Chocolate: it is the classic amongst confectionery... ==================================== It can be brown, black or white. It brings a smile to the lips of people of any age, and covers fruit and cakes as a crisp coat. Many people today would not want to do without chocolate. But how many chocolate-lovers know precisely what the delicious confection consists of? Here you can start by reading what ingredients go into the individual varieties of chocolate - from dark to white and milk chocolate. Then we will explain what constitutes high-quality chocolate. Finally, you can find out what the individual stages of production are that a chocolate bar goes through before it gets to a confectionery cupboard in a home. DEFINITIONS Its the mixture that matters... The composition of chocolate is specified precisely in the EC Directive on Cocoa and Chocolate Products Intended for Human Consumption. In Germany, this directive is implemented through the German Regulations on Cocoa and Chocolate Products (landtag.nrw.de/portal/WWW/dokumentenarchiv/Dokument/XBCBGI0363.pdf). According to these, chocolate is a product produced from cocoa nibs, cocoa mass, cocoa powder, fat-reduced cocoa powder and sucrose, with or without the addition of cocoa butter. Each variety of chocolate has its own individual composition, of course. However, the common feature of all dark varieties is that they consist mostly of cocoa mass, i.e. finely ground cocoa nibs. Chocolate always contains cocoa butter. This is the fat obtained from the cocoa beans. It is already present in the cocoa mass and is also, depending on the variety of chocolate, added from outside. The so-called table sugar sucrose) ensures the wonderfully sweet taste. It is medium-fine, i.e. its granules measure between 0.5 mm and 1.25 mm. Only a product that has the following composition of the above ingredients may legitimately be referred to as chocolate: total dry cocoa solids: min. 35 % non-fat cocoa solids: min. 14 % cocoa butter: min. 18 % Chocolate that is consumed as an item of confectionery usually contains other ingredients, such as milk products, grapes, almonds and other nuts. The additions may not, however, make up more than 40% of the total weight. No animal fats which are not extracted from milk should be present in the chocolate. The classic: milk chocolate A key ingredient of milk chocolate is powdered milk. It is mainly cows milk that is used for the production of chocolate, but there are also varieties on the European market from sheeps milk and goats milk. Fresh milk consists of around 90% water. This percentage must be reduced before the milk can be used for the production of chocolate. That is why the industry is falling back on powdered milk these days - that only has a moisture level of 4.5 to 5%. If the chocolate is supposed to be particularly creamy, the manufacturers use powdered cream. It can either completely replace the powdered milk or be added in addition to it. The German Regulations on Cocoa and Chocolate Powder prescribe the following composition for milk chocolate: total dry cocoa solids: min. 25 % non-fat dry cocoa solids: min. 2.5 % dry milk solids: min. 14 % milk fat: min. 3.5 % The designation changes according to the ratio in which the ingredients are used. Thus, it is cream chocolate if the milk fat content is at least 5.5 % or skimmed-milk chocolate if it is only 1%. Whole milk chocolate - the prince of chocolate Chocolate can only be given the quality designation whole milk chocolate if • the chocolate contains at least 43% total dry cocoa solids and at least 26% cocoa butter. • the cocoa mass comes to at least 30 % of the milk chocolate and the dry milk solids amount to at least 18% of the total weight (minimum milk fat content of 4.5%). It stands out: white chocolate It is not only its colour that sets white chocolate apart from the other varieties of chocolate. It is also special because it does not contain any cocoa mass. In it, there is only the cocoa butter extracted from cocoa mass. The cocoa butter is mixed with the dry milk solids and sugar. For the product to be classed as white chocolate, the cocoa butter content must amount to at least 20 %. The percentages of dry milk solids and milk fat in white chocolate correspond to those in milk chocolate. In Japan, a whole day is dedicated to white chocolate: it is traditional to give it as a gift on White Day, on 14th March.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:24:47 +0000
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