Perfect Chocolate Mousse
A "How To"; All About Chocolate, Dessert, and New Coffee Selections
Greetings, 🏝
Taking our first look at Chocolate today. Chocolate is much more than brownies and ice cream. It’s a truly unique concoction that can be quite complex if one wants to go down the confectionary rabbit hole. Things like cacao origin, tempering, bloom, not to mention the hundreds of preparations that chocolate can take on, from sweet to savory!
Given that Valentines Day is just 9 days away, check out the Octopod Culinary “Luvooor Special”:
The biggest savings deal yet, to get your kitchen stocked for years of delicious memories! Check the Link Above: (Free Shipping in US!)
Coffee:
February Coffee ☕️ selections have been made for Octopod Culinary!
Last month was a total sell out, so this month 🐙 is upping the Roast Batches to satisfy all the Coffee Luvoooor’s.
This month are (2) First’s:
GUATEMALA (NATURAL PROCESS):
This lot is 100% of the Maragogype variety; characterized by especially large bean size. This variety is rarely seen because of its low yield and susceptibility to leaf rust.
This is the 1st time being able to use this varietal as a single origin cofee, and it's amazing.
An unbelievable triumph in agriculture and deliciousness!
Tasting Notes: Blackberry, Brown Sugar, Graham Cracker
OCTOPOD BLEND
COLOMBIA/BRAZIL/EL SALVADOR:
This is the first blend being offered from Octopod Coffee! The coffees have been hand selected to create a particular flavor profile and experience, with an emphasis on versatility.
As finish the Winter months, this blend uses heavier tasting notes of caramelized sugar, nuttiness and very subtle fruit with the goal of achieving heavier mouthfeel and texture.
Tasting notes: Milk Chocolate, Caramel, Macadamia, Marshmallow
If you haven’t tried yet, place your order now to get in on the best coffee’s being offered anywhere. The quality, flavor profiles and shipping from Roast date make these coffee’s sublime!
Easiest method is to get on the monthly subscription, which guarantee’s you a monthly delivery, or you can do a one-time order to try out the Octopod Coffee ☕️ experience.
Chocolate 101:
Perhaps there is no other culinary ingredient as popular as chocolate.
Some people self-gloss as “Choco-holics” as proud chocolate lovers.
In the Confection/Dessert World, chocolate reigns supreme to an almost eye-rolling level.
-Death By Chocolate
-Chocolate Cream Pie
-Chocolate Brownies
-Chocolate Macaron
-Chocolate Soufflé
-Chocolate Molten Cake
-Flourless Chocolate Cake
-Terry’s Chocolate Orange 🍊
-Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut Bars
-Chocolate Donuts
-Chocolate Eclairs…
Easy to see that one Substack couldn’t even come close to covering even part of the Chocolate Universe 🍫
Below is a brief intro to chocolate, what to look for, and the one chocolate preparation that everyone should have in their cooking arsenal to delight and transport your guests, lovers or family into pure Choco-Bliss! 🍫
What is Chocolate:
At it’s most basic, chocolate is made by combining Cacao (de-shelled, fermented, roasted, then ground), Cocoa Butter & Sugar.
The Cacao Tree itself produces large pods that contain the beans inside. The fermenting and roasting process turns the light colored beans dark brown.
Finding quality chocolate used to be a challenge, back in the day.
Thankfully, grocery stores, specialty shops and even Amazon have opened access for almost anyone to get their hands on good quality chocolate, saving us from the gross baking bar chocolates of the 70’s & 80’s 👀 ⬇️
The cacao beans after fermenting, roasting and grinding are then combined with cocoa butter, sugar and then tempered (a process of heating and cooling the chocolate to specific temperatures) to achieve that classic snap you expect when opening a chocolate bar and taking a bite.
Commercially, soy lecithin is also used as an emulsifier.
