Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (2 page)

Turn the oven heat off, open the oven door, and let the biscotti cool in the oven.

When cool, store in an airtight container.

The Chocolate Tree

I often dreamed about picking chocolate from a chocolate tree and eating my fill. I have never seen a chocolate tree but I have learned that if I did, I could not pick and eat the fruit. It’s a long story from the picking to the eating.

The tree is called a cocoa (
cacao
) tree, or
Theobroma cacao
, “the food of the gods.” It is a wide-branching tropical evergreen that grows in many parts of the world but always within 20 degrees of the equator. Most of the cocoa tree plantations are in Africa, South and Central America, and in parts of Asia. (This is not the same tree from which cocaine is obtained; that is called cocae or coca, and is a bush, not a tree. And coco palm is the name of the tree that grows coconuts.)

These trees grow either wild or under cultivation. In controlled conditions they get their start in nurseries, where seeds from high-yielding specimens are planted and babied for the first few months of their lives, or from grafted branch cuttings from a mother tree.

When they are transferred to plantations they are planted under the shade of a larger tree of another variety (often a banana tree or a rubber tree). They begin to bear fruit when they are from three to five years old.

First, large, glossy, foot-long leaves appear; they are red when young and dark green when mature. One of the most unusual facts about the cocoa tree is that the blossoms, and then the fruit, do not sprout on the branches but directly on the main trunk or on heavy branches near the trunk. The blossoms are tiny white or pink five-petaled flowers that grow in clusters. The fruit, or pods, also grow right out of the trunk; they are shaped like elongated melons, tapered at both ends. They measure six to fourteen inches in length and two to five inches in diameter. When they first appear they are green or maroon, then they ripen to a bright golden or scarlet color. They are five-ribbed, and have a hard, woody texture.

The trees would normally grow to about forty feet in height (wild cocoa trees might be sixty feet high or more), but on the plantations they are pruned to about fifteen or twenty feet to make the harvesting easier. As a rule the plantation trees bear fruit for thirty or forty years and then they are removed and replaced by seedlings, but there are reports of some trees still bearing fruit at the ripe old age of one hundred.

Harvesting the fruit is difficult, as the trees are too fragile for workmen to climb them. A long-handled, mitten-shaped steel knife called a
goulette
is used to reach the high pods. Native women and children follow the pickers,
tumbadores
, to gather the fallen pods in baskets which they carry on their heads.

The pods are then broken open with one or two well-placed blows from a machete. A good breaker will open five hundred pods in an hour. Inside each pod are twenty-five to fifty almond-shaped seeds (or beans) that are white, cream-colored, or lavender, imbedded in a white or pink pulpy and stringy mass that holds the seeds together. Each seed is about one inch in diameter. Now the women and children come back to scoop out the seeds and the pulp.

When the seeds are exposed to the air they quickly change color through oxidation and turn different shades of purple. The pulp ferments away within two or three days. Then the seeds are placed in baskets or boxes for a period of fermentation to remove the raw, bitter taste and to develop essential oils. The fermentation period might take from two to ten days, during which time the color of the seeds turns to dark brown.

The fermenting is followed by a drying process. The seeds are either spread out in the sun, or in some countries they are dried indoors by hot
air pipes. During this period, which might take several days or weeks, they must be turned frequently to dry evenly.

The seeds from an average pod weigh scarcely two ounces after they are dried; it takes about four hundred dry seeds to make a pound. The average tree will yield one to two pounds of cured seeds per year.

Finally, the dried seeds are ready for packing and shipping. Then the manufacturer takes over. Since chocolate seeds from various countries and from different plantations and different trees do not all taste alike, the chocolate manufacturer will probably blend several different types, as many coffee producers do. And manufacturing methods differ from one factory to another. Timing, temperatures, proportions of ingredients, and processing are all extremely closely guarded secrets.

