The description of Belgian Chocolate
This type of chocolate is rich and delicious, but the most important of all – it represents true quality out of all the chocolates in the world. Belgian chocolate is considered to be the gourmet standard by which all other chocolate confections are measured for ages. Even the Swiss chocolatiers imported the basic recipe from French and Belgian chocolatiers. The most important thing that make Belgian chocolate so unique is the quality and the character of it. But instead of talking a lot about Belgian chocolate, you should better try some!
History of Belgian Chocolate
To introduce you to the history of Belgian chocolate we have to go back to the XVIIth century when Belgium was ruled by the Spanish, whose explorers had brought cocoa from South America. At that time, cocoa was a luxury drink only for the royals and artists who visited the royal courts in Brussels. In 1857, Jean Neuhaus had opened the first chocolate shop. It was a pharmaceutical sweets shop in Brussels, where the bars of bitter chocolate were also sold. About 60 years later Neuhaus’ grandchild invented the pralines – empty chocolate shells with sweet fillings. These Belgian chocolate pralines can contain many different creams and nougats, flavored with fruit, different chocolates, coffee, nuts, and more. Neuhaus had little competition since few other confectionary makers could keep up with the complicated flavors he created. Many of the great Belgian chocolate producers currently in business are famous for making gourmet pralines from Neuhaus to Godiva.
More about Belgian Chocolate
There are two the most important things what makes Belgian Chocolate so special – it is the highest quality of ingredients and the accurate following of old techniques using original equipment. Most Belgian chocolate, even in today’s mass production times, is still made by hand in small manufactures.
How to make Belgian chocolate?
Do you know, which ingredients contains Belgian chocolate? In belgian chocolate cocoa paste, sugar and cocoa butter are traditionally mixed in varying proportions. During the course of making chocolate, cocoa beans are grounded, then mixed with cocoa butter and sugar. The mixture is smoothed through the application of heat, which is called tempering. Dark Belgian chocolate is made mostly from cocoa, milk chocolate – mixes in milk and white chocolate is made by extracting only the butter from the cocoa. The third thing which makes Belgian chocolate so unique is that since chocolate is received it hasn’t been cooled and because of this chocolate stays in better condition and preserves its flavor and aroma more than those types that have been cooled. The companies that get their couverteur in a solid form have to reheat it to use which changes the temper of the chocolate.