were there animal fats in chocolate at any stage
2007-02-12 19:50:46 · 7 answers · asked by Radio Flyer 3 in Food & Drink ➔ Other - Food & Drink
Chocolate starts with a tree called the cacao tree. The tree grows in equatorial regions, especially in places like South America, Africa, Indonesia and Hawaii. The cacao tree produces a fruit about the size of a small pineapple and shaped like a football. Inside the fruit are cacao seeds, also known as cocoa beans.
The seeds are dried, roasted and put in a grinder or blender until a thick liquid –– chocolate liquor — is formed.
Chocolate liquor has nothing to do with alcohol. It is merely liquefied cocoa beans. When chocolate liquor cools and solidifies, it becomes pure, unsweetened chocolate. Chocolate liquor often is put in a hydraulic press to squeeze out the fat. The fat is called cocoa butter, which can be used to make everything from white chocolate to tanning products. The brown solids left behind in the press are known as cocoa powder, which is great for baking or chocolate milk.
Dark chocolate is cocoa liquor mixed with extra cocoa butter and some sugar. It sounds like a simple recipe, but making chocolate is an art.
First, the ingredients are put through a process called conching, in which big heavy rollers mash the ingredients over and over again on a granite slab. The goal is to break up the sugar crystals and cocoa solids so the chocolate is absolutely smooth when you eat it. The conching process can take up to three days in the finest chocolates.
After conching, the chocolate is tempered to make sure the fats crystallize in the right way. There are six ways the fats can crystallize, and only one of them makes for good eating. By carefully heating and cooling the chocolate at exactly the right temperatures, you get perfect crystallization. The chocolate snaps when you break it and it melts in your mouth.
To make milk chocolate, milk is added to dark chocolate. To make white chocolate, cocoa solids are left out altogether. Cocoa butter is mixed with milk and sugar to make a white chocolate bar. The same rules for conching and tempering apply.
2007-02-12 20:04:31 · answer #1 · answered by bilahari a 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I like using real sweet cream butter, rather than shortening or margarine. Gives the cookies a better taste. The quality of the chocolate will also make a difference. Toll House chips are good, but Ghirardelli chocolate chunks are better! For **really** good cookies: use a food processor to finely chop walnuts and/or pecans into a powder. Use this nut powder in place of 1/4 or 1/2 of the flour. However you decide to make your, can I have some when you're done baking? I LOVE homemade chocolate chip cookies!
2016-05-24 04:35:30 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the company that makes them! Some use animal fats!
But, why do you care? Chocolate is so yummy.....I don't care what's inside!
2007-02-12 19:54:23 · answer #3 · answered by Roubini 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Plain dark chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and (sometimes) vanilla
Milk chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, milk or milk powder, and vanilla
White chocolate: sugar, cocoa butter, milk or milk powder, and vanilla
everything about chocolate in this site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate
2007-02-12 19:55:58 · answer #4 · answered by micho 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i ithink there is no animal fats involve in chocolate. what is more on it is cocoa.
2007-02-12 20:00:51 · answer #5 · answered by leachim 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good Question, I don't like your chances of Cadbury giving that secret away!
2007-02-12 19:53:15 · answer #6 · answered by Corrine L 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Believe it or not WAX is one ingredient.
2007-02-12 19:54:08 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