Satisfy a craving with homemade chocolate treats
The upcoming National Day of Candy, which is also known as Halloween, tends to get my sweet tooth activated early. And even though there are loads of bags just waiting to be purchased of every confection imaginable, I like to make something homemade for my family and friends.
That can only mean one thing: Chocolate, the forever love of those who cannot make it through the end of the month without it. I get busy chopping, curling, grating, shredding and melting all kinds of chocolate for the treats necessary to keep tricks at bay.
Chocolate is primarily made from the bean of the cocoa tree, which grows beautifully in the tropics. The “cocoa belt” where a majority is grown consists of West Africa, South and Central America, the West Indies and New Guinea. Each pod contains between 20 and 40 beans and it takes around 400 beans to make a single pound of chocolate liquor, which is the base of all chocolate or cocoa products.
Cocoa butter is the natural fat that is pressed from the chocolate liquor when making cocoa powder. That soft brown powder retains some of the cocoa butter that makes it flavorful.
Frequently, the cocoa is treated with baking soda to neutralize the natural acids, modify the flavor and darken the color. This cocoa is called “dutched cocoa.”
If you make your own candy, you probably are familiar with candy coatings. Confectioners coatings are products that contain vegetable fats other than cocoa butter. To be termed “chocolate” the product may contain no other fat than cocoa butter.
Store chocolate in a cool, dry place. It tends to become very brittle when cold. Storage temperatures that are too warm will cause the chocolate to develop a “bloom.” This is a gray film of cocoa butter that has softened and risen to the surface. It is safe to use in baking.