Once in the factory, each step is carefully controlled under the most sanitary conditions. First the seeds are fumigated and stored in a clean, cool, airy location where they cannot absorb any odors. Next they are sieved and cleaned by a machine that removes any dried pulp, pieces of pod, etc., that may have remained. Then they are weighed and blended according to size. Next they are roasted in large rotary cylinders at a temperature of 250 to 350 degrees for thirty minutes to two hours, depending on the seeds and the manufacturer’s formula. At this stage, for the first time, they begin to develop a “chocolate” flavor and aroma.

After roasting and cooling, the seeds are shelled, leaving the meat, which is called “nibs.” The nibs contain an average of 50% to 54% cocoa butter, which is a natural vegetable fat. The next step is to crush the seeds between large grinding stones or heavy steel disks. This process, called conching, generates enough heat to liquefy the cocoa butter, most of which is removed, leaving a thick, dark paste which is called the chocolate “liquor.” When this liquor is poured into molds and solidified, it is unsweetened chocolate. If still more of the cocoa butter is removed and the remaining “liquor” is solidified and then ground to a powder, it is cocoa powder.

If sugar and more cocoa butter are added to the chocolate liquor, it becomes sweetened chocolate (99% of the time the sugar will be sucrose, which is the same thing as granulated sugar and may be made from either cane or beet sugar). If milk is also added, it becomes milk chocolate (the milk is always dried milk).

Basically there are two types of “real” chocolate generally available: unsweetened and sweetened. There is very little choice or variety in the first category. But the second includes a wide variety, ranging from very sweet to very bittersweet. Plus milk chocolate, which is quite different and should not be substituted when a recipe calls for sweet or semisweet chocolate.

If a recipe calls for unsweetened chocolate, the answer is obvious.

BUT—if a recipe calls for sweet or semisweet, you have an endless choice. (They all began as unsweetened chocolate and had sugar added to them in varying degrees. They also vary according to their processing, amounts of cocoa butter, and other additional ingredients.) I speak from experience when I say that aside from a difference in flavor you can use any of these. It will not affect the texture or consistency. I have substituted 1-ounce squares for morsels, and 3-ounce bars for three 1-ounce squares, and bittersweet for semisweet, and extra-bittersweet for German’s Sweet, and vice versa ad infinitum.

All “real” chocolate begins with chocolate liquor and cocoa butter. In “not real” chocolate they use cocoa in place of chocolate liquor—and some vegetable fat other than cocoa butter. The vegetable fat other than cocoa butter (cocoa butter is a vegetable fat) is one of two types: it is either palm kernel oil or coconut oil—or it is cottonseed or soya oil. Even though they are “natural” ingredients, it is called “imitation” chocolate.

Commercially, “imitation” chocolates are
called “compound” or “confectioners chocolate.” For the retail trade the F.D.A. says they have to be labeled “chocolate flavored.” (However, there are some completely artificial or synthetic chocolates that contain no ingredients derived from cocoa beans. Read the label to find out.)

Commercial Coating Chocolate (also called “dipping chocolate” or “couverture”) may be “real” chocolate or compound (“imitation”), just as with other chocolates. Some of the “real” commercial chocolates are delicious for cooking or eating, and some of the compound chocolates are absolutely wonderful for making chocolate decorations because they are softer, more flexible, less brittle, and they set up faster.

I have used many different Commercial Coating chocolates that are the compound type (they do not have to be tempered). They are not generally available at retail, although there are some specialty kitchen shops that cut up the 10-pound bars and sell the chocolate by the pound. And there are some wholesale bakery supply stores that will sell a single 10-pound bar. Here are the names of three that I have good luck with: Nestlés Ice Cap, Wilbur’s #37 Darkcote Confectionery Coating, and Semper Swedish Coating (made in Sweden but sold in the U.S.).

A good source for buying a variety of Commercial Coating chocolates by mail (they will also supply instructions for using them—and they have a catalog) is Maid of Scandinavia, 3244 Raleigh Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota 53416. They call their compound chocolate “summer coating.” They have Nestlés Ice Cap, Mercken’s, which comes in wafers, and Ambrosia.

I use compound chocolates for making chocolate curls with a swivel-bladed vegetable peeler; Chocolate Cigarettes, which are long, thin chocolate curls for decoration (see page 267); and, most especially, for Mushroom Meringues (see page 278). Or for dipping all kinds of things—try pretzels, saltines, or matzohs, etc.

