My Chocolate Fantasy

Chocolate is one of the oldest processed foods enjoyed over the past millennium. It came from the tropical tree called cocoa. This tree is native to South America, Central America and Mexico. The seeds of the cocoa tree are dried and fermented and finally grounded and liquefied. As a result of these processes, pure unsweetened chocolate is formed.
There are different kinds of chocolate. Each is classified according to its composition and color. Milk chocolate is the combination of sugar, cocoa butter and milk. It is considered not a true chocolate because of the absence of cocoa solids formed from the processes involved in production of pure chocolate. White chocolate can be consumed by animals. The addition of sugar and fats makes up the third kind of chocolate. Dark chocolate has high cocoa content and is believed to have health benefits by reducing the occurrence of heart attack. One example of dark chocolate is semisweet chocolate which is used in cooking recipes. Sometimes vanilla is added for a more pleasing aroma.
Chocolate is enjoyed in a wide variety of preparations nowadays. If one would go to a nearby restaurant, cafeteria or snack bar, one would definitely come across chocolates in various attractive servings ranging from breads, cakes, drinks and ice creams.
Below is an easy chocolate dessert recipe that you can enjoy doing. It’s a recipe on how to make your ice cream richer, creamier and attractive when served after a sumptuous meal. It is very easy to prepare.
Chocolate Caramel Sauce
Ingredients:
½ gallon vanilla ice cream of any flavor
10 caramels
¾ cup of Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk
1 ¾ cups of Nestle Toll House Milk Chocolate Morsels
Directions:Combine caramels, 1 ½ cups morsels and evaporated milk in a saucepan under low heat. Continuously stir until mixture is smooth. Serve as a topping on ice cream.
This easy chocolate recipe has an estimated cooking time of ten minutes. It yields to seven servings of ¼ cup each. In case of left over, refrigerate and reheat in saucepan while continuously stirring.
You can also use this sauce to add flavor to your brownies and cheesecakes. You can even add peanut butter chips, colored chocolate chips to make it more attractive for kids. This stuff is heavenly and your friends will compliment you for its rich and tempting taste.
This is just an example of an easy to prepare chocolate recipe. Other recipes vary from their ingredients, procedures, cooking time, skill level and the number of servings. Nestle, a multinational packaged food company, offers a wide range of easy chocolate recipes for you to choose from to fit your interests. With its line of chocolate products, dairy products, and ice cream you can surely select a wide variety of easy recipe suggestions to satisfy your eagerness to learn more about easy chocolate recipes.
These easy chocolate recipes let you spend little time in your kitchen yet let you delight anybody’s taste buds. These are easy to follow recipes that you alone can enjoy doing even on a busy day. Enjoy the chocolates. Enjoy the recipes.

Just like the traditional New York cheesecake, the chocolate chip cheesecake recipe is ripe for modification. It basically involves just one modification to the traditional recipe: adding chocolate chips.

Once you’ve broken that “addition barrier,” the dam can break.

Think about the first time you added applesauce to pancakes (or even the aforementioned chocolate chips). It was as if you’d been standing in front of a white canvas and suddenly gotten the courage to pick up a paint brush full of red paint and make a few bold strokes, marring the previously pristine surface but at the same time making it something infinitely more interesting. Suddenly, you had the refrigerator open, pondering.

How about pecan pancakes? They eat those down South, right? Maybe some savory pancakes! I could add some ham and cheese or maybe some jalapenos or habanero peppers! Do you remember the rush of creativity? Do you remember how you made pancakes for dinner on a weeknight just so you could test out eight or nine different flavors?

Well, you likely won’t be making eight or nine chocolate chip cheesecakes on a weeknight, but once you start experimenting you might find yourself buying a spare spring form pan to allow for double batches.

If, by chance, you’re stuck for ideas, head back to basics. What do you know that goes with chocolate? I seem to recall a certain oft-parodied commercial from years ago, wherein one person eating a chocolate bar slammed into another person eating peanut butter. (Did people always walk around eating peanut butter out of the jar?) The result of the collision was the confection now known as the Reese’s Cup.

What else goes with chocolate? Mint chocolate chip is traditionally one of the more popular ice cream flavors. Snickers bars have chocolate and caramel matched together. Are you getting any ideas? You should be!

Now, go cook!

Paris salons are offering chocolate facials, wraps, and scrubs to people who want healthy-looking and wrinkle-free skin.

The services aim to dispel once and for all the age-old myth that chocolate causes acne and other skin problems.

