Pumping up Chocolate Flavor
In chocolate recipes we often call for ingredients that you may not be able to pick out in the finished dessert, but they actually make chocolate taste more, well, chocolatey. Here are a few that we utilize in the recipes in this class.
Espresso Powder
Just a pinch of espresso powder amplifies chocolate flavor considerably, making it more intense and complex without imparting a noticeable coffee presence. Espresso powder contributes dark, deep, fruity, roasty notes to baked goods.
Stout
Stout works well when we want to highlight the dark, slightly bitter notes of chocolate and temper chocolate’s sweetness. Afterall, it has notes of chocolate itself. This dark, rich brew uses toasted malts, giving stouts roasted, sometimes bitter coffee-like notes.
Vanilla
Far from the “boring” or “plain” connotations of the word, vanilla is bursting with complex flavors ranging from smoky to floral depending on where the beans are grown and how they are cured. Vanilla enhances chocolate by rounding out all its inherent flavors, making it taste deep, full-bodied, and creamy.
