What Goes Into Making Chocolate
People have been in love with chocolate since the dawn of recorded history, and probably before that. This might not mean anything to a lover of chocolate. It might not mean anything for them to know exactly how chocolate is created either. It might grow within them a sense of awe to realize exactly how much effort gets put into bringing their beloved sweet to life. Truth be told, there is a lot more going into the creation of sweet chocolate than just grabbing a cacao bean and firing up the stove. Starting with picking the perfect bean to developing the many types of chocolates, experienced hands are needed to make certain that the best quality goes into the making of the sweetest tasting chocolate around.
The initial step is possible the most critical step when creating chocolate, and that is the picking of the most perfect bean. If the bean lacks the best quality then the resulting chocolate might be subpar at best. Because of this, most chocolatiers go to great lengths to pick the perfect bean on their own, in person.
After the picking of the cacao bean is complete, the chocolatier takes the chosen beans and ferments and roasts them. Roasting has an important influence on how the chocolate eventually tastes, but each subsequent step is more important to the process than that. Once roasting is done, the development of the chocolate moves over to crushing the beans in a grinder. While going through the grinder, the juice extracted from the beans is taken out. This is called cacao liquor and is the genesis of chocolate itself.
To produce chocolate from this extracted liquid, the chocolatier adds sugar. Afterward, the mix in ground again, so that graininess and grittiness are removed from the taste. After this second grinding is done, the chocolate manufacturer goes on to the next step, which is called conching. Using both heat and more grinding, conching can last anywhere from a handful of hours to over a day. During the conching step, chocolate starts to look like mouthwatering chocolate.
After conching has been done, the chocolatier moves through the final steps in making their chocolate. These steps depend on the variety of chocolate being produced, from the standard milk chocolate to the specialty dark chocolate, etc. Further steps depend on the final presentation of the product, and can include unique shapes, filling and possible icing on its surface.
As you can see, chocoholics just don't realize all the work and effort that goes into the creation of their best loved treats. Starting at the bean and going through the final presentation, the professional chocolatier is on hand to assure quality and perfection along the way. However, none of this is a concern to us as we make our own chocoloate pie recipes. All we need to worry about his heading to our neighborhood supermarket for our favorite chocolate ready to be added to our own recipes.
Plain Chocolate Pie
- ¼ C grated chocolate
- 2 C water
- 2 egg yolks (save the whites)
- 2 tbsp cornstarch or 4 tbsp flour
- ½ C sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
Dissolve the chocolate in part of the water by putting it on the back of the stove and let simmer. Add the rest of the water, egg yolks, cornstarch, and sugar, whip all together, put on stove and boil until it thickens, add vanilla. Line pie plate with your pie dough, set another pan the same size in it and bake, when half done, take pan out, and bake done, then pour in filling, whip the whites of the eggs stiff, add two tablespoons of sugar, spread on top and set in oven and let brown.
Best Chocolate Pie
- ⅓ C chocolate, grated
- 2 C milk
- ⅓ C sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
Dissolve the chocolate in a little of the milk, whip up the eggs and sugar in the rest of the milk, pour in when chocolate is dissolved. Put on stove and let boil for three minutes. Line pie plate with your pie dough and bake, the dough should be stuck with a fork, or another pan the same size set in it, to keep crust from raising up, when done pour in the filling, let cool a little, then beat the whites of two eggs stiff with two tablespoons sugar added, spread on to top, dust with sugar, set in oven and brown.
Chocolate Pie Recipes
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Chocolate Pecan Pie Recipe
Fudge Pecan Pie Recipe
Chocolate Pie Recipe
Chocolate Strawberry Pie Recipe