"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
...
> at Tue, 15 Nov 2005 17:14:12 GMT in >,
> lid (Margaret Suran) wrote :
>
>>Today when I went grocery shopping, I wanted to get a couple of
>>packages of the Ghiradelli Double Chocolate chips. I couldn't find
>>them in their usual place, but instead there were packages of "60%
>>Cocoa Bittersweet Chocolate" chips,
>>
>>Have you heard of these new chips? If so, have you tried them? Are
>>they the same as the double chocolate ones, in a new package?
>
> No - they're the replacement for the Double Chocolate chips. Ghirardelli
> has chosen to trade off improved flavour and mouthfeel for poorer shape
> maintenance during baking. So a batch of cookies made with these new chips
> will taste better, but the chips flatten dramatically more, and out of the
> bag they're flatter to begin with, more like mini-discs than the familiar
> "chip" profile. What they've done is to tinker with fat and sugar ratios -
> it's something of a mixed blessing. I can't deny that the boost in flavour
> is a *big* plus, but I also think the problems of flattening during baking
> are a negative. I suspect Ghirardelli succumbed to the observation that an
> increasing proportion of chocolate chips these days are used for general-
> purpose baking and confectionery applications, (where typically bloc
> couverture is used), not to mention eating out of the bag, and decided to
> shift their chips to this model - it's basically bar chocolate in the
> shape
> of chocolate chips. Is this an improvement? Depends on your POV.
>
> --
> Alex Rast
Perhaps with the national interest in chocolate in percentages is also a
reason to change the packaging. I checked out a book from the library which
I read much of last night, Alice Medrich, author, of "Bitter Sweet ..
Recipes and Tale from a Life in Chocolate." She gives recipes many of which
include the variations for the different percentages of chocolate. I must
admit it looks very persuasive, given her creditentials.
I am not a chocolate-recipe maker, but I have gathered my chocolate with
the thought in mind. I'm definitely not headed toward 'tempering'
chocolate, and she only refers to it in a rather small portion of her book.
I thinking of buying the book (as a pleasurable reference book, if nothing
else) because if I do make more chocolate recipes, I know of nothing like
this book -- do you have any opinion on this book, Alex, if you know it?
Thanks.
Dee Dee