Mission Impossible

Rachel Wallace  

In the midst of a foot-and-a-half of sparkling white snow and frigid negative temperature winds, is there any reason worthy of venturing out into the arctic tundra that has become Ann Arbor? I can only think of one: a mission to find the BEST hot chocolate in Ann Arbor. Now in a city where there are dozens of adorable cafés and restaurants both big and small, this seems like a pretty daunting task. I’ll admit that I did have to contain my search.

My first stop was the obvious: Starbucks

I would be surprised if any hot chocolate lover has never tried this abundant drink. I will say it is pretty good. It is rich and dark without being too dark for the average person or child to enjoy. I certainly drank plenty before I finally decided to give coffee a try. All in all I might be biased, but I now find Starbucks hot chocolate pretty boring.

Next up I decided to venture into another U of M staple: Espresso Royale

Having had their plain hot chocolate before, I know that it is very similar to Starbucks. I therefore decided to try the frosted mint flavor they were advertising. It is important to note that while it is called ‘frosted’ mint the drink is in fact hot (don’t ask me why, I don’t know). The best thing about it was its price of $2.70, some of the cheapest hot chocolate I would sample all day. The mint was a different flavor than the peppermint hot chocolate that Starbucks offers and reminded me a lot of an Andes mint. It was interesting and I did enjoy it more than the artificial peppermint flavor of Starbucks, but it was a very strong mint and did overpower the chocolate. It was also overall a very, very sweet drink.

Now that I had visited the most obvious cafes I decided to venture a little further from State street. I decided to go check out Sweetwaters Café.

Here I sampled the classic hot chocolate, $2.65, and the candy cane cocoa, $3.50. The hot chocolate was very mild and very milky. I don’t recommend it unless your favorite part of hot chocolate is the whipped cream. The candy cane cocoa was more exciting. It was a white hot chocolate, which was different. The main flavor was the mint from the candy canes. I believe they used real candy canes because I swear it was like I was drinking Christmas! It was by far the best minty hot chocolate. The drink itself did not have much of a chocolate flavor but it was also not too sweet. I also swear there was a hint of coffee in it. It was a really yummy drink.

I made one stop that I was previously not planning on when I decided to get some lunch at Amer’s. I saw hot chocolate on their menu and thought, ‘why not?’ The hot chocolate there was very sweet. It was rich and tasted like dark chocolate and was topped with really sweet whipped cream. I had trouble finishing the whole thing because of how sweet it was, but it was tasty.

After visiting several cafes specializing in coffee drinks I decided to switch it up and try a place that specializes in chocolate instead. My next stop was Schokolad.

I recommend Schokolad (located on Main Street) for anyone who wants to get some really good chocolate - but I had never tried to order hot chocolate there. Sure enough, when I asked the lady at the counter she said they did in fact sell both milk and dark hot chocolate. I ordered one dark hot chocolate and proceeded to pay the whopping $5.30 pricetag. Now after handing over almost six dollars, I was expecting some top of the line hot chocolate. They did not disappoint. They went over to the chocolate fountains they use to make the chocolate and started filling up the cup. They then added milk to the mixture and used a crazy spinning whisk machine to mix it all together. In defense of the expensive price, the cup of hot chocolate was very big. It was practically a venti at Starbucks. It was also amazing hot chocolate. It tasted like I was eating a rich dark chocolate truffle. It was thick - practically like melted chocolate - but still drinkable. Even so, I do not think any one person would be able to finish the whole thing.

The highlight of my little trip around Ann Arbor was not surprisingly Zingerman’s.

