Ibarra is a brand of Mexican table chocolate that is one of the most well know, and most widely available brands of Mexican chocolate. Ibarra chocolate is sold in thick, octaganal tablets and is made with sugar, cacao nibs, lecithin and cinnamon flavoring, which gives it a little spice. The most unusual thing bout this chocolate is that it has a gritty texture, thanks to a very generous amount of coarse, undissolved sugar in the chocolate. The chocolate, unlike regular chocolate bars, is not meant to be eaten in small pieces. Instead, it is meant to be used to make spicy Mexican hot chocolate by dissolving it into hot milk or water.
Ibarra has dramatically increased in popularity and availability over the past few years and is now available in most large grocery stores, where it can be found with other hot chocolates. It is also available at Mexican and specialty stores. In addition to making a tasty hot chocolate, the chocolate can also be chopped and incorporated into all kinds of baked goods – from cookies to cakes – to give them a spicy Mexican chocolate flavor.
There are many recipes out there that call for separating your eggs and when they do, there is a good chance that you are going to have leftover egg yolks or leftover egg whites as a Fortunately, both leftover egg whites and leftover egg yolks can be stored until you need them. But that still leaves you with the question of how to you use up leftover egg whites once you have them on hand? The easiest thing to do with a leftover egg white or two is to mix it into some more eggs the next time you’re making a scramble or an omelette, but here are 5 great recipes that put them to an even better use.
- A batch of Coconut Macaroons is a simple way to use up one or two egg whites. These chewy cookies are easy to make and even easier to eat. The recipe can be scaled up or down easily depending on how many egg whites you have available and how much shredded coconut you have on hand.
- A Fresh Strawberry Souffle uses up four egg whites, and needs no yolks. This light and satisfying souffle can be made with a variety of fruit, but strawberries are perfect in the summertime when they’re in season. Several other souffles can be made using only egg whites, as well, including Maple Souffles and Chocolate Banana Souffles.
- Classic White Cake has a soft, white crumb because it uses only egg whites and no egg yolks in the cake batter. A full sized layer cake will take about six egg whites, but a half batch of the recipe will make a dozen delicious white cupcakes.
- Real Vanilla Bean Buttercream, made with an Italian meringue base, is a must-try for cake and cupcake lovers. This frosting uses five egg whites in an Italian meringue, which forms the base of the ultra-buttery frosting. You may never go back to American-style buttercream again.
- If you are dealing with a whole lot of leftover egg whites, use them up in a batch of angel food cake. A batch of Angel Food Cupcakes bakes a dozen delicious light cupcakes with only five egg whites. If you can make it to 10-12 egg whites, you’ll have enough for a full sized Angel Food Cake.
Maple sugar is a type of sugar that is prepared with the sap from a maple tree. To produce it, the sap is boiled until almost all of the water has been removed from it and the remaining product has crystallized. The sugar can be sold in large blocks, molded into small shapes or simply ground into a granulated version that can be used like regular sugar. It has a strong maple flavor and aroma to it, just like maple syrup.
Maple sugar can be used in recipes in the same way as cane sugar is used. It can be used to sweeten drinks, top oatmeal or incorporated into a flavorful rub for meats. When using maple sugar in baking, it acts just like regular granulated sugar and can be creamed with butter for cookies and cakes. It is almost twice as sweet as regular sugar, so when using it in a recipe that calls for regular sugar, you will want to reduce the amount of sugar slightly so that your finished product isn’t too sweet. You can reduce it by as much as half, but since you want the maple flavor to remain pronounced, it can be a good idea to use slightly more than half and adjust as you go.
Maple sugar is also
Semisweet chocolate chips are a standard ingredient in most bakers’ kitchens. They are the standard for baking chocolate chip cookies, one of the most popular homemade treats out there, as well as for many other baking applications. Semisweet chocolate is typically labeled as just that: semisweet chocolate. But as chocolate labeling gets more and more specific and consumers start to identify with cacao percentages rather than just names, that brings up the question of what exactly semisweet chocolate is.
Semisweet chocolate is dark chocolate, meaning that it is made with cocoa solids (cocoa butter and cocoa solids) and sugar, and typically includes vanilla and an emulsifier. There is no exact amount of sugar required to be called “semisweet,” but the name generally indicates that no more than 50% of the mass of the chocolate is sugar. This is opposed to “sweet” chocolates, where more than 50% of the mass of the product is sugar. “Sweet” chocolate is a pretty old fashioned term these days and only appears with a handful of products, such as German’s Sweet Chocolate.
The range of sweetness in semisweet chocolates is huge. Some brands are much sweeter than others, while some are much smoother. The same could be said of most dark chocolates. The thing that makes semisweet chocolate special is that it has a good balance of chocolate and sweetness that makes it exceptionally versatile and able to work well in just about all recipes, while milk chocolate can be too sweet and a very dark chocolate can overwhelm the more subtle flavors in a recipe.
If you ever find yourself near Los Gatos, California, a small town in the Silicon Valley just south of San Jose, you should take the time to stop by. The town is charming, full of Victorian houses, a vibrant shop-filled main street and many excellent restaurants. It is also the home of Fleur de Cocoa, a wonderful French chocolate shop and patisserie that is well worth a side trip if you’re in the mood for a little indulgence.
Fleur de Cocoa was opened 12 years ago by Chef Pascal Janvier and his wife, Nicola. It has an extensive menu of handmade french pastries – from simple croissants to elaborate multi-layer mousse cakes – and a wide selection of handmade chocolates. Chef Janvier began his career in France with an apprenticeship at age 12, and followed that up with a Master’s Degree in chocolate, ice cream and pastry and a long career both working with, and teaching the art of the chocolatier. In short: this guy knows what he is doing when it comes to both chocolate and pastry and it shows in every product they sell at the shop.
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