How to make root vegetable chips

What are chocolate and its fillings?

The Aztecs prepared chocolate like this: they ground cocoa beans into dust, mixed with hot pepper and corn, and poured cold water over this porridge. When the liquid began to ferment, and its surface was covered with thick bubbles, the chocolate was considered ready. allowed to drink to important men - warriors, leaders, and shamans; Women and children were not given.

Chocolate was brought to Europe by the conquistador Hernan Cortez, who anchored in 1519 off the coast of Mexico and quickly destroyed the Aztec nation. The last Aztec leader Montezuma II, who did not guess the intentions of the Europeans, personally handed the Spaniard a golden bowl with a brown foamy liquid, which the locals called "chocolate". In 1527, cocoa beans and a recipe for chocolate ended up in Spain, after which they quickly spread throughout Europe. One hundred and seventy years later, Count Pyotr Tolstoy, having visited Venice, was already saddened in his diary that the Venetians are not affectionate people and instead of alcohol they drink chocolate: it is impossible to intoxicate anyone.

He has been drinking chocolate for a long time. The first tiles were made only in the middle of the 19th century. Milk was added to a chocolate bar in 1875, and white chocolate was invented less than a hundred years ago - in 1930. Now they do whatever they want with chocolate - they drink, eat, make sweets, add them to cakes and shoot them in the fountain.

And we asked the chocolatier of the Moscow "chocolate atelier" Roman Pokrovsky to tell us what the chocolate looked like.

Dark chocolate

Chocolate has cocoa content - from 53% and more. It can contain bitterness, acidity, and nutty: the taste depends on the region where the cocoa beans were harvested and of course on the culinary recipes that many manufacturers keep secret. You can try chocolate with the same content Cocoa from different manufacturers - and find out how different tastes. Chocolate, which consists of 99% cocoa, is quite bitter, has a special taste, you can not eat a lot of it, only a piece. It gives an approximate idea of \u200b\u200bthe taste of the cocoa beans themselves but does not allow you to feel In all shades of the flavor palette, it is still a very concentrated product with a strong aftertaste. For desserts and desserts, 66-70% chocolate is ideal; at this stage, the nuances of taste are the best. And a professional chocolatier, of course, it is interesting to work with dark chocolate: They have more primitive tones, which makes it possible to get acquainted with the whole range of taste. Cocoa beans from different regions, as I said, are different: you can draw an analogy with coffee - beans from different countries taste different. You can make chocolate from beans from one region, or you can mix it: This gives you a chance to try the taste.

Milk chocolate

The amount of cocoa in milk chocolate is not more than 50%, it no longer makes sense. Adding milk to chocolate dilutes the bitterness. A good product that does not use cocoa substitutes, milk chocolate is a very tasty product, and like bitter, you can make friends with different things: candied orange fruits, nuts, chili, sea salt, lavender, tea, coconut, rose, and so on... But when you eat dark chocolate, it's still a toy with halftones, and the taste is more important there, and milk chocolate has a rather bright and straight taste: sugar and milk remove the taste from cocoa powder. It is like, again, coffee: when you drink black coffee, you feel it, and if you add milk or cream, or, God forgive me, a drink, you'll only get something delicious, but this is no longer coffee, It's a derivative product. But milk chocolate is probably the most popular chocolate in the world. It's good to use in desserts, fillings, and a great icing.

White chocolate

White chocolate is only 32-35% milk, sugar, and cocoa butter. There is no cocoa powder at all, and cocoa butter is responsible for the taste of chocolate that we are used to. It is good to make desserts and bars from white chocolate, you can add dried apricots or Almonds to it. We make crazy white truffles with lemon, for example. White chocolate is also good when added to desserts: cakes, muffins, light mousse - everything gets more complicated with it.

Porous chocolate

The production of aerated chocolate requires special equipment: either a vacuum chamber or cylinders with carbon dioxide - the same bubbles are obtained. This is usually a serious factory story; we, for example, do not, we are not interested, although the fizzy chocolate itself is a wonderful thing.

Vegan chocolate

Honestly, it's all dark chocolate with no milk added. Instead of cow's milk, you can add oatmeal, soy milk, or coconut milk to make dairy-free chocolate. But these additives make the chocolate even softer, more like an emulsifier or fudge. .completely specific product.

Sugar-Free Chocolate

Instead of sugar, honey or maltose can be added to the same dark chocolate. This is considered a diet, but those who are on a diet and cocoa butter are not allowed. We once made chocolate that's completely sugar-free, well, it doesn't taste good. Although taste is a conditional concept - a person eats a clean bean. 

Chocolate candy

Sweets can be shaped - and truffles. This means that truffle is just the name of a dessert. It can be made from any type of chocolate. The filling of the truffle is ganache and it can be anything. It is good to add hazelnuts, almonds, and caramel to truffle milk. The bitterness is alcohol. It can be Truffles are round, square, bare, shaggy, soft, or with a liquid filling covered with a thin layer of chocolate so that the ganache does not flow - whatever. Fresh, unscented truffles are stored for about two weeks, but they must be made correctly: if there is air inside, everything will deteriorate in three days. And in an ordinary molded candy, the filling can be the same as in truffles - ganache, for example, made of white chocolate with apricot puree. The manufacturing method is only different: the filling is put in the final form.

Ganache

Creamy chocolate cream often used to fill dumplings. This is one of the main ingredients for desserts. Sometimes fruit puree is added to the ganache. Sugar should not be put in the ganache, the cream gives sweetness. You can make a light ganache - this is suitable not only for truffles but also for cakes. And it is convenient to do as you like, and desserts can be not only round but also square. Ganache is also made from white chocolate - it is very rich in milk and cream. 

Praline dessert

Hazelnut mass for the filling. We take, for example, a whole hazelnut, cook caramel, and put it all in a food processor. The mass is ground, the nuts give butter for caramel and a delicious nut mass is obtained. You do not need to grind it much, you will feel the pieces of nuts. Candy can be used Pralines for a dessert filling, or they can be added to ganache: they are especially delicious with milk chocolate. 

Hot chocolate

We buy professional dark chocolate, melt it in a glass or water bath, add cream, heat, mix - hot chocolate. You can also make hot chocolate from cocoa powder - but it's not like that.

Colorful chocolate

Chocolate can be changed in color, but it cannot be changed by other additives. You can make green, blue and red chocolate - but only from white. Add Japanese matcha tea powder to it and you will get light green chocolate.

Chocolate paste

Nothing new - nuts, caramel, chocolate, cream. It is necessary to mix praline and ganache in such proportions that a dough is obtained that does not harden to a solid-state. So that you can take it with a knife and put it on the brioche.

How to check if you're eating real chocolate

There is a classic temperature to taste good chocolate without substitutes - room temperature, not lower than 18-20 degrees. You can't eat candy or chocolate that has just been taken out of the refrigerator! So: good chocolate should melt on the tongue. If you put a substitute for cocoa butter In chocolate, it will not melt in your mouth or in your hand - you will press it in your mouth for five minutes, and it will all be like plasticine.