Chocolate Recipe

 

                                            Warme Chocolademelk

Hot chocolate recipes date all the way back to the times of the Mayans and Aztecs, whose original cacao beverages were seen as bitter and unpleasant by many Europeans who tasted their beverages. “Mayans learned how to create a delicacy fit for godlike kings from the fruit of the cacao tree”. The Mayans considered cacao to be the food of the gods, and they had several steps to create their liquid beverage. First, The mayans remove the seeds from the cacao pods which they cut off from the cacao tree and cut out the surrounding flesh pulp.Then, they let the beans ferment for a couple of days before they are laid out in the sun to dry for about a week, maybe two. The mayans use flames to heat the beans to add more aroma and flavor, then remove the husks of the beans. The nibs that are left are then grounded on a stoned metate into a paste which would give the unsweetened dark chocolate taste.Then water was added to make the chocolate beverage. The mayans would add vanilla or chilis and other ingredients to enhance the bitter beverage. One of the popular cacao types found in mesoamerica was the theobroma cacao plant.Theobroma cacao plant was the main dominant strain of cacao harvested by meso-americans and later europeans. The Columbian exchange allowed cacao to be introduced into Europe but also Africa where in later centuries would be divided up in the scramble for Africa. The European powers transferred the production of cacao from americas to africa to ensure they had control of the cacao as latin america was rising up in rebellion of each colonial power. There the production of cacao would increase in africa while decreasing in the americas. Since the age of exploration, Europeans have attempted over centuries to adapt the taste of chocolate to their liking. With the Spanish and Portuguese being one of the first European colonists to attempt adapting the tastes of chocolate. The Spanish and Portuguese held a monopoly on the supply of cacao as the regions which they conquered are only sustainable for cacao there.They built small farms where a concentrated group of people could work and harvest cacao at a much quicker rate than harvesting from the wild. These farms were built only with cacao production in mind so they were covered with trees to build the ideal conditions for cacao pods to grow. The dutch like the english were interested in tapping into the cacao markets which spain held dominance over.The dutch were known for having a merchant fleet shipping the cacao to spain, The hacendados also needed Dutch merchant trade to break even the profits from cacao. The dutch often practiced illegal trade with provinces like curacao. “Spain obtained cacao through Amsterdam or directly through the new world” Many Europeans were eager to experiment with chocolate due to the plagues affecting Europe at the time. Churches like the society of Jesus would argue the experimentation and cropping of cacao for medicinal purposes. Eventually these luxury goods were drinked by the noble and royal families in europe. At first like the Mayan it was the noble classes of society where they drank chocolate as a luxury good aside from England who sold the product in coffee houses. The cacao still had a bitter taste which the Europeans were trying to adapt to their liking thus attempting to assimilate the product.  It wasn’t until the late 1800’s when chocolate production along with the industrial revolution really changed the tastes of chocolate among European consumers. The production of chocolate became mechanized throughout the 1800’s starting in Switzerland with Francois-Louis Couseir who envisioned by making chocolate using machines he was looking for quality rather than quantity. The machines would improve the quality of the chocolate and reduce the cost for producing it. In a way, chocolate production today is all mechanized and there was a limit to mankind's touch which could differ the taste of chocolate today. Many other machines were invented to improve the process of making chocolate such as the melangeur, where dry powder was once again turned into dough to allow proper mixing. In Amsterdam, Casper van Houten built a chocolate mill in 1815, it wasn’t until his son Coenradd Johannes Van Houten invented the cacao press which made cacao more accessible to the general public and he found a way to separate the enormous amounts of fat in cacao butter and liquor to invent a much lighter and tasteful chocolate powder. “Van Houten developed a process without the added water, producing cocoa cakes that could be milled into reduced - fat cocoa powder.

The dutch cocoa press was invented in 1828, in this process which is now referred as the dutching Van Houten created the powder with alkaline. This invention put the Netherlands on the world map for being one of the top inventors of modern chocolate.  Today the dutch are still a modern force in the world holding up to twenty-five percent of the world's cocoa export business. The cacao butter which was separated in the cacao press could be later added back in with sugar, milk and other ingredients. Van Houten’s invention allowed chocolate to transition from a luxury good into a common resource which the average kid could buy. Although by the 1900s, many attempts were made to turn the popular chocolate drink into a cacao solid, the dutch have still traditionally upheld the value of hot chocolate. Warme Chocolademelk is a dutch traditional hot drink recipe. The ingredients consist of a half liter of milk, 80 grams of dark chocolate, 1 egg yolk, and one tablespoon of sugar. There is a specific method which the dutch use to melt the chocolate in the drink, this method is called au-bain marie. Au-bain marie is a method that melts chocolate slowly, you would need to use a double boiler or a small pan to fill it with water. Then, Boil the water, reduce the heat and put the chocolate in the pan to stir until dissolved. In the Netherlands this drink is associated with the winter season by simply pouring hot milk on cocoa powder and adding in the melted hot chocolate.