Chocolate is incredibly complex; made up of hundreds of flavor components spanning from fresh fruits, dried fruits, liquors, roasting and bitter flavors all coming together in synergy. Chocolates from specific geographic origins and even micro-lots can exhibit specific flavors which connoisseurs find desirable.
Types of Chocolate:
Dark Chocolate: a wide range of possibilities, but specifically chocolate liquor (from grinding the cacao beans) combined with additional cocoa butter, sugar and lecithin. Sometimes dark chocolates will contain milk fat to soften to the texture.
Unsweetened chocolate, is a type of dark chocolate, and is 100% chocolate liquor with no sugar. This chocolate, also known as Baking Chocolate has a strong bittering/astringent quality.
Semi-sweet is another term you’ll see, and a wide range of % cocoa listed on chocolate ranging from 35-100% cocoa solids.
So what does cocoa solid % do to flavor?
Rule of Thumb: As the cacao % increases, the chocolate itself will taste more intensely chocolatey and less sweet. This makes sense because as the % increases, then sugar content would decrease. Using different %’s in recipes can be slightly complex, because cacao % affects texture as well as flavor and sweetness desserts.
Milk Chocolate:
The most popular type of eating chocolate, milk chocolate is the same as dark chocolate, but with the addition of milk solids. *Note that milk chocolate isn’t made with liquid milk, but rather, the dried solids.
Milk chocolate has at least 10 percent cocoa liquor by weight, and at least 12 percent milk solids
White Chocolate:
This is basically milk chocolate with all the cocoa solids removed. Cocoa Butter is what defines “white chocolate”. It has at least 20 percent cocoa butter, 14 percent milk solids, and no more than 55 percent sugar. While on the sweeter side of chocolates, there are some very good quality white chocolate producers.
Caramelizing white chocolate is one of the favorite techniques I learned in working with chocolate. (More on that in a future Substack).
Buying Chocolate:
Ultimately your flavor preference will guide what kind of chocolates you like to use.
There is no “wrong” answer unless a recipe calls for a specific cocoa solid %; a deviation could affect the final product. For example, using a darker chocolate would decrease the total sugar and most likely fat (cocoa butter), in the recipe and result in a drier texture. (Purely hypothetical, depends on preparation and recipe)
As a general rule, 🐙 prefers darker chocolates. Not that on occasion a Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar doesn’t hit the spot… but in general darker is where my palate goes.
In general most people have an over-sugared palate which dulls your ability to perceive nuanced flavors over time. When buying chocolate, producers matter.
Here’s a few producers 🐙 has worked with for a long time and can vouch for the quality.
-Cacao Barry
-Callebeaut
-Valrhona
If you’re in the grocery store and don’t find these available, or out of budget, Ghirardelli and Lindt make decent quality chocolates.
*Will be dropping much more chocolate content, sporadically, as it is a very versatile and delicious ingredient
So what is the one chocolate 🍫 preparation that any cook should have in their arsenal?
The answer to this lay in:
Simplicity- using a minimum number of ingredients
Time- less than 20 minutes to put together
Storage & Serving- Can hold in the fridge for a week and pull out at a moments notice.
And finally, a chocolate dessert that is smooth, rich, luscious and tastes like heaven.
Which dessert does 🐙 speak of?
The incomparable ⬇️
Chocolate Mousse:
Invented by French post-impressionist painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec in the late 1800’s. Chocolate mousse is a triumph in texture, flavor… and seduction (if required 😉 ).
Melted chocolate is folded with whipped eggs and cream, then chilled. Producing a dessert of true alchemy.
Traditionally served with a crunchy cookie, can also be dressed up by piping into pastry shells, or as an element in a composed dessert, the chocolate mousse is extremely flexible.
There’s a lot of different recipes out there… egg whites only… milk chocolate… dark chocolate… the fact is most recipes are over-sugared.
So we’re going to use a good chocolate, a modest amount of sugar… and one trick to get the most airy, light, ethereal chocolate mousse you’ve ever had!
