at Tue, 03 Feb 2004 12:49:09 GMT in <[email hidden]>,
deedoveyatshenteldotnet (Dee Randall) wrote :
Quoted message said:My mom in 1940 used to coat/frost regular boxed graham crackers with chocolate which hardened
enough to eat without coating our hands. It was thin, but not brittle. I have occasionally, but
seldom, seen these in "Borders" at the coffee counter.
What you are describing is what is known as "compound coating" - chocolate that's been combined with
a certain amount of another vegetable fat, generally palm kernel. Using palm kernel oil instead of
cocoa butter raises the melting point, so it doesn't melt in your hands so readily, and also softens
the consistency so it isn't as hard as pure chocolate. You can find it in some supermarkets with
bulk bins, usually as discs. Guittard is one of the larger manufacturers of compound coating. They
also make good "regular" chocolate for coating graham crackers, which goes by the name of
"couverture". Couverture, unlike compound coating, uses only cocoa butter, and has a large amount of
it. It does melt in your hands, and it hardens to a fully hard, brittle shell. In addition, it's
more fussy to work with because you have to "temper" it. Its advantage is that it tastes
significantly better than compound coating. Couverture is usually easier to find for the home chef -
virtually all quality eating chocolate is couverture, as are the broken-up chunks of chocolate you
see in other bulk bins in other supermarkets.
One easy place to get compound coating online is bakerscandc.combakerscandc.comOpen ↗. It may be easier going
that way than asking your supermarket clerk, who as likely as not is going to be clueless.
--
Alex Rast [email hidden] (remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)
