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Alex Rast

at Sat, 25 Feb 2006 01:31:57 GMT in
>,
(Dr. Edward Warren) wrote :

>Recently I have experimented with hot cocoa made from cocoa powder and
>whole milk. Many of the recipes warn not to boil the milk, but I have
>found that it tastes more chocolaty if it all boils for a short time.
>If I boil it while stirring well and none of it burns onto the bottom of
>the pan, is this a problem? Is that what is meant by scorching? Do
>some really think it is better totally unboiled but just heated up?

I'm curious - do you eat and enjoy a lot of Hershey's milk chocolate? If
so, this is why you might interpret the flavour as "more chocolatey".
Hershey's milk chocolate departs from almost every other manufacturer -
they use liquid milk instead of powdered when making their chocolate.
Because of the process involved, the net result is that Hershey's milk
chocolate always has a very distinct "cooked-milk" taste to it. If you eat
a lot of Hershey's, you may associate that with the taste of chocolate and
believe it's an aspect of chocolate's basic flavour.

It's also true that chocolate, when heated, tastes stronger than it does at
room temperature (because the heat evaporates volatiles). However, once
heated and cooled, of course, it tastes less strong because you've
evaporated off those flavour components.

In addition, with continued heating and stirring, the chocolate flavour
will infuse into the milk. The net flavour isn't really any more intense,
but it's more evenly distributed and will therefore have a mellower, richer
quality to it.

Scorching, BTW, is instantly recognisable once you've done it. The
chocolate takes on a decidedly bitter tone and will certainly taste a
little burnt. Scorched chocolate might not be completely burnt but it's
certainly at least a little burnt.

You can successfully make a really great, super-cocoa-ey hot chocolate
without boiling the milk, but you have to heat it *slowly* and keep it warm
with the cocoa stirred in for some time. This slow process yields good
results but you need to be prepared to set aside 30 minutes or so. Not so
good given the usual situation - you want it right away.

--
Alex Rast

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