SPICED HOT CHOCOLATE!

It's hot chocolate weather! Everyone has a favorite hot chocolate recipe- the measure of milkfat alone creates a world of difference. But why not compliment that creamy chocolate taste with a bouquet of spices? The rich flavor of chocolate has so much potential for layering! This is one of our favorites:

5 cups milk (I usually use 2%)
3 tablespoons alkalized cocoa powder
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Heating the milk is the only part of the process that's anywhere close to intensive. Just make sure you heat it slowly- it only need to be luke-warm. Dissolve the sugar in first and then add spices to taste! Don't be afraid to experiment, and don't forget to top it with whipped cream!

Beautifully rich chocolate cake!

We have an amazingly rich and moist cake recipe for you today- one of our favorites!

  Cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup Bergenfield Cocoa Powder - Colonial Rosewood - Natural 10/12 Cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Frosting:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup Bergenfield Cocoa Powder - Colonial Rosewood - Natural 10/12 Cocoa
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees , butter two 9-inch baking pans. Mix your wet ingredients in one bowl, your dry in another, then stir the wet into the dry until consistent.

For the frosting, just mix the ingredients except for the vanilla. Simmer and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla. Cool partially, then beat with a mixer for 3 minutes or until spreadable.

Pour batter in the pans and bake for around 35 minutes. Use the old toothpicks trick to make sure it's done all the way through. Let cool a while, but frosting it while it's still slightly warm makes it super smooth. 

Enjoy!

Diagramming the Cacao Nib

Imagine chocolate, coffee, and nuts as three overlapping circles in a Venn diagram of delectation. For many of us, coffee breaks, snack-time, or dessert are all about making the round trip through all three of these flavor-zones. Large cup of coffee and a chocolate walnut brownie, anyone?

Good for an occasional treat, but do it all day everyday, and you and your body are gonna have a serious disagreement. So what's the health-conscious, chocolate/coffee/nut friend to do?

Enter the cacao nib, super-food.

The complex flavor, texture, and mouth-feel of the diminutive cacao nib place it squarely in the center of this Venn diagram--the manic little ringmaster of a three-ring circus of dark, over-caffeinated nuttiness.

It's a quirky, mercurial character, this nib, constantly changing while you chew it. The initial, nutty crunch promptly branches off into a coffee-like crescendo while simultaneously laying down a lingering, base-level register of chocolate flavor and mouth-feel. This isn't the fusion of chocolate, coffee, and nut. It's fission--these three elements emanating out from one, small kernel.

I substituted a handful of nibs for my afternoon coffee & pastry break a few weeks back. My body is grateful.


For high-aroma nibs at the best price in the market, order here: http://www.cocoasupply.com/shop/cacao-nibs

What is Cocoa Liquor?

So, what is cocoa liquor? It’s not booze (that would be a chocolate liqueur) and it contains absolutely no alcohol. Basically, cocoa liquor is solid, unsweetened baking chocolate. Cocoa liquor begins life as a liquid, but is cooled until it’s a solid. The solid form is then cut into blocks and packaged.

So, why is it called liquor if it’s solid? The term liquor is derived from the Latin term liquere which basically refers to matter in a liquid state. Distilled alcohol (like whiskey or vodka for example) was originally referred to as spirits. This was because medieval alchemists (surprise! who saw an alchemy reference coming!) believed they were releasing the inner spirits from substances during the distillation process. The terms liquor and spirit became conflated sometime during the 16th century.

Now that you have had your science and medieval history lesson, let’s get back to cocoa liquor. When cacao pods are harvested, they are cracked open and the beans and the white pulp that fills the pods are removed. The beans and pulp are then placed in wooden boxes to ferment in the sun for 5-7 days. Then the beans are roasted and the nib is removed from the cocoa bean husk. The resulting paste (or “mass”) is then melted and pressed to separate the cocoa butter. Now you have cocoa liquor.

Cocoa liquor is the basic ingredient in chocolate. As I already mentioned, cocoa liquor on its own is what most people know as unsweetened baker’s chocolate. For sweetened chocolate, a little sugar is added to the chocolate. For milk chocolate, milk (either liquid or condensed) and sugar are added. Most countries have regulations on what kind of mixture ratio can be defined as chocolate. In the US, the FDA requires dark chocolate (“semi-sweet” or “bitter sweet” chocolate) to be a minimum of 35% cocoa liquor. For milk chocolate, the FDA requires the finished products to have 10% cocoa liquor.

So, this all sounds nice and fancy and complicated, but it’s less complicated than the previous conversation about ancient alchemy would lead you to believe. You can use cocoa liquor in any recipe that calls for unsweetened baker’s chocolate. You can also melt cocoa liquor to make hot chocolate and fudge. And if making fresh hot chocolate from cocoa liquor doesn’t count as “alchemy,” then I don’t know what does.

When your business needs cocoa liquor for a recipe, use CocoaSupply.com's high-quality cocoa liquor instead of a more mass marketed cocoa, it makes a big difference. And don’t forget that now you can tell people the history of cocoa liquor and drop fancy Latin terms, which also makes a big difference.

This will make your day

Almond Hot Cocoa (Dairy-Free/ Gluten Free)

Ingredients:

¼ cup Cafiesa/Bergenfield 20-22 Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

½ cup granulated sugar

⅓ cup hot water

1 pinch of salt

4 cups of almond milk

1 teaspoon of Ingredient-Supply's Bourbon Vanilla Extract

1 Ingredient-Supply's Whole Cinnamon Stick

Instructions:

1. Combine the cocoa, sugar, water, and salt in a medium saucepan.
2. Add cinnamon stick. Over medium heat, stir constantly until the mixture boils. Cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
3. Stir in the milk and heat, but do not boil.
4. Remove from the heat and add vanilla. Stir well. Serve immediately.