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Community Corner

Love, Chocolate and the Four Basic Food Groups

Chocolate, the best part of Valentine's Day.

Every year on Feb. 14 the earth shifts on its axis by 0.00000014º (that’s 1.4 millionths of a degree) and though imperceptibly small, people respond to the earth’s pull and begin to think of love. This strange behavior can be recognized by suddenly spotting red hearts everywhere, agonizing over the right Valentine card for that special person, some may wax poetic and drift toward maudlin outbursts, others order flowers and purchase jewelry, but most importantly, when all the stars and planets line up, there are those faithful ones who understand that Valentine’s Day can mean only one thing—permission to indulge lavishly, and without guilt, from the four basic food groups:  dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, and truffles! This is love.

Not really, but chocolate is the biochemical equivalent of that euphoric feeling we get when we are in love, and for good reason. You see, chocolate contains over 400 flavor compounds, including phenylethylamine, or PEA, which elevates the mood, dopamine, which makes us feel really, really good, and norepinephrine which stimulates an adrenaline-like product in our brains. In its collective entirety, the flavonoids in chocolate hit our brain’s pleasure center dead on.

That’s why we love chocolate and so did our ancestors from as early as the 7th century when the Maya cultivated it. Christopher Columbus brought the cocoa bean back to Spain where it languished until Cortes hipped the Spaniards to “xocotlatl,” (“xo” pronounced “cho” which evolved into its present pronunciation as “chocolate”). By the 17th century, the popularity of the cocoa bean had spread all over Europe with France leading the charge followed by Holland, then Germany, Scandinavia and Italy. At this point, cocoa beans were roasted, then crushed and made into a drink that was thickened with cornstarch and flavored with vanilla, spices, honey and sugar. It wasn’t until the 19th century when the Dutch chemist, Coenraad Van Houten, invented a way to extract the fat from the beans to produce pure cocoa butter that could be formed into blocks.

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This process made it possible to eat chocolate, not just drink it. I never met him, but I love this man. This ignited an industry that led Lindt to discover a method of melting chocolate so wonderful that it makes confectioners weep with joy and wish they could walk in his chocolate footsteps even today. Later, Hershey would bring the chocolate bar to America and create an empire like none other.

“I never met a chocolate I didn’t like.”—Deanna Troi, Star Trek: The Next Generation

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You can thank Austria for tortes, France for Chocolate Mousse, and Italy for Tiramisu, Germany for Black Forest Gateau, Mexico for Mole Poblano and hot chocolate and chili drinks. From North America, we give thanks for chocolate chip cookies, chocolate brownies and Mississippi mud pies. No doubt, chocolate has the ability to entice millions of people around the world, and just the mere mention of a favorite chocolate dessert can cause weakness in the knees. As for chocolate, “resistance is futile.”

Chocolate love--Recipes in the Four Basic Food Groups

Basic Food Group No. 1: Dark Chocolate

I offer my Dark Vader Chocolate Fudge Cake, which belongs in the first food group. It is a flourless, very dense brownie-like cake that keeps well and can be made ahead and frozen. It is one of my favorites.

Ingredients:

  • 13 ounces organic dark chocolate (like Green & Black’s), coarsely chopped
  • 3 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder
  • 1+1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
  • 1 cup walnut halves
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 7 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • Confectioner’s sugar for dusting cake
  • Chocolate-dipped walnuts

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°
  2. Lightly butter the side and bottom of a 10 x 3-inch spring form pan. Line the bottom of the pan with wax paper or parchment paper. Dust the sides with flour and remove excess flour.
  3. Melt the chocolate and the butter together. Break the chocolate into small pieces and place them in double boiler over simmering, not boiling, water. Stir until it is smooth.
  4. Sift the cocoa powder over the chocolate mixture and stir together.
  5. Using a metal blade in the food processor, combine the walnuts, ¼ cup of sugar and the salt. Process for 20-30 seconds.
  6. Stir the nut mixture into the chocolate mixture.
  7. In a large, heat proof bowl, whisk eggs until blended. Whisk the remaining 1+1/4 cups of sugar. Set this bowl over a pot of hot water (the bowl must touch the water). Continue whisking the egg mixture for 3-5 minutes or until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove the bowl from the pot of hot water.
  8. Using a hand mixer on medium speed beat the egg mixture for 4-6 minutes or until it has tripled in volume, is pale yellow and forms a thin ribbon when the beaters are lifted. Beat in the vanilla. Fold 1/3 of the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Fold the chocolate mixture into the remaining egg mixture until blended. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with wet crumbs. The center of the cake should be creamy. Do not overbake.
  9. Cool the cake in the pan set on a wire rack. When the cake is thoroughly cooled, remove the side of the spring form pan and place a plate on top of the cake. Invert the cake, peel off the paper and dust the top of the cake with confectioner’s sugar. Top the cake with chocolate-dipped walnuts. Serve with a chocolate sauce or a crème anglaise.

Basic Food Group No. 2: Milk Chocolate

This chocolate has a milder, creamier flavor, but nonetheless delicious, you might like to try making the Milk and Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake. This is a good way to satisfy the preferences of both dark and milk chocolate lovers. We have Milton Hershey to thank for moving milk chocolate to the forefront with his ever-popular “Hershey Kiss.” Despite all the enthusiasm for the darker varieties, milk chocolate is still a favorite for eating, as well as cooking.

Basic Food Group No. 3: White Chocolate

White chocolate has the lowest amount of cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Its major constituents are sugar, fat and milk and while some deny that it’s chocolate, it has a wonderful place in this family of four. It is especially useful in cake decorating for the color contrast that it offers. It is a “show-off” in White Chocolate Raspberry Crème Brûlèe Tartlets.

Basic Food Group No. 4: Truffles

Truffles are the most widely recognized confection in the chocolate eating world. The flavors and varieties are endless, but there are two things that are common to all truffles. First, they must consist of a ganache center, and secondly, they must be round like the fungi of the Perigord forest from which Escoffier’s apprentice named his “accident” the day he dropped hot cream into a bowl of chocolate. Intending to prepare a soufflé, the under chef began to roll the melted chocolate into balls, then dipped them into cocoa powder and pronounced them, “Truffles.”

The rest, as they say, is history. We thank the French for this delicacy as millions will be delivered, eaten, and shared by lovers on Valentine’s Day. If you are so inclined to show off your kitchen skills, you will make a lasting impression with your sweetie when you offer these Triple Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles.         

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that when the earth shifts on its axis on Feb. 14, it removes all the calories from the four basic food groups. No worries, no guilt, just pure love. Enjoy!

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