Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate

Wandering Bob

Wandering Bob

Über Member
Joined
13 Jul 2018
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873
Location
France
I love eating chocolate in all its different forms and often have cravings for it. I was joking with friends recently and whimsically proposed that there are really only four food-types - potatoes, bread, chocolate, and everything else. After a long bike ride my ideal meal would be a fried-potato sandwich topped with a chocolate sauce [this is not to be taken seriously...please].

I've discovered the culinary uses of chocolate quite late in life (possibly I simply didn't have time before). Pleasingly my local supermarket shelves are stacked with lots of different varieties of chocolat patissier and I'm starting to explore. Probably the one I feel most comfortable with at the moment is Corsé - this appears to fall into the 64%-70% cacao range.

I'm told that it's possible to find cooking chocolate here with around a 95% cacao content - but probably only in specialist outlets. That's next week's project sorted then.

I'd be interested to hear from other chocoholics - favoured types, general applications of cacao content to end-product, health warnings etc etc - anything chocolaty that isn't a recipe, please add to the thread. I'm learning - and I want to learn more
 
For us it has to be 70-85% and the best we have found is Peruvian chocolate. It's supermarket (Tesco) own brand so is not expensive but is not always available.
 
I'm one of those rare individuals who don't like chocolate. I can eat a tiny amount of 80% and above but I'd rather have savoury food any day. Of course, chocolate can be used in all sorts of savoury dishes, in which case it adds a rich and complex background note. That is far more interesting to me...

Having said this, I'm about to post a recipe for Chocolate Fondant (Lava Cake) which is my final belated fling for The CookingBites Cookalong: Soufflés and Fondants! I didn't eat it myself.
 
I like to use Scharffen Berger Chocolate for special occasion things. They have from 62% up to 100% bars, chunks, nibs for baking. For just regular things, I'll just use Baker's chocolate or once in a while Ghiradelli. They have these HUGE blocks at Restaurant Depot for well over $100 each. I looked up the name once, don't remember what it was, but it seemed to be a pretty good chocolate. Unfortunately, it would take forever for me to use it up.

We were watching a new to us TV food show last night starring 2 older Jewish ladies, the Brass sisters I think. Can't remember name of show though, something about flirting. Anyway, they made a chocolate bread pudding using brioche and soft pretzels. Looked very interesting. I'd think about doing something like that, though would do it a bit differently than they did, as they spread a layer of raspberry jam or preserves on top of the bread pudding, then poured the chocolate milk/cream mixture on top, then, after it was baked, spread a layer of crunched up hard pretzels on top. I'd skip the raspberry stuff in the pudding and make a coulis, and would skip the crunchy pretzels entirely or at least no where near as much as they put on.
 
I am with @morning glory with regards to prefering savoury. I do like chocolate just not a lot. Thorntons used to do excellent chocolate and was the 'go to' for something special however over the years their quality has declined. We now buy special from Hotel Chocolate, their mojito chocs are super scrummy. In fact we have some rum chocs and pink champagne chocs to enjoy with a glass of fizz to celebrate the last day of the Tour De France on Sunday, it is ritual :thumbsup:
 
Chocolate enhanced dishes need not be sweet...i add chocolate to my chili...just melt a little in while the chili simmers and stir, taste, add a little more til you like it.

Many mexican dishes call for chocolate mole.
 
Spoonful of nutella without mercy with some crisps to dip..unfortunately that's true, I really do this sometimes.
Dark chocolate in any form/consistance, the one with nuts it's a sort of drug.
Recently I've prepared an aubergine's chocolate cake - ancient recipe from Amalfi coast- love it.
I dislike white choco, too much sweet.
Something to die for: black forest cake from Germany.
 
The Velvet Curtain said:
The World is divided into two types of people:

1. Those who love chocolate.
2. Those who are wrong
Click to expand...
In my world of wrong, a bar of chocolate hasn't yet been made that could compete with a slice of good pork pie, a piece of mature cheddar, fully up to room temperature, or sweet, fully ripe strawberry. I could go on, but I'm making myself hungry.
 
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