I knew I had to sample the hot chocolate here once I found out that their Mindo hot chocolate is ranked in the top ten hot chocolates nationally by Food & Wine Magazine. It turns out that Zingerman’s Next Door has a whole hot chocolate menu featuring 5 very different types of hot chocolate. The only one I didn’t sample was the Zingerman’s hot chocolate although I have heard that it is very good. I tried the Mindo hot chocolate $4.00, the Mexican hot cocoa $3.50, the Chocolat Moderne Mayan eyes $3.75, and the Spanish drinking chocolate $3.50. My favorite was the Chocolat Moderne Mayan Eyes cocoa. It was unlike any hot chocolate I have ever had! It was spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, chipotle and ancho chiles. During the first sip all of these spices overwhelm your senses then the ancho chile spicy aftertaste kicks in. I would recommend not getting whipped cream on it to really appreciate the flavor of the chocolate. The flavor was so unique that I just kept sipping it to try to figure out exactly what all of the different flavors where. The Mexican hot chocolate was similar in that the chocolate was spiced with cinnamon. The flavor was less complex though. The best way to describe the flavor is to say that it tasted a lot like Red Hots with a hint of nuts as well. The Mindo chocolate was also very good. It is the best classic hot chocolate that I have tasted. It is made with a course ground chocolate instead of syrup which leaves a nice texture in your mouth. The flavor of the chocolate is great and strong without being too sweet or rich. It is nicely balanced by the cream. The last drink I sampled was the Spanish drinking chocolate. It is served with a spoon in a cup about the size of a shot glass. This drink is really just melted chocolate. It is rich, dark, chocolaty and delicious. It is similar to Schokolad’s hot chocolate although it is even thicker. Make sure you finish it before it hardens!

So, after spending way more time walking around in the cold than any sane person should and drinking so much hot cocoa that I probably won’t be able to drink any more for a month, I have decided that Zingerman’s Mayan Eyes is by far the best hot cocoa this city has to offer, but one really can’t go wrong with any of their flavors. Now, next time you are walking through the cold snowy streets of Ann Arbor and it is absolutely vital to fill your mouth with sweet, rich hot chocolate to warm up- you’ll know where to go.

Chocolate Time Machine

Rachel Wallace  

Theobroma Cacao is the Latin word for chocolate. It also quite accurately translates to ‘food of the gods’ - Carl Linnaeus, the scientist who came up with the name, sure knew what he was talking about! In case you didn’t gather from my last column, I love chocolate and believe that it absolutely makes everything tastes better. In addition to being a chocolate lover, I am also a total nerd. Therefore, I have always been fascinated with the events that eventually lead to the creation of the fabulous chocolate we eat today Do you know the history of chocolate??

It all starts with a brownish-purple, foot-long pod filled with seeds that on their own taste a lot like raw potatoes. Somehow, despite the unappetizing appearance and inedibility of the beans, there is evidence showing that the Olmec people of South America were growing cocoa beans as early as 1500 BC. Archeological evidence also indicates that people in Honduras would ferment the pulp into an alcoholic beverage. These early chocoholics knew a thing or two because today, the cocoa bean has to be fermented in order for the beans to taste remotely like the chocolate we all know and love. Later, the cocoa bean eventually reached the Aztecs and Mayans who believed this odd little bean contained magical powers. Cocoa beans were used as currency (100 beans=1 turkey hen or 100 tamales) and made into a bitter drink for festivals. Chocolate was also given to human sacrifices to cheer them up before their death. Eventually with the arrival of Spaniards in South America, the cocoa bean made its way to Europe where it was a drink exclusively for the rich. It was during this time, in the 16th century, when people began to mix in sugar or honey to sweeten the otherwise bitter cocoa. This hot cocoa, however, was quite different than modern chocolate. All the oily cocoa butter in the bean did not mix with the water so instead of being creamy, the first hot cocoa was gritty and had an oily residue on the surface. As delicious as that sounds, I don’t see Starbuck’s adding this to their menu anytime soon!

The next big development for chocolate came in 1828 when a Dutch chemist named Conrad Van Houten figured out a way to squeeze the oily cocoa butter out of chocolate liquor. The powder that he created is the same as modern cocoa powder. He also realized that if he added alkali substances, like baking soda, to this powder, it would more easily dissolve in water and smooth – creamy hot cocoa was born.

Once cocoa powder was created, the modern chocolate bar was not far behind. In 1847 the chocolate bar was created when Joseph Fry (a true genius) added some of the cocoa butter back into the cocoa powder to create a moldable paste and voila! Milk chocolate soon followed when Daniel Peter and Henri Nestle of Switzerland added milk powder to the chocolate bars. Now, there was no stopping the spread of these delicious new treats. Companies such as Cadbury, Nestle and Lindt formed and spread throughout Europe and America, paving the way for other chocolate companies that allow us to enjoy this food of the gods whenever we want!

Want to better understand the original chocolate treat? Here is a recipe for a form of the original Aztec hot chocolate or Xocolatl!

Fall into Chocolate

Rachel Wallace  

Ah Fall. Definitely the best season in my opinion. The crisp air, the multicolored leaves, Halloween, pumpkins, and who could forget the fall food! Pumpkin muffins, caramel apples, apple pie, cider, donuts, cinnamon spice goodness, does it get any better?! One thing I have noticed, however, is the unfortunate lack of chocolate as a starring role in any of these fall delicacies, except of course in the Twix and Snickers bars that result from trick-or-treating. Now, I love Swix bars as much as the next person, but I, as a self-proclaimed chocoholic, believe there must be a way to blend chocolate with the fall flavors we know and love, because everything is better with chocolate! While home on fall break with access to an oven (the lack of which is definitely the hardest part of dorm living!) I decided to make a festive fall dessert but still have chocolate as the main ingredient. The result: chocolate pumpkin cupcakes!! I googled around a little and found a recipe that looked very promising from countryliving.com. The only problem was that the chocolate component of the cupcake came from cocoa powder. Now that’s ok but, in my opinion, cocoa powder never really gives a cake as much richness as good old melted bakers chocolate. To solve this problem, I enhanced the cocoa powder’s flavor with three melted bittersweet baking squares. I added it to the wet pumpkin mixture and stirred it in. Voila! They were perfect! Next, I decided to make my cupcakes mini. Mini cupcakes are the best because they have a better cake to frosting ratio, you can give them to more people (and let them all tell you how great of a cook you are), and you can eat just one… or four in a row, if you want to! When the cupcakes were done I frosted them with a classic cream cheese frosting (with a little orange food coloring just to be festive) and sprinkled crushed chocolate chips over the top. These little cupcakes were sweet, moist and both the earthy pumpkin and rich chocolate flavors blended together perfectly! Want to make them yourself? You can find the recipe here.

FYI:

• You can add ¾ tablespoon of vinegar to your milk to create buttermilk
• Add 2 squares of melted bittersweet chocolate to make them even more delicious
• I baked my mini cupcakes for 11 minutes- the batter is very wet so they take longer than usual

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cup(s) All-Purpose Flour
• 2 tablespoon(s) All-Purpose Flour
• 1 cup(s) Good-Quality Cocoa (PLUS 3 squares of melted bittersweet chocolate!!!)
• 1 tablespoon(s) Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) Baking Soda
• 2 1/4 teaspoon(s) Ground Cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon(s) Fresh-Grated Nutmeg
• 3/4 cup(s) Buttermilk (just add ¾ of a tablespoon of vinegar to your milk!)
• 1 1/2 cup(s) Pumpkin Purée
• 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) Vanilla Extract
• 2 1/4 stick(s) Unsalted Butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup(s) (firmly packed) Dark Brown Sugar
• 1 1/2 cup(s) Granulated Sugar
• 5 large Eggs

Directions

1. Prepare cake pans: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter three 8-inch cake pans and fit each bottom with an 8-inch circle of parchment paper. Lightly butter the parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Make the batter: Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl and set aside. Combine the buttermilk, pumpkin, and vanilla in a medium bowl and set aside. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, with an electric mixer set on medium speed, until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is smooth and light. Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, blending well after each addition.
3. Bake the cake: Divide the batter among the pans and bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean -- about 35 minutes. Cool the cakes in the pan for 20 minutes. Remove cakes and cool. (For cupcakes: Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Place cupcake liners in standard cupcake tins and fill each with 1/4 cup of batter. Bake for 22 minutes.
   (I baked my mini cupcakes for 11 minutes)