THE CHOCOHOLICS DELIGHT

13 January 2025 Dr. Kaviraj Khialani

Exciting & Exuberant

The word chocolate brings a bright smile to most of us, and the very sight of chocolate in any form entices and excites the various senses, enlivens our mood, and uplifts our thoughts, too! Among all the varieties of chocolate we have encountered, dark chocolate seems to have received the highest votes and numbers when it comes to being nutritive and good for us to consume once in a while, though keeping in mind the balance factor in a good diet.

Dark chocolate has been around for over 3,000 years. It was developed around 1900 B.C. in Central and South America as a drink. It was the only form of chocolate available at the time. Later, it was also made into a drink for the Aztecs and Mayans for ceremonial and medicinal purposes. It has been one of my favourite and exciting ingredients to work with ever since, and innovating with dark chocolate, be it shakes or puddings, set desserts or flans, is great.

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The dark variety of chocolate is the one without added milk solids. The basic ingredients are cacao beans, sugar, an emulsifier like soy lecithin to preserve texture, and flavourings such as vanilla. The more cocoa and less sugar dark chocolate has, the more bitter it will taste and a small amount is considered a healthful snack besides being able to adapt to various forms, textures and recipes as a part of world cuisine. Early on, dark chocolate was the only form of chocolate available. It was developed around 1900 B.C. as a beverage in what is now Central and South America. Later the Mayans and the Aztecs made bitter dark chocolate beverages for ceremonial and medicinal purposes. Dark chocolate is the speciality of France, and guess what’s more, the world’s largest consumer chocolate show along with the World Chocolate Master Championships takes place here every second year with out of the world variety of concoctions and ideas to keep you asking for more!

Here are 10 health benefits of Dark Chocolate:

Dark chocolate is considered to be a good source of nutrition for our body since it is a powerful source of antioxidants.
Dark chocolate is good for our skin health as well, besides being good for the brain functioning as well.
Dark chocolate lowers blood pressure and lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Dark chocolate protects LDL against oxidation and raises HDL.
Dark chocolate improves our gastrointestinal flora, helps fight fatigue and also helps reduce stress.
Dark chocolate possesses considerable amounts of vitamins, minerals and magnesium which are beneficial for our body.
Dark chocolate is also regarded to be a mood improver and also slows down the signs of aging.
Dark chocolate also contains anti-depressant agents and lowers cholesterol levels in our body.
Dark chocolate is beneficial for weight loss regimes, heightens the libido and also deepens our sleep.
Dark chocolate can drive our metabolism to burn fats and calories and maintain our body weight as well.

10 ways to use Dark Chocolate in our Kitchen & Bakery:

The most popular and classic dessert with dark chocolate is the mousse au chocolat or chocolate mousse from french cuisine, a world-class preparation, delicate, subtle yet outstanding!
Working with cakes, and pastries of various types using dark chocolate is a great experience as well, though some like to use a combination of dark and compound varieties the earlier one comes out much more intense.
Devil’s food cupcakes, dark chocolate muffins, brownies, fudges and more are great confections as well to work on using dark chocolate in the bakery and patisserie.
Vegan dark chocolate bars, health bars and bites are also gaining popularity these days, chocolate fondues, rum balls, and nutty choco healthy desserts are a delight too with dark chocolate.
Dark chocolate mocha, hot dark chocolate in a tall glass to enjoy with some fried churros is a wonderful thing to do in this world on a relaxing note and enjoy a good time with friends or folks.
Dark chocolate in the form of set desserts in bowls/ dessert cups etc in combination with crushed digestive biscuits/crackers and fruits, cream, nuts and seeds are a great delight to offer on a brunch menu.
Dark chocolate in pies, tarts, flans, pastries, in the form of fillings inside croissants, moulding of chocolates for commercial sales, and coating dark chocolate on nuts for example almonds, hazelnuts etc is a good way to use for garnishing and plate presentation as well.
In the form of healthy beverages, shakes in combination with bananas, avocado, kale and spinach, dates, and berries of your choice with a dash of soy milk/oats milk blended with a choice of seeds like chia, flax seeds, sunflower seeds etc is a good energy drink.
Using dark chocolate with Indian desserts and sweets is also interesting for instance adding it with malpuas, doing a dark chocolate rabdi, adding a little dark chocolate to our favourite rice phirni, kheer, payassam, burfi, pedha, Sandesh, sweets like modak, coconut chocolate sev burfi, chocolate Mohanthal etc.
Dark chocolate with waffles, and pancakes supplemented with a variety of fresh fruits like green apples, dragon fruit, durians, mango, strawberries etc go well in presenting some great ideas for breakfast and brunch live stations as well.

Here are a few recipes with Chocolate for that perfect treat!

Recipe-1] CHOCOLATE CASANOVA DELIGHT

Recipe-2] CINNAMON CHOCO DATE RICE PUDDING

Recipe-3] CHOCOLATE FANTASY FILLER

Recipe- 4] HIDDEN TREASURE CHOCO WONDER

Recipe- 5] HEAVENLY CHOCOLATE DESSERT SHOTS

Recipe-6] CHOCOLATE PHIRNI WONDER CUPS

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About the author

Dr. Kaviraj Khialani

Dr. Kaviraj Khialani, celebrity master chef is a Mumbai based food and hospitality consultant. He is specialised in over 33 plus international cuisines & is a two times national award winner for his excellence in his field of expertise. Chef Kaviraj has worked with some of the reputed hotel chains & airline companies in India & Overseas. He is a renowned academician, food designer & author- writer on food and culinary features, besides having been featured on Colors Television & Star plus he loves trying global fusion cooking promoting Indian food on an international platter for the diaspora.