Baking & Snack - June 2005 - 76

June 2005

Chocolate 101
BY JESSI WITHROW

hocolate has often been called
the food of the gods. So, it's no
surprise that it is one of the most
popular flavors in bakery and confectionery items. But working with chocolate isn't as easy as 1,2,3. It takes skill and

Though it's a
popular ingredient,
working with
chocolate
takes skill and
knowledge.
a level of understanding that can only
come with knowledge and practice.

THE BASICS
According to Scott Johnson, product
development manager for Cargill,
Minneapolis, MN, the federal Standard of Identity notes the following
types of chocolate: chocolate liquor,
sweet chocolate, milk chocolate,
buttermilk chocolate, skim
milk chocolate and white
chocolate.
White chocolate has
only recently been
granted "chocolate"
status. Kent Lyon,
brand manager for
E. Guittard Chocolate Co., Burlingame, CA, said that
in 2002, a Standard
of Identity for white
chocolate was created.
"Until then, there was

no Standard of Identity for white
chocolate so legally, you couldn't call it
chocolate," he said.
And then there's cocoa powder,
which is formed during the process of
making chocolate liquor. John Urbanski,
vice-president of technical sales
for Peter's Chocolates, Lititz,
PA, said that it all starts with the
cocoa bean. "Cocoa beans are
roasted, and the shell is removed.
Then the nib (the center) is
roasted and ground into a liquid,
which can be done by a number
of processing systems," he said.
It is then ground finer and finer,
which liberates the fat. "Once you
have the chocolate liquor, which
is the same as unsweetened baking chocolate, it is put into a hydraulic
pressing system," he said.
With a force of 6,000 lb per sq in., the
hydraulic pressing system extracts the
cocoa butter fat away from the solids.
Once the cocoa butter is extracted, the
press drops wheels of cocoa, which
break when

they fall, to the bottom of the machine.
The last process is to pulverize the broken cocoa wheels into powder, he said.
In the United States, chocolate is not
considered chocolate unless it contains
only cocoa butter and, for milk chocolate, anhydrous milk fat. No other fats
are permitted.

TAKE TIME TO TEMPER
When using pure chocolate in a bakery
application other than for centers, it
must be tempered. Because cocoa butter
is a complex fat, it can solidify in many
different forms, but only one of these
will give the appearance and handling
characteristics desired in chocolate - a
form that will only be taken on after
tempering, Mr. Johnson said.
Basically, tempering means that the
cocoa butter crystals are stable. Randy
Hoftberger, technical manager for
Nestle, Glendale, CA, said that there
are many ways to temper chocolate.
Large machines that temper chocolate
do not let its temperature rise above
90°F (32°C). "Or you can take
melted chocolate, put in
a chunk of tempered
chocolate from the
manufacturer
and keep stirring until the
mixture is
between

ᮣ Chocolate is
often added to
cookies, brownies and cakes
to provide color
and flavor.
Peter's Chocolate

June 2005 / BAKING & SNACK / 81

Baking & Snack - June 2005

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