Commercial Coating Chocolate, both “real” chocolate and compound, is used for making candy and in bakeries for cooking. The compound chocolate is often simply melted and used as an icing for cookies—frequently just the ends of finger-shaped cookies or half the diameters of round cookies are dipped into the chocolate. “Real” chocolate, when it is used in bakeries or by candy makers, usually for dipping candy centers into, is “tempered” before it is used. Tempering is a precise and complicated process involving melting the chocolate over water at a certain temperature until it reaches a certain temperature and then cooling it to still another temperature over water of yet another temperature. Without any drafts. (I think all of this belongs more in a laboratory than in a home kitchen.)

If “real” chocolate is not tempered it will discolor when it hardens. Compound chocolate can be melted and used with no extraordinary pre-cautions and it won’t discolor.

Chocolate should be stored where it is cool and dry and the temperature is about 68 to 78 degrees. When the temperature is cold, as in the refrigerator, chocolate will “sweat” when it is brought into room temperature. When the temperature is too warm, chocolate can develop a “bloom” (a paler-colored exterior). This is simply
caused by a slight percentage of the cocoa butter that has separated and risen to the surface. It is O.K., the chocolate is not spoiled; use it.

Premelted (or No-Melt) chocolate, according to the F.D.A., is not real chocolate; it is a combination of powdered cocoa and hydrogenated vegetable oil. It has a less pronounced chocolate flavor.

White chocolate, according to the F.D.A., is not really chocolate because it does not contain chocolate liquor. It is pure cocoa butter with sugar, milk, and flavoring—although some brands have additional ingredients. The label from Tobler Narcisse lists “sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder, lecithin, and vanillin.” Lindt Blancor lists “sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk, skimmed milk and whey powder, almonds, lecithin, and vanillin.” And Toblerone Blanc lists “sugar, cocoa butter, almonds, honey, egg white, lecithin, and vanillin.”

They all taste like
very
sweet,
very
mild milk chocolate.

Incidentally, according to the dictionary, vanillin, which is used in both dark and white chocolates, may be either natural or synthetic. And, according to the F.D.A., it’s all right with them for manufacturers to use either, but the synthetic must be labeled “artificial.”

Dutch-process cocoa is not a brand name; it is so called because it was created in Holland by a Dutchman named Coenraad van Houten, who discovered the process of adding alkali very sparingly to cocoa to neutralize the acidity, make it less bitter, and deepen the color. The label will say either Dutch Process or “processed with alkali.” It may be domestic or imported. I usually use Droste.

Chocolate is a quick-energy food that contains protein, carbohydrate, and fat. And the following vitamins and minerals: calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, and vitamin A. Plus thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin, which are B vitamins.

Ingredients

SUGARS

All sugars should be measured in the graded measuring cups that are made for measuring dry ingredients.

Brown Sugars

Did you know that most brown sugars are made of white granulated sugar to which a dark syrup has been added? Dark brown sugar has a mild molasses, and light brown has a milder, lighter syrup (which may also be a molasses). Dark brown has a slightly stronger flavor, but they may be used interchangeably.

Brown sugar is moist; if it dries out it will harden. It should be stored airtight at room temperature. If it has small lumps in it they should be strained out; with your fingertips press the sugar through a large strainer set over a large bowl. The Savannah Sugar Refinery is now printing the following directions on their boxes of brown sugar: “If your brown sugar has been left open and becomes hard, place a dampened (not wet) paper towel inside the resealable poly bag and close the package tightly for 12 hours or more. A slice of apple can be used in place of the dampened paper towel.”

Confectioners Sugar

Confectioners sugar and powdered sugar are exactly the same. They are both granulated sugar that has been pulverized very fine and has had about 3% cornstarch added to keep it in a powdery condition. Of these, 4-x is the least fine and 10-x is the finest. Confectioners sugar should be strained, but you can do several pounds at a time if you wish (it does not have to be done immediately before using as flour does). Store it airtight.