An Advent without chocolate is like a pot without a lid. There are a number of secrets to ensure that the enjoyment is unclouded. An award-winning chocolate expert explains.
The chocolate Santa Clauses are already lining up on the supermarket shelves, the smell when opening a fine bar and the sight of chocolatey confectionery can turn any cloudy or cold Advent afternoon into a gourmet experience. What is the secret of good chocolate:
Conching
Chocolate, which first came to Europe in the middle of the 19th century, was in great demand, for example to increase the desire for love. But it was drunk because the pieces were dry and crumbly. The Swiss chocolate manufacturer Rodolphe Lindt wanted to produce delicate chocolate. In 1879 he tried a lot, stirring the chocolate mixture, but nothing worked. One Friday evening he left the factory frustrated, but left the mixer on. When he returned on Monday, he was amazed: he found a creamy, shiny chocolate mass that melted delicately on his tongue. This is how conching was invented. To this day, chocolate mass is stirred for several hours at different temperatures. Sour aromas tend to evaporate and cocoa particles and butter combine perfectly.
Melt
To make your own chocolate creations, chocolate must be melted over a water bath. Whether light, dark or block chocolate makes no difference in quality, says Géraldine Müller Maras, a chocolatière by profession. In 2015, she was the only woman to make it into the top ten in the world at the “World Chocolate Masters” competition. Müller Maras works at Maison Cailler, the oldest active chocolate brand in Switzerland, founded in 1819 by François-Louis Cailler. It is now part of the Nestlé Group. Important for a water bath: turn off the plate when the water boils. The bowl should not touch the water to prevent the chocolate from burning. At around 45 degrees the chocolate is ideally smooth and liquid.
Tempering
To ensure that the chocolate is liquid enough to pour into molds, but still becomes really solid later, tempering is essential: “The mass needs stable and unstable crystals,” says Müller Maras. That’s why she spreads two thirds of the dissolved mass onto a cold marble slab. She pushes it together again and again with a spatula and spreads it out so that it cools down to around 27 degrees. The mass slowly becomes firmer before Müller Maras adds it back to the liquid third and mixes the whole thing well again. Precision is the key to success: the processing temperature for dark chocolate is 30 to 32 degrees, and for milk and white chocolate it is 28 to 30 degrees.
Danger liquid
When using a water bath, water should never get into the chocolate bowl. “It clumps immediately and you can’t melt it anymore,” says Müller Maras. Unfortunately, cognac or any other alcohol also has the effect: “Liquid chocolate and liquid don’t work at all,” she says. Chocolates are possible: The alcohol filling can be poured into a previously cast and solidified chocolate mold.
Cocoa butter
The cocoa beans, i.e. the seeds of the cocoa tree, consist of 50 percent cocoa butter. They are lightly fermented and roasted to allow the flavors to develop and the shell to come off, then ground until the cocoa mass is formed, which is then refined with sugar and other ingredients. A high fat content makes chocolate thinner, like couverture. It is suitable for covering something with a thin layer of chocolate. You can also replace cocoa butter with other fats, which will make it cheaper, but Müller Maras recognizes good chocolate when no other fats are used.
In addition to milk and sugar, white chocolate only contains cocoa butter. Dark chocolate has more cocoa mass than light chocolate, but there is no difference in quality, says Müller Maras: “It’s purely a matter of taste.” If you pay attention to your diet, the general rule is “the more cocoa mass, the less sugar”.
Ingredients for your own creations
Apart from alcohol and other liquids, there are no limits when it comes to refining with dry ingredients. Salt, cloves, cinnamon, chili, pepper, nuts, chocolate balls or salt brittle – there are no limits to your imagination. Müller Maras has already tried chocolate with Roquefort cheese in France. When describing the taste, however, she just grimaces sourly.
Store
Chocolate doesn’t belong in the fridge. “Too humid,” says Müller Maras. “The sugar can come out and appear as spots on the surface, and the chocolate can also take on the smells of other foods.” Chocolate also doesn’t like too much temperature fluctuations or too much heat: then the fat can come out and appear as a gray coating on the surface. It doesn’t affect the quality, but it looks unappetizing. Cellar temperature is ideal for storage, around 18 degrees. But don’t forget there: You shouldn’t keep chocolate past its expiry date because nuts, for example, can go rancid, says Müller Maras.
Save overheated or older chocolate
If it happens while melting that water gets into the bowl or the bowl hangs in the water and the chocolate burns and becomes crumbly, the creamy mass is no longer available for further processing. But you don’t have to throw away the result, says Müller Maras: “It’s still suitable for chocolate brownies.”
And Santa Clauses or chocolate Easter bunnies that have not yet been consumed are ideal for mousse au chocolat, says Müller Maras and reveals her favorite recipe: Melt 100 grams of chocolate with 100 grams of warmed cream, put it in the fridge overnight and the next day over an ice bath – a pot with Ice cubes that are allowed to touch the bowl – beat vigorously with the mixer. “It’s not as fluffy as with egg whites, but it’s very, very tasty,” she says.