The chocolate-based beauty treatments have been lauded by chocolate gourmets and chocoholics alike who welcome the quick cocoa fix designed to satisfy the senses.

The trendy 32 Montorgueil Spa in Paris uses Nuxe’s Phytochoc range of beauty products that is a hit among middle-aged women who want to reduce their wrinkles. Its chocolate facial costs about $155 and lasts for an hour and a half.

“At 32 Montorgueil cocoa extracts are used for their cosmetic benefits rather than to impart a chocolate high, as the Phytochoc range bears little resemblance to the best Belgian bar,” said the Agence France-Presse.

The Four Seasons Hotel George V Spa offers a “Decadent Chocolate Package” which lasts two and a half hours and costs $390. For that amount you get the “Chocolate and Cranberry Body Scrub” that uses sweet almond oil, chocolate extract, and crushed cocoa beans to exfoliate the skin. Or you can have the “Toffee Chocolate Wrap” where you can soak for 45 minutes in a warm concoction of cocoa butter, shea butter, and chocolate essence.

For the “Deep Chocolate Massage”, chocolate-scented vitamin E enriched oil is used to knead away any wrinkles. The session ends with a plate of hand-made chocolates and a pot of caramel tea.

At the Bernard Cassiere Spa, $58 gets you a 45-minute “Anti-Stress Anti-Pollution Chocolate Treatment.” It starts with a facial massage of pure cocoa butter and leaves you in a state of chocolate bliss as thick melted chocolate is applied on the face and neck. The chocolate mask is made by Italian chocolatier Walter Bovetti and can be licked.

Contrary to popular belief, chocolate doesn’t cause acne. When consumed as part of a balanced diet, this sweet treat has many health benefits. Cocoa or dark chocolate is a rich source of flavonoids and antioxidants that protect the heart. It lowers blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels. The polyphenol compounds in cocoa are also believed to have anti-aging properties.

“Recent scientific studies have suggested chocolate boosts the serotonin in the brain that produces a calming effect and stability. Stress has been identified as a cause of acne. If chocolate stimulates the serotonin and calms the nerves, then chocolate could ironically be found to assist in acne restraint,” according to the Acne Resource Center Online.

As in all things, moderation is the key. Eating large quantities of chocolate is undesirable since it is a rich source of calories that can lead to obesity and a host of diseases. Stick to small but regular amounts of dark chocolate if you want healthy skin. Or better still, use the Rejuvinol AM/PM Botox Alternative Age-Defying System. This powerful anti-aging formula has two components: the Rejuvinol morning moisturizer that nourishes and tones the skin; and the Rejuvox night cream that reduces fine lines and wrinkles. Go to http://www.rejuvinol.com for details.

Chocolate and candy making today is undergoing a renaissance in public awareness and status. This comprehensive book combines artisan confectionery techniques with accessible explanations of the theory and science as well as formulas for use in production. Fundamental information for the confectioner includes ingredient function and use, chocolate processing, and artisan production techniques. The book contains 140 formulas and variations for beautiful confections, including dairy-based centers, crystalline and noncrystalline sugar confectionery, jellies, and nut center and aerated confections.

Candymaking is in the midst of a revolution. The public is increasingly hungry for hand-crafted chocolates and confections, heightening appreciation for the work of artisan confectioners who use traditional techniques and fine ingredients. Now, master confectioner Peter Greweling of The Culinary Institute of America has at lastproduced the bible of artisan confectionery—a comprehensive guide to the ingredients, theory, techniques, and formulas needed to create every kind of chocolate and confection.

Illustrated throughout with nearly 200 striking full-color photographs and illustrations, Chocolates & Confections provides a comprehensive foundation in confectionery, offering accessible explanations of theory as well as illustrated step-by-step guidance on technique, from tempering chocolate to candying fruit. It also includes helpful charts that pinpoint common candy-making pitfalls and how to avoid them, guides to the best quality chocolate and other all-natural confectionery ingredients, as well as information on packaging and storage.

Chocolates & Confections features chapters on every confectionery type—cream ganache, butter ganache, non-crystalline sugar confections, crystalline sugar confections, jellies, aerated confections, and nut centers—and includes nearly 150 formulas for classic confections, such as marzipan made using fresh almonds, as well as contemporary variations such as Madras, a coconut curry butter ganache. From truffles, butter ganache confections, hard candies, brittles, toffee, caramels, and taffy to fondants, fudges, gummies, candied fruit, marshmallows, divinity, nougat, marzipan, gianduja, and rochers, it demonstrates how to produce world-class confections and provides the in-depth background information candy-makers need to formulate their own signature creations.