I am a self-confessed chocolate lover – a chocoholic if you will. Ever since I had my first taste of chocolate, I was hooked. There is nothing quite like the taste and texture of good chocolate. Eat it, drink it and even cook with it. Whatever you do, I can guarantee that it will leave you craving for more.

And so it should be! After all, the plant’s botanical name, Theobroma cacao, literally means “food of the Gods.” In our pursuit of all things Godly, why not start with chocolate?

The bean from the Cacao tree is what makes up the main ingredients for chocolate. The bean is fermented, roasted and ground. During the grinding process, the heat generated melts the fats in the cocoa beans to give us cocoa paste otherwise known as chocolate liquor or cocoa liquor. Once this paste is cooled, we get a basic unsweetened chocolate!

The process to get cocoa powder follows the same principles as above. The difference is that before allowing the cocoa paste to cool, pressure is applied to the cocoa paste to remove some of the cocoa butter or fat. The remaining cocoa solid is then ground to produce cocoa powder.

Cocoa butter, or the fat from the cacao bean, is what gives chocolate its smooth texture. In making chocolate, sugar is added to cocoa liquor and ground. More cocoa butter is added as well as an emulsifier. The continued grinding will produce a very fine and smooth mixture. The next step in the process is known as conching. The mixture is heated, mixed and aerated to create that all so familiar velvety and melt in the mouth texture.

Finally, before being moulded into bars, the mixture needs to be tempered. This is why people who eat chocolate rarely lose their temper….but I jest. Tempering is a complicated process of heating to a set temperature, cooling, stirring and then re-heating and quick cooling. This allows tiny crystals to form and gives chocolate the right appearance, consistency and hardness. Incorrect tempering will cause chocolate to melt too quickly or to become crumbly and soft.

The quality of chocolate is dependent on the amount of cocoa and cocoa butter used to make the chocolate. Whenever a recipe calls for chocolate in a recipe, always use good quality chocolate. The cooking chocolate that is available in Malaysia does not have a high percentage of cocoa nor does it have much cocoa butter. Rather, vegetable oil or palm oil is added to reduce the amount of cocoa butter in cooking chocolate. The lack of cocoa and cocoa butter is what gives cooking chocolate its inferior taste and invariably affects the outcome.

Lets have a look at some of the different types of chocolate available:

Like with all cooking, the choice of chocolate is a personal taste. Some people, like me, prefer strong tasting chocolate over sweet milk chocolate and as such I choose to use dark or bittersweet chocolate in my recipes.

I have had the good fortune of using premium chocolate to make some of my desserts and I can tell you that the difference in taste is really astounding. Valrhona, Godiva and Giradhelli are three premier chocolate brands that I have used. Unfortunately, these brands are not available locally and even if they were, the costs are too exorbitant.

You can get good quality chocolate from some baking shops and if all else fails, Cadbury Old Gold chocolate or Lindt Bittersweet chocolate are both easily available. It is definitely more expensive using good chocolate over cooking chocolate, but the results are definitely worth it!