. And, learn more about the new superfood – the amazon super berry – acai. Acai may be the most nutritious and powerful food in the world. MonaVie is the next generation of health food.

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Chocolate: Good News or Bad News? You Decide!

What puts chocolate on the list of health enhancing, anti-aging foods is its' high content of powerful antioxidant compounds called flavonoids. Other flavonoid-rich foods are tea, berries, grapes, apples and many of the other color filled fruits and vegetables.

The flavonoids in chocolate are called flavonols and have been shown to be helpful in lowering blood pressure, diminishing fatty plaques in arteries, and lowering clot formation by making blood platelets not so sticky. Most people know that the darker the chocolate, the higher the flavonol content. The brain lifting compounds in chocolate are theobromine, caffeine, tyramine, and phenylethylamine (PEA). Additionally, tryptophan and anandamide are soothing and relaxing to the brain and promote the feeling of well-being.

How can you not love chocolate when it gives you a dose of energy, clears your foggy brain, soothes your anxiety and dampens your pain all the while keeping your healthy cells healthy and blood flowing smoothly for fewer negative cardiovascular events? Well, that's the good news-and now, the bad news..... Even though there have been 2 large epidemiological studies showing the benefits of chocolate consumption specifically on lowering carotid artery plaques, blood pressure and other vascular problems, these studies were not well designed for clear and specific correlation about cause and effect from chocolate. Other flavonoid rich foods were being consumed simultaneously and chocolate contains additional health benefitting nutrients that obviously were not isolated from the flavonols. Because chocolate has such a brain energizing effect, individuals with any chronic fatigue syndrome or adrenal exhaustion will be particularly drawn to consuming it, but cocoa, in addition to other caffeine containing stimulants should actually be avoided in this case.

The same PEA in chocolate that lifts brain energy also creates a transient rise in blood pressure and blood sugar which is followed by a not good for you low blood sugar episode. If you have any kind of persistent or recurring fatigue issues, you need to support and nourish your brain to allow it to heal, avoid high glycemic reaction foods like chocolate and take in more energy sustaining proteins. Other conditions that can involve poor brain endurance and fatigue and should omit chocolate include Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Closed Head Injuries and even Post Polio Syndrome. Chocolate has been placed on the list of offending foods by many different researchers involved with migraines headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, joint degeneration, skin problems such as rosacea and mood disorders. Chocolate is also high in oxalates and most people who have suffered from kidney stones should be on a low oxalate diet which means no chocolate. Oxalates are also famous for binding calcium which prevents its absorption and a diet high in oxalates is not recommended for anyone trying to maintain or improve their bone density. If you have any bladder irritation or particularly have been diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis (IC), chocolate should definitely be off of your grocery list. Anecdotally, there are groups of people who comment that chocolate weakens their immune system. They notice that they get sick soon after consuming even a small amount of it. Despite chocolate truly having a high ORAC value (high antioxidant power), this healthy cell preserving ability is greatly diminished from processing, which is why it is best to eat high percentage pure dark chocolate and even better cacao in its raw form. Most of the chocolate consumed in the US is highly processed and can even include health stripping preservatives. It is pretty clear that chocolate does contain compounds that are health promoting, even the pharmaceutical companies are trying to isolate them, however, any benefits from flavonoids are totally drowned out when chocolate comes in the form of cake, caramel, ice cream, corn syrup and gooey candy bars. These foods do not count as healthy chocolate products.

So, you can hear the good part about chocolate, it is real, however, I'm hoping you can hear the negative aspects about chocolate as well and that it may not be a healthy food choice for you depending on the status of your health.

Where are you on the continuum of reaction to chocolate, is it good for you or is it bad for you?

Visit www.sheilawagner.com You decide!

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