How To Make Homemade Chocolate Syrup
Among the basic ingredients involved in making chocolate syrups include unsweetened cocoa powder, sugar, and water. Other ingredients are corn syrup and malt. Flavorings such as vanilla extract could be used, too.
In black-and-white movies of the past, chocolate syrup was usually used to simulate blood. The reason for this is because it was safe to swallow, and it’s easy to get rid of when it gets to the clothing and also very affordable. Besides The Wasp Woman and Psycho, this chocolate syrup was used in many movies.
I can help you make chocolate syrup you can use over ice cream or use in baking chocolate syrup brownies. Very easy and you need not drain your pocket! You can even use Splenda in replacement of sugar to lessen the caloric content. If you use Splenda, you can use it as a drink mix or topping and do not bake with it. Additionally, considering it does not store very well when made with Splenda, make sure to consume within a couple days of making.
Ingredients required are 1 cup unsweetened cocoa, 2 cups sugar, or Splenda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 cups cold water, 1 tablespoon vanilla that will give a perfect chocolate syrup.
To make lindt-ish chocolate at home, you can do the following:
• Whisk together cocoa, sugar and salt.
• Whisk in cold water.
• Cook over medium-low heat, whisking to combine, until thickened.
• Let cool.
• Add vanilla.
• Store in the refrigerator
You can now make the perfect chocolate syrup and make use of it in of dishes to make them even more interesting.
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: chocolate syrup, Chocolate Syrup Recipe, cocoa, homemmade chocolate syrup, unsweetened, used
Chocolate Tree
Assumingly, you know that chocolate comes from the cacao. Here are some interesting infos about the “tree of life” of all the chocophiles out there.
Cacao trees are small evergreen trees measuring around 6 meters tall. Such trees are producing fruit and flowers all throughout the year and are farmed in countries within 10 degrees North and 10 degrees South of the Equator in which the climate is best for the growth of these cacao trees given that they need a warm and humid environment. More to these, cacao trees require soil that is fertile and well-irrigated, plus regular rainfall, for their optimum growth.
Cacao trees normally grow in rainforests. Shades of heavy canopy fall on them and they use it to their benefit since they grow best when covered with some sort of shade.
In the wild, these trees grow underneath the larger evergreen trees and are often seed along rivers.
Just so you know, cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia now in Mexico, Central America and South America. The leading suppliers of cacao are Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Indonesia.
It takes around five years for a cacao tree to yield its first crop. It becomes an adult plant come year ten. It yields between 300 and 1000 pounds of cocoa per acre for approximately 50 years.
The seed pods grow directly off the trunk of the tree, instead of the ends of the branches. Every pod is the size of a pineapple measuring between 5 and 12 inches long and between 3 and 5 inches wide. It usually has about thirty to fifty seeds inside. It takes around 400 to 500 seeds to come up with a pound of chocolate. Cocoa beans, which are used in making chocolate, are the dried and fully fermented fatty seeds of the cacao tree.
Actually, cacao flowers are not pollinated by bees or butterflies like most flowers, but by forcipomyia midges which are like tiny flies. And just a fun fact, these midges have the fastest wing-beats of any creature on earth, about 1000 times per second!
Find More Learn About Chocolate Articles
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: best, Cacao Tree, chocolate tree, cocoa, flowers, takes, Theobroma Cacao
Dark Chocolate Proven To Enhance Mood
A recent study done in Australia shows that dark chocolate can boost one’s mood via giving calmness and a sense of contentment. How is that even possible? It all lies in the polyphenols that cocoa is packed with.
Naturally, polyphenols are abundant in plants and almost always included in the human diet. These compounds are known to decrease oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is linked to a lot of diseases. More to these, polyphenols allegedky have outstanding psychological effects.
“Anecdotally, chocolate is often linked to mood enhancement,” Matthew Pase, a PhD candidate at the University of Swineburne in Melbourne and lead author of the study, claims. “This clinical trial is perhaps the first to scientifically demonstrate the positive effects of cocoa polyphenols on mood.”
This study was based on a randomized study which involved 72 healthy men and women aged 40-65 years. Each participant was given a dark chocolate drink mix standardized to have either 500mg of cocoa polyphenols, 250mg of cocoa polyphenols or none.
These people were then given the drink mixes in the same packaging for the investigators and participants to be unaware of which treatment they were being provided with. They drank their assigned drink once a day for 30 consecutive days.
30 days following this, those who got the high dose concentration of cocoa polyphenols said they had much more calmness and contentedness than the one who got either of the other drink mixes.
The researchers didn’t come up with any evidence that cocoa polyphenols hugely enhanced cognitive performance, though. Only participants who ingested the highest amount of polyphenols reported any remarkable or drastic positive effects. Those who were given a moderate amount (250 mg a day) claimed to have no dramatic effects.
Everybody gets stressed out at one point or another. It’s typical because of our job, but it could be for other personal reasons, too. Chocolate never fails to help some people. How about you? How do you take all the stress away?
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: cocoa, dark chocolate, either, mood enhancer, people
Chocolate Diet
Chocolate has always been contradictory to weight loss. However, new trends in dieting include chocolate, but it’s not what you think. You can’t just eat any kind of chocolate you put your hands on.
Basically, there are three types of chocolate, namely dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. The dark variant is considered as the healthiest type as it has the highest cocoa content. Cocoa is known for its antioxidants which provide tons of nutritional benefits.
Antioxidants play a big part in protecting the cells from damage, and new studies even show that it prevents certain diseases, particularly ones that affect the heart. They are also known to help fight the damaging effects of free radicals. So yes, cocoa, because of its antioxidant effects, can be a healthy addition to a weight loss plan.
Some diets require you to get rid of sweets altogether, but that abrupt change can lead to a dieting downfall. Most women crave chocolates but want to go on diets, so they deprive themselves of their cravings, which usually makes them break down and end up with unsuccessful diet plans.
While on a chocolate diet, make sure you consume other low-calorie but filling foods. Eat a lot of vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, among many others, as they contain minimum amount of calories. They have very high fiber contents which can help you feel full for longer periods of time. Not only that, they also aid in proper digestion. If you exercise a lot or have an active lifestyle, you may need additional calories. But never ever go on crash diets! Ever.
Keep your body hydrated at all times. Drink water all throughout the day. There are diets that require you to eliminate coffee from your diet as it induces cravings. However, there are people who just can’t live without caffeine in their systems. Just be moderate in your consumption.
Being on a chocolate diet still entails healthy eating and drinking plenty of water, just like any healthy diet programs. You don’t just get to be at your ideal weight, you also get to satisfy your sweet tooth cravings.
More Chocolate Information Articles
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: chocolate diet, cocoa, dark chocolate, healthy, help, milk chocolate, White Chocolate
Shortage in Chocolate
Mind-bogglingly, there is currently a worldwide scarcity of cocoa beans. And this might be the rationale behind the total increase of the price of chocolate in the future, as what experts have assumed.
Chocolate manufacturers are thinking of various useful approaches that can aid in this problem like increasing the amount of nuts, fillers, or any other ingredients so as to bulk out chocolate candies.
This demand is supposedly cause by the rise in the popularity of cocoa in China, the ongoing spread of awareness about the several nutritional advantages of chocolate, and the steady and growing demand for dark chocolate.
According to the editor of trade publication Kennedy’s Confection, Angus Kennedy, the alarming shortage was the main topic in a recent industry summit. In addition, he stated that chocolate makers may go for chocolate flavor substitutes that ‘don’t melt in your mouth’.
It has been foreseen last year that there is gonna be a scarcity in ‘certified’ cocoa or ethically farmed beans, as there has been problems nowadays about accessibility of non-certified beans. ‘Now we are saying it doesn’t matter what you call it – there’s not enough.’ said Kennedy.
Cocoa bean experts are assuming that there is gonna be an intense shortage over the next eight years. Truth be told, they claimed that we will be around a million ton short. A huge–sized farm should be cultivated to meet all the demands.
Lately, chocolate eaters have been raving about dark chocolate and all its health advantages like lowering blood pressure and its link to the prevention of certain heart diseases. Chocolate makers have been encouraging this trend as dark chocolate is a profitable item.
What we must do now is savor chocolate as much as we possibly can and hope for the best to come!
Find More Learn About Chocolate Articles
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: Cacao, cacao farming, chocolate sgoirtgae, cocoa, dark chocolate, experts, gonna
Cocoa Bean Process- Part 2
It is made from cocoa tree which translates that it contains many benefits that can be obtained from other vegetables. These perks are from flavonoids which serve as antioxidants. Antioxidants are able to protect the body from rapid aging caused by free radicals which can do damage tantamount to heart diseases. Watch this video and see how it is processed.
Video Rating: 0 / 5
Categories: chocolate videos Tags: able, bean, cocoa, cocoa processing, part, process, serve, Video Rating
Enjoy Your Chocolate Experience With These Tips
You can be more mindful if you go for for high-quality chocolate and see the label before buying. You can quickly get an idea with regard to the sweetness or bitterness of chocolate by understanding the chocolate to sugar ratio.
“If you buy chocolate with a higher cocoa content, it will be less sweet,” said Stephen Durfee, a pastry chef instructor at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in St. Helena, California. “You will get more of the natural flavor of chocolate.”
That being said, how will you know this immediately by checking the label? Nowadays, most quality chocolates have the percent of chocolate or cacao listed on the label. Considering it’s a percent, you can think of it as parts per 100. The sum of all ingredients could not go beyond 100.
That would only imply that if you look at a 72% dark chocolate bar, that sugar cannot go beyond 28%. While an 80% dark bar can have no more than 20% sugar. More bitter, less sweet.
Milk chocolate bars have to pave way for milk as an ingredient, but typically the amount of chocolate is sacrificed, not the sugar.
The origins of your chocolate has a big influence on the final flavor. “As with wine, chocolate made from beans grown in select regions of the world reflect the ‘terroir’ or sense of place of that region,” Durfee said.
“Soil conditions, climate, the lay of the land as it meets the sun — all influence subtle differences in flavor.” Soils of acidic nature produce a noticeable citrus flavor. More to these, such type of soil yields as lighter color to the chocolate.
To be able to completely enjoy your high-quality chocolate, you must let it melt in your mouth first before chewing on it. High-quality chocolate has cocoa butter in it, and this melts at body temperature, which will give you a ‘melt in the mouth’ feel.
“Let chocolate melt on your tongue for a few seconds before you start to chew,” Durfee suggests. “As the warmth of your mouth softens the chocolate, you will notice a real explosion of flavor.”
If you go on a chocolate-tasting spree, you should have some crackers and water with you. They will help cleanse your palate between tastings. At all times, use your every sense when eating your high-quality chocolate. Check the color, smell its alluring aroma, observe the taste and texture, and listen to the sound it makes while chewing on it.
Categories: chocolate articles Tags: cannot, chocolate eating, chocolate experience, chocolate tasting, cocoa, cocoa butter, sense, sweet
