Types of chocolate
Sweet chocolate, usually dark in colour is made with chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, and such flavourings as vanilla beans, vanillin, salt, spices and essential oils. Sweet chocolate usually contains at least 25-35% chocolate liquor content. The ingredients are blended, refined (ground to a smooth mass), and conched. Viscosity is then adjusted by the addition of more cocoa butter, lecithin (an emulsifier), or a combination of both.
Milk chocolate is formulated by substituting whole milk solids for a portion of the chocolate liquor used in producing sweet chocolate. It usually contains at least 10% chocolate liquor and 12% whole milk solids. Manufacturers usually exceed these values, frequently going upto 12-15% chocolate liquor and 15-20% whole milk solids. Milk chocolates, usually lighter in colour than sweet chocolate, are milder in taste because of its lower content of bitter chocolate.
Confectionery
Confectionery, processed food based on a sweetener, which may be sugar or honey, to which are added other ingredients such as flavorings and spices, nuts, fruits, fats and oils, gelatin, emulsifiers, colorings, eggs, milk products, and chocolate or cocoa. Confectionery, usually called candy in the United States, or sweets in Great Britain, can be divided into two kinds according to their preparation and based on the fact that sugar, when boiled, goes through different stages from soft to hard in the crystallization process.
Typical of soft, or crystalline, candy—smooth, creamy, and easily chewed—are fondants (the basis of chocolate creams) and fudge; typical hard, noncrystalline candies are toffees and caramels. Other favorite confections include nougats, marshmallows, the various forms of chocolate (bars or molded pieces, sometimes filled), pastes and marzipan, cotton candy (spun sugar), popcorn, licorice, and chewing gum.
Records show that confectionery was used as an offering to the gods of ancient Egypt. Honey was used as the sweetener until the introduction of sugar in medieval Europe. Among the oldest types of candies are licorice and ginger from the Far East and marzipan from Europe. Candy-making did not begin on a large scale until the early 19th century, when with the development of special candy-making machinery it became a British specialty.
In the U.S. the candy industry began to grow rapidly during the mid-19th century with the invention of improved machinery and a cheaper process for powdering sugar. In 1911 the first candy bars were sold in baseball parks; by 1960 candy bars made up almost half of U.S. confectionery production. By the 1980s annual world production of confectionery totaled many millions of kilograms.
Sweet chocolate, usually dark in colour is made with chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, and such flavourings as vanilla beans, vanillin, salt, spices and essential oils. Sweet chocolate usually contains at least 25-35% chocolate liquor content. The ingredients are blended, refined (ground to a smooth mass), and conched. Viscosity is then adjusted by the addition of more cocoa butter, lecithin (an emulsifier), or a combination of both.
Milk chocolate is formulated by substituting whole milk solids for a portion of the chocolate liquor used in producing sweet chocolate. It usually contains at least 10% chocolate liquor and 12% whole milk solids. Manufacturers usually exceed these values, frequently going upto 12-15% chocolate liquor and 15-20% whole milk solids. Milk chocolates, usually lighter in colour than sweet chocolate, are milder in taste because of its lower content of bitter chocolate.
Confectionery
Confectionery, processed food based on a sweetener, which may be sugar or honey, to which are added other ingredients such as flavorings and spices, nuts, fruits, fats and oils, gelatin, emulsifiers, colorings, eggs, milk products, and chocolate or cocoa. Confectionery, usually called candy in the United States, or sweets in Great Britain, can be divided into two kinds according to their preparation and based on the fact that sugar, when boiled, goes through different stages from soft to hard in the crystallization process.
Typical of soft, or crystalline, candy—smooth, creamy, and easily chewed—are fondants (the basis of chocolate creams) and fudge; typical hard, noncrystalline candies are toffees and caramels. Other favorite confections include nougats, marshmallows, the various forms of chocolate (bars or molded pieces, sometimes filled), pastes and marzipan, cotton candy (spun sugar), popcorn, licorice, and chewing gum.
Records show that confectionery was used as an offering to the gods of ancient Egypt. Honey was used as the sweetener until the introduction of sugar in medieval Europe. Among the oldest types of candies are licorice and ginger from the Far East and marzipan from Europe. Candy-making did not begin on a large scale until the early 19th century, when with the development of special candy-making machinery it became a British specialty.
In the U.S. the candy industry began to grow rapidly during the mid-19th century with the invention of improved machinery and a cheaper process for powdering sugar. In 1911 the first candy bars were sold in baseball parks; by 1960 candy bars made up almost half of U.S. confectionery production. By the 1980s annual world production of confectionery totaled many millions of kilograms.