Dark chocolates results

Most chocolate is consumed in the form of chocolate confectionery. Sweet chocolate is produced from chocolate liquor with the addition of sugar and cocoa butter. Sometimes called dark chocolate, sweet chocolate must contain at least 15% chocolate liquor, but may contain as much as 50%. Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate consists of a minimum of 35% chocolate liquor. The chocolate liquor content results in sweet and semisweet chocolate containing the highest amount of theobromine and caffeine per serving of any type of chocolate confectionery (Table 9). Within brands of sweet chocolate, there is wide variation in the methylxanthine... 

The table also reports the standard deviation of three replicate measurements for each sample. Standard deviation, discussed in Chapter 4, is a measure of the reproducibility of the results. If three samples were to give identical results, the standard deviation would be 0. If results are not very reproducible, then the standard deviation is large. For theobromine in dark chocolate, the standard deviation (0.002) is less than 1% of the average (0.392), so we say the measurement is reproducible. For theobromine in white chocolate, the standard deviation (0.007) is nearly as great as the average (0.010), so the measurement is poorly reproducible. 

Research on blending milk fat and its fractions with cocoa butter to reduce costs and/or to improve stability against fat bloom in chocolates has had mixed results. Milk fat hard fractions have been reported to inhibit fat bloom formation in both milk and dark chocolates (Versteeg et al., 1994 Dimick et al., 1996b Bricknell and Hartel, 1998) but to accelerate fat bloom in compound coatings based on palm kernel oil (Ransom-Painter et al., 1997). Reddy et al. (1996) showed the importance of modifying the... 

Depending on the food matrix, multiplex DNA can show some discrepancies in the detection of different allergenic targets, due to differential efficiency of the amplification process. This issue has been shown in the case of the determination of the hazelnut allergen isoforms Cor a 1.03 and Cor a 1.04 in some matrices, including dark chocolate, soy milk, lecithin supplement, and snack muesli (Bettazzi et al., 2008). For this reason, multiplex assays must be evaluated carefully during and after development, to reduce inconsistent results. 

Knowing how much analyte is in the aqueous extract of the chocolate, Denby and Scott could calculate how much theobromine and caffeine were in the original chocolate. Results for dark and white chocolates are shown in Table 0-1. The quantities found in white chocolate are only about 2% as great as the quantities in dark chocolate. 

A more complex flavor development occurs in the production of chocolate. The chocolate beans are first fermented to develop fewer complex flavor precursors upon roasting, these give the chocolate aroma. The beans from unfermented cocoa do not develop the chocolate notes (84—88) (see Chocolate and cocoa). The flavor development process with vanilla beans also allows for the formation of flavor precursors. The green vanilla beans, which have Htfle aroma or flavor, are scalded, removed, and allowed to perspire, which lowers the moisture content and retards the enzymatic activity. This process results in the formation of the vanilla aroma and flavor, and the dark-colored beans that after drying are the product of commerce. 

The green, odorless fruits are subjected to a month-long curing (fermentation) process that consists of alternately moistening and sun-drying the pods, which then produces the chocolate-brown to black half-dried sticks called vanilla pods. Extraction with hydrocarbon solvents of these pods yields vanilla resinoid, which is either used as such or further purified to remove resinous matters and render the extract alcohol-soluble. The resulting product is vanilla absolute, a dark brown, clear and viscous liquid with a rich, warm note that consists of a sweet culinary aspect, surrounded by a deep, spicy, balsamic body and touches of woody and an-imalic notes. 

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