Next week is Valentine’s Day and besides flowers, chocolate is a favorite gift to give your favorite Valentine.
In Hawaii, our tropical climate makes it perfect to grow cacao. Each pod of cacao contains almost 50 seeds, and it’s those seeds, known as cacao or cocoa beans, that make the wonderful, silky chocolate we all love.
First, the pods and pulp are placed in containers and fermented. They are turned to help them ferment more evenly. The number of times the beans are turned makes a difference in the final flavor of the chocolate.
After fermentation, the beans are then dried, similar to the drying of coffee beans.
Roasting is the next step. The roasting time, whether a light roast or a dark roast also affect the flavors of the chocolate.
The next step is cracking and winnowing. The thin, papery shell around the roasted cocoa beans are removed, the beans are cracked open, and the shell is removed. The lighter shells are blown away, leaving behind pieces of pure cocoa bean known as “nibs.”
Grinding and conching is the next step, where the nibs are ground with stone rollers until they become a paste known as cocoa mass or cocoa liquor. This pure, unrefined form of chocolate has cocoa butter and cocoa solids. At this point, cocoa butter can be extracted with a hydraulic press. This cocoa butter is what makes the finished product smooth and glossy.
To develop the shiny finish and good “snap,” or the clean clicking sound when your break a piece off, tempering, or controlling the process of raising, lowering and raising the temperature of the chocolate, is necessary to form the right kind of crystals. If you don’t temper and allow the chocolate to cool naturally, the chocolate would be soft and crumbly and would not melt in your mouth.
The final step in making chocolate is pouring it into a mold, ready to be made into a lovely dessert for Valentine’s Day or any special day.
I made this flourless chocolate cake using the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory dark chocolate, Tropical Dreams Hula Cow butter, Ka‘u coffee and local Kurtistown eggs. You can make this dessert up to two days ahead, giving you time to prepare other dishes for Valentine’s Day.
Flourless
chocolate cake
Serves: 12-14
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Wrap the outside with heavy foil to cover the bottom of the pan completely.
Find a roasting pan the springform pan will fit in; boil enough water to cover the springform pan halfway once you have mixed the batter.
In a microwave, melt:
1 pound dark chocolate
2 sticks or 16 tablespoons local Hula Cow unsalted butter
1/4 cup strong Ka‘u coffee
In electric mixer, beat first on medium-low:
8 large eggs
Increase speed to high, being careful not to allow the eggs to splash out of bowl. Beat for five minutes until pale yellow and very thick. Gently fold in one-third of egg mixture into melted chocolate mixture.
Repeat twice more with whipped eggs until no streaks remain. Place batter in prepared springform pan, set in baking pan, pour boiling water to halfway up the side of the springform pan.
Bake 18-20 minutes; do not over bake. There should be a thin crust formed over the top and an instant read thermometer inserted 1 inch from the edge should read 150 degrees. Let cool in roasting pan for 45 minutes.
Transfer to wire rack for three hours.
Refrigerate for at least 12 hours and up to two days ahead.
Thirty minutes before serving, run knife around the edge of the cake. Carefully slide, with the parchment paper still on, to platter. (My cake was firm enough that I was able to remove the parchment paper before placing it on the platter.)
Sprinkle with powdered sugar after cutting and serve on plates.
Foodie bites
• The Hawaii Community College Culinary Program’s Cafeteria and Bamboo Hale are open this week. The Bamboo Hale is featuring the Americas menu as well as the foods of Mexico this week. Call 934-2559 for reservations.
• Speaking about chocolate, experts and chefs will be at the sixth annual Big Island Chocolate Festival on April 28-29 at Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel.
The theme this year is “Worth Its Weight in Gold: The History of Chocolate.” On Friday, April 28, there will be a tour of the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory from 11 a.m.-noon. Tickets are still available for $25.
There are a few VIP tickets available online for $109; at this writing, the website showed five tickets remaining.
Early Bird Gala tickets for $69 are at a premium, and the website showed only two tickets remaining.
The Chocolate Lovers Room Package for $525, with two VIP tickets to the event, showed there are 10 more available online. Check out the Big Island Chocolate Festival website at www.bigislandchocolatefestival.com for more details.
Email Audrey Wilson at audreywilson808 @gmail.com.
