chocolate 101

It all starts from the cacao tree. next the cacao tree provides pods which houses the cocoa beans, the beans are fermented and then dried transported roasted, crushed to release the shell and then pressed to produce the liquid CHOCOLATE...Chocolate doesn't come from the cocoa bean already sweet and delicious, you have to add fat to it, fat in the form of coco butter which depending on how much you add gives it its rich light color and smooth mouth feel, next finely powdered sugar is added to of course make it sweet. So when you are purchasing chocolate and you like more of a milk chocolate variety you wanna stay in the 35% percent range or lower when you want a darker variety 70% is a safe range but now if you like the darker more bitter side of chocolate go to around 85 to 90% or higher. Personally i don't like to eat my chocolate past 70% because its to bitter for me to consume and enjoy as just a snack or whatever, but for baking purposes i will go as far as 90%  So basically the higher the number the more bitter the chocolate is because it has a less percentage of coco butter and other ingredients being used in the chocolate to make it sweeter. Now the higher the percentage the better quality the ingredients are that are put into that chocolate usually. So the higher the percentage the more cocoa beans used, the lower the percentage the more coco butter used. So if you are dieting your going to want to eat more dark chocolate then milk chocolate. Personally i really love chocolate i love chocolate in its savory form i.e chocolate covered bacon,and i love every chocolate dessert imaginable, but chocolate is a pretty tricky ingredient to work with when you get to the chocolate making and decorative aspect of it. That's when Tempering gets involved. You must temper your chocolate if you want that crispness and beautiful shine chocolate has when it is tempered correctly.In culinary school tempering was the Devil and caused me to grow a grey hair or two but once you get it down it leaves you with a window of opportunity to create absolutely extraordinary things.So get some chocolate get in the kitchen and create Definition: Tempering refers to a process of heating and cooling chocolate to prepare it for dipping and enrobing. The tempering process ensures that the cocoa butter in chocolate hardens in a uniform crystal structure. Chocolate that is tempered has a smooth texture, a glossy shine and a pleasant “snap” when bitten or broken. Chocolate that is not tempered might be cloudy, gray, lumpy, and sticky at room temperature. Tempering chocolate can be accomplished at home with a chocolate or instant-read thermometer and a double-boiler.  (below) chocolate box i made in culinary school.(where the grey hairs came from lol)