{"id":5841,"date":"2020-12-20T14:01:05","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T14:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/?p=5841"},"modified":"2020-12-20T14:06:44","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T14:06:44","slug":"adventbotany-2020-day-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/2020\/12\/20\/adventbotany-2020-day-20\/","title":{"rendered":"#AdventBotany 2020 Day 20, Dreaming of white cocoa, hibiscus, and a happy\u00a0Gomphothere"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Katherine Preston<\/a> (A Botanist in the Kitchen<\/a>)<\/h2>\n

\u2019Tis the season to sound the trumpets and pronounce judgment upon the holy or evil status of traditional holiday foods. If you are among the many vociferous critics of white chocolate, you\u2019ve probably complained that white \u201cchocolate\u201d is not even<\/i> chocolate (uncontroversial) and that it tastes like overly sweet vanilla-flavored gummy paste dominated by an odd powdered-milk flavor, and that it exists only to cover over pretzels or perfectly good dark chocolate or to provide a color contrasting glue for peppermint candy flakes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When is chocolate not chocolate?<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s true that white chocolate is not technically chocolate; it lacks the cocoa solids that give genuine chocolate its rich complex flavor, borne of hundreds of aromatic compounds balanced by just a touch of sour and bitter. However, white chocolate is<\/i> made from cocoa butter, the purified fat component of the Theobroma cacao<\/i> seeds from which true dark chocolate is made. Raw cocoa butter has its own subtle scent and creamy texture, and I thought I could use it to make a version of white chocolate more to my liking, with less sugar and less stale milk flavor.<\/span><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2020\/12\/White-chocolate.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\"\"
White chocolate truffles with hibiscus powder (Photo: BitKblog)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A flavour to go with white chocolate<\/h3>\n

Because it can be fun and instructive to find a culinary match within the same botanical family, I searched for a balancing flavor on the list of common edible members of the Malvaceae: Baobab? Durian? Okra? No. Just no. Hibiscus? Bright red and tangy and perfect. Although hibiscus and Theobroma<\/i> are rarely united in cooking \u2013 and they took divergent evolutionary paths about 90 million years ago \u2013 I found that these species work extremely well together in truffles. Even better, the most widely available culinary hibiscus flowