Couverture chocolate

Couverture (from French couverture, " cover ") is a type of chocolate for coating pastries and chocolates, as well as for the production of ganache and other fillings. It is characteristic of couverture that it is melted and processed in the liquid state. She has an increased fat content, so that it is thinner and easier to handle compared to normal bar of chocolate. If the chocolate again get a flawless surface after cooling, it must be precise temperatures - see below.

Chocolate is also available as milk and white chocolate and in different qualities of cheap mass-produced goods to unmixed origin chocolates. For large users, it is usually offered in blocks 2.5 kg in retail in sheets 100 to 200 g; beyond are for easy portioning and chips, lenses, etc. available.

Composition

The legal requirements for Kuvertüreprodukte controls in the European Union, the European Cocoa Directive, implemented in Germany by the cocoa Regulation. The composition of the chocolate coating corresponds substantially to the other of chocolate, for details see chocolate. Told shortened it consists of cocoa mass, sugar, and ( for milk chocolate ) dry milk, the cocoa mass is made up of cocoa butter and other ingredients, called fat-free cocoa solids, the milk solids from milk fat and other constituents such as proteins, lactose, etc. The requirements for chocolate soft now as follows from those relating to normal chocolate:

• For simple chocolate coating: at least 31% cocoa butter instead of 18 % for fat-free cocoa solids only at least 2.5 % instead of 14 %
• For milk chocolate couverture: at least 31 % total fat from cocoa butter and milk fat

For white chocolate, there are no special requirements that go beyond white chocolate, it does not contain fat-free cocoa solids. Overall, the following minimum requirements (all values ​​in percent) obtained:

(* No express requirement, results mathematically)

These are minimum requirements only, mind you - in practice, the cocoa contents are often much higher, from 50 to 100 %. Chocolate with a high content of fat-free cocoa solids is similar to as " dark ", " Bittersweet " referred to; according to Austrian Food Code is mandatory for such terms, a minimum content of 16 % fat- free dry matter.

The chocolate manufacturers give the ratio of sugar to cocoa mass and cocoa butter often as a key figure in the form K / Z / B, where K for the cocoa mass, Z for the sugar, B stands for the cocoa butter. The number for the cocoa butter content may be absent especially in Milchkuvertüre. example:

Means 60 parts of cocoa mass - of which 38 parts of cocoa butter - and 40 parts of sugar. Popular varieties for bakery use are: 60/40/38, 70/30/42, 55/45/37 and 50/50/38 or only slightly different results.

Temper

If the chocolate hardens after application as a coating for biscuits, chocolates etc. again, crystallized cocoa butter. It is necessary that precise control this process to ensure the formation of a highly homogeneous, stable crystal structure. Omitted this, and the cocoa butter crystallized heterogeneous and unstable, affecting the appearance and mouthfeel - ie the so-called " sensory qualities " - the chocolate as follows:

• The surface is matt.
• Gray fat crystals ( bloom ) will eventually appear on the surface.
• The chocolate breaks crumbly rather than crisp and with unclean breakline.

Cocoa butter is a mixture of vegetable oils, the crystallized polymorph, ie there are various possible lattice structures (fachsprachlich modifications ) - only one of these modifications, mostly β with the letter or designated by the roman numeral V, is stable and has the important for the chocolate flavor melting range at approximately 34 ° C. The process of solidification of the chocolate must therefore be mechanically and thermally affected so that as many nuclei are formed in the β - modification. Such a pre-crystallization is achieved in principle in that the existing crystal structure, at first at a high temperature ( 45 ° C ) is completely melted; then the chocolate is cooled below its normal melting point to put the crystallization in motion; However, before they completely crystallized, the temperature is raised again to just over 30 ° C, where the unstable modifications are already melted. Meanwhile, the liquid chocolate mass is mechanically treated in various ways in order to promote the crystallization of the stable modification; to the procedure, see below. At this temperature, the chocolate is then processed and then cooled slowly. The overall process is called tempering; The optimum temperatures depend on the exact composition of the cocoa butter, which varies among different species, harvesting, manufacturing process, etc..

Industrial companies, process the chocolate in a large scale, special machines for tempering have. Artisanal and hobby bakers ( and Confectioners ) heat the chocolate in a bain usually and often with the help of a food thermometer. Known are two methods:

In the event that the chocolate was too hot while dissolving, you can save it by so-called " shocking ". The heated chocolate is placed in the freezer and stir again. Once it is cooled down to below 25 ° C, it can be temper or pre-crystallize again.

The sample with a submerged into tempered chocolate coating range is the simplest control. If the chocolate tempered correctly and has the range to a temperature between 20 and 25 ° C, then the chocolate will start after a few minutes at the thinnest point to be determined. However, for a correct gloss next to the room temperature (20 ° C is ideal), especially the temperature of the body to be coated crucial whose tolerance range between 20 and 27 ° C..

Replacement

Instead of chocolate is to coat baked goods often containing cocoa glaze used. This is similar in chocolate, but instead contains cocoa butter vegetable fats, such as coconut oil or palm oil, or other cocoa butter equivalents. You do not need to be tempered and can be made softer and more can be cut by a suitable choice of the fat blend. It also costs less than chocolate in the rule.

A coating of chocolate glaze looks very similar to chocolate and can be easily confused by the viewer with it, but faces real chocolate a significant impairment in the sense of § has the use of chocolate glaze on sweets and pastries in the scope of 11 LFGB dar. Therefore, this be made law indicated, product with words such as " chocolate ", " chocolate ", etc., are then not permitted (unless they are more real chocolate ingredients justified ). For home use, such coating composition is often under names such as " ( Cake ) cocoa glaze " and similar available in retail stores.

The German Food Code sets the guidelines for pastry for biscuits of exceptional quality that can not be used " with chocolates confused coatings". These so-called top qualities include Florentine, wafers, gingerbread, tree cakes and macaroons. Previously, the use of chocolate glaze in these cases was also not allowed if it has been made ​​available to the consumer identified; Under current law, this no longer holds: All pastries may be coated with chocolate glaze instead of chocolate, the corresponding mark is mandatory. From the version of 23 January 2003 correspond to the guiding principles for the pastry by the phrase " even if it marked " no longer included.