An Easier Sweet Treat?

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Sloan Mullins, Contributor

Chocolate, the heavenly treat that everyone adores. There is nothing more satisfying than the crisp crackle of snapping a piece off the bar and with Halloween coming up, everyone is getting ready to devour as much of it as possible. Now chocolate will be easy to find at home since scientists have discovered a new method of tempering chocolate that could allow everyone to make homemade chocolate like a professional chocolatier.

Tempering, the process of heating and cooling chocolate until it crystallizes at a molecular level, is the hardest part of the process when making the treat. Scorching it can leave a nasty, bitter taste, while under tempering, it prevents the chocolate from hardening. Researchers have determined by adding a small number of phospholipids, a type of fatty molecule, into the chocolate will create a smooth texture. Food Chemist, Alejandro Marangoni of the University of Guelph in Canada, claims that “you can simplify the whole tempering process, making sure you always have the right quality of the chocolate.” He and his colleagues focused on what gives chocolate its smooth, luxurious texture, which is cocoa butter. They conducted an experiment where they removed minor parts of cocoa butter, the fatty acids, and phospholipids to see how they affected the tempering process. They added these components back slowly, perfecting the chocolate. The process only required heating the chocolate to 20 degrees Celsius once instead of heating and cooling multiple times.

So, what sweet treat comes to mind when you think of chocolate? With the ease of this new process, you may be able to make your chocolate confections at home! Below is a recipe for some delicious chocolate treats that will hopefully hold you over until Halloween!