Chocolate recipes

The particular characteristics of any given chocolate processing depend upon:

• Origin of the bean
• Method of processing
• Method of obtaining the extra cocoa butter
• Source and treatment of the milk for milk chocolate
• Presence of minor components such as essential oils, etc.

During the hundred or so years that chocolate has existed as a food, different recipe traditions have developed in various parts of the world.

For example, milk chocolate in the United Kingdom is mainly made by a process that starts with liquid milk, whereas milk chocolate in Continental Europe is invariably made using milk powder.

Chocolate in the United States uses beans from South America; these have a different flavor from the West African beans that are mainly used in Europe.

Each of these recipe traditions is equally valid. Assertions occasionally seen in some of the snobbier magazines that chocolate from a particular source is “better” than that from another, because it contains more cocoa, is about as silly as it would be to claim that Austrian strudel is better than American apple pie because it contains more apples.

Nowadays, with the agreement on the completion of the internal market, we are moving towards a philosophy that recognizes that any wholesome food should be acceptable in the marketplace.

Provided that the product is adequately labeled, the consumer should be free to choose on the basis of cost and preference alone.
Chocolate recipes