Know Your Chocolate

Learn when it’s good  for you.

By Marty Martindale

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate
 now and then doesn't hurt!
~ Lucy Van Pelt in Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

Chocolate has been linked to love for centuries. The Aztec king, Montezuma, had no problem drinking 50 golden goblets a day of the early bitter stuff to ensure success whenever he frequently “got lucky.” These days, healthwise, think in terms of bittersweet chocolate for a healthier heart.   

How is chocolate good for your heart? Many researchers report chocolate can guard against strokes and heart attacks by thinning blood similar to the way aspirin does. “Now research shows that solid chocolate, however it is used, is an antioxidant, like red wine and blueberries. The darker the chocolate, the better,” says Joe Vinson, professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. “Weight for weight, milk chocolate has twice as many antioxidants as blueberries, a potently healthful fruit, while DARK chocolate has five times as much. Cocoa powder contains TWICE as much antioxidant effect as even the dark chocolate.” He referred to white chocolate as “just fat and sugar.” 

Though chocolate had its beginnings in Mexico, it’s pretty much a European thing these days and began appearing there in 1544 when a group of Mayans from Guatemala took gifts of chocolate to Spain. It was the Spaniards who insisted on sprucing up the chocolate with sugar and the New World’s flavor, vanilla.   

Early in each culture, it was a matter of cinnamon vs. and vanilla for flavoring. Because of this, bitter chocolate ended up in savory Mexican dishes, frequently as a mole sauce. For it, they blended bitter chocolate with chiles, onions, garlic, tomato, sesame seed, almonds, corn tortillas, raisins, clove, cinnamon, coriander, olive oil  and chicken broth. The New World, however preferred its chocolate in the sweet zone, in candies, cakes, cookies and brownies. Their recipes generally contain melted chocolate or dry cocoa powder with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, a liquid, baking soda  and vanilla. 

Processing chocolate is not a piece of cake. First, the beans are removed from their pods and fermented, dried, roasted and cracked. This separates the nibs, which are 54% cocoa butter, from the shells. The nibs are ground to extract some of the cocoa butter, which is considered a natural vegetable fat. This leaves a thick, dark brown substance called “chocolate liquor.” Next, the liquor goes through its first refining, then conched, a blending and kneading process where huge machines work the heated liquor and rid it of residual moisture and volatile acids. This process can take from 12 to 72 hours depending on the type and quality of the chocolate. If additional cocoa butter is extracted, the solid remains are ground into cocoa powder. 

CHOCOLATE TYPE REFERENCE CHART: 

UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE:  Pure chocolate liquor, the bitterest, used mostly for baking

BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE:  Slightly sweetened version of unsweetened chocolate

CAROB:  Low-calorie chocolate substitute made of the mashed fruit of a Mediterranean pine tree.

COCOA POWDER:  Powdered form of cocoa where nearly all fat is removed. Popular in low-fat cooking.

SEMISWEET CHOCOLATE:  Often seen as “chocolate chips,” they are semisweet chocolate blended with sugar, cocoa butter and flavorings.

WHITE CHOCOLATE:  Contains no chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, added milk products, sugar

MILK CHOCOLATE:  The sweetest, has milk powder, sugar, vanilla and cocoa butter added. 

Many European countries are famed for their chocolate these days, not the least of which is Belgium. Located in the heart of Europe, over the years she has been invaded by the Spanish, Austrians, French, Dutch and English, and each has left its foodprints on Belgian cuisine. Authors Ruth Van Waerebeek and Maria Robbins, wrote in Everybody Eats Well In Belgium Cookbook state, “For us, chocolate is a devouring passion, a sweet addiction and our national pride. Undoubtedly, Belgian chocolate is some of the finest in the world, with a very distinctive flavor all its own. For the most part, we use cocoa beans from Africa, which are stronger and more assertive than the milder South American beans favored by American chocolatiers." Belgium boasts over 2100 chocolate shops, their “confiseries,” which are places of refinement and elegance.

Waerebeek and Robbins also state in their Belgian cookbook: "…beginning at breakfast we indulge our passion with a thick, smooth chocolate paste that is smeared generously on a slice of bread. This chocolate paste, which is sometime mixed with nuts, is the Belgian equivalent of peanut butter." 

Best for you is chocolate darkest ... 

You can reach Marty Martindale at mm@FoodSiteoftheDay.com

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