Chocolates

your fav chocolate? good choclatiers like godiva or something… TRUFFLES? RECIPIES?? do you like chocolate and champagne?

The giradeli dark chocolate squares with raspberry inside are really good.

Song by Paul Dateh & Ken Belcher: “Hope That You”
Get it on iTunes! http://bit.ly/hopethatyou

Here’s is Paul’s YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/pauldateh

I love their music SO much! Srsly slips you into some extreme happiness!

Wishing you all lotsa love on this Valentine’s Day and every day of the year!!

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I heard dark chocolate is better for you? Anyway to make it taste like milk chocolate with out the sugar?

Dark chocolate has a higher concentration of cocoa mass, and is inherently less sweet. It’s the nature of the beast — The reason it’s better for you is because it contains less sugar and more flavanoids…Sorry, but you’ll have to pick your poison!

Meet a man who makes sweet sweet music…

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I heard dark chocolate is better for you? Anyway to make it taste like milk chocolate with out the sugar?

Dark chocolate has a higher concentration of cocoa mass, and is inherently less sweet. It’s the nature of the beast — The reason it’s better for you is because it contains less sugar and more flavanoids…Sorry, but you’ll have to pick your poison!

I love to bake and make crafts. I am 12. I am going to make dora cupcakes for my little cousin birthday party. I need dark chocolate wafers or milk chocolate. I live in Titusville,Florida and so the craft stores are to far away. My mom doesn’t approve of online shopping. Is there anything else I can use or is there any other place I can get chocolate wafers from? Please help. Thnx so much!

If it’s wafers as in cookies…use oreos but they may be saying milk or dark chocolate wafers as in melting wafers…in that case use chocolate chips.

Music video by India.Arie performing Chocolate High. (C) 2009 Universal Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

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my friend used to make the best tasting chocolate and easter eggs. The chocolate itself was pink or blue or some other colours, and they tasted so amazing! Unfortunately she moved away a long time ago and I can’t contact her, does anyone know how to make this chocolate?

Making your own molded chocolates is time consuming, but not all that hard. Here’s a resource online that shows pictures of how it’s done, and the URL at the end of my answer will take you to one of many places where you can buy the molds for easter candy eggs fairly inexpensively.

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/holidays/easter/jeanegg/jeanegg3.html

It sounds like your friend who moved away was making white chocolate eggs, and adding food color color to the white chocolate to make the pastel colors. Sounds lovely! Actually, the delicious stuff they call "white chocolate" isn’t really "chocolate" because it doesn’t have any cocoa solids. It’s basically sugar and vanilla-flavored cocoa butter. (Maybe you wish you didn’t know that?) The ingredients listed on a package of white chocolate should be sugar, cocoa butter, milk, soy lecithin (an emulsifier to keep it from separating)and vanilla extract. There are cheaper versions (which by law cannot be called chocolate) that don’t contain any cocoa butter, but their flavor isn’t very good compared to those that do.

White chocolate acts differently in recipes than dark chocolate, so remember you can’t just substitute one for another. The most important thing to remember when you’re melting chocolate (white or dark) to put in a mold, is that it melts better at lower temperatures. Believe it or not, it actually melts faster at lower temperature too. Never let your chocolate get above 115° F (best to invest in a candy thermometer, under $5 at Target).

The best method is using a double boiler (one pot that holds the chocolate, that fits over another which contains about an inch of simmering water). If you don’t have a double boiler, you can use a heat proof bowl which is large enough to sit in the mouth of your pot without its bottom touching the simmering water. Simmer the water over low heat and stir the chocolate constantly. You aren’t trying to beat it, just keep it moving. Remove from the heat as soon as the chocolate is melted and stir until smooth. Then brush it into your mold until the mold is coated, and pour the rest on top!

Be extremely careful not to get any water (not even a drop) into the chocolate. Water will turn the chocolate into a grainy, lumpy mess. If this happens, you can add a little vegetable oil in order to make it smooth again, but this will affect the flavor.

(Did you know chocolate is the only plant that produces fat that is solid at room temperature–cocoa butter. What makes it fun to eat is that the cocoa fat melts at the warmer temperature of your mouth. yum).

Hope you make those white chocolate eggs, and maybe track down your old friend and tell her so! Happy Easter

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?cart_id=7920163.26918&pid=73&product=Candy_Making

The question is vague, so I want to ask pretty much how to create chocolate pieces. I have read books where people melt chocolate, add either coffee/milk/sugar to the melt, and pour it into little tins where it cools and sets and is essentially chocolate pieces. Does anyone know how to do this, have any measuring amounts, or have done anything like this that can give me some advise?

Chocolate molds these days are usually made of plastic. You can find them at some quality kitchen stores (like Sur la Table). You can also find some at larger craft stores. They’ll be in the same general area as the cake decorating supplies.

Please note: you generally don’t want to add sugar, coffee, or milk to melted chocolate. If you want to flavor plain chocolate, it’s better to use food-grade oils.

Adding sugar and milk is usually done to the processed cocoa beans to make chocolate in the first place. You might also be thinking of ganache, which is the filling inside of truffles. It is made of cream, chocolate, and flavorings. Molded chocolates are sometimes filled with ganache (it’s made slightly differently from the ganache that goes in truffles).

I really suggest getting a book about this… there are tons out there.

If you really just want to make prettily-shaped solid chocolate pieces (it’s enough of a production as it is), I suggest getting some molds from a shop. You should also grab an offset spatula, which will help you smooth the tops of your chocolate if you need to.

If you want to make the chocolate pieces look really nice (with that great shine), you’ll need to do what is called tempering the chocolate. This is basically melting it to a certain temperature, then bringing the temperature down in a controlled manner (by adding very finely chopped solid chocolate), and finally bringing the chocolate back up to a slightly higher temperature again. The temperatures vary depending on what kind of chocolate (white/milk vs dark) and some brands even have small variations in specific temperature. To temper, I strongly suggest getting an instant thermometer with a digital display. Keep it in a glass of warm water, but always dry it off before you put it in the melted chocolate. Water is kryptonite for melted chocolate!

I use melted chocolate for lots of things at Christmas time…candy making, dipping, etc and after the chocolate sets for a day or so it gets spotty looking. It doesnt affect the taste but it isnt very appetizing to look at! Is it the chocolate quality or am I maybe getting the chocolate too hot when melting? Please help!

You must not get any water near your chocolate. Water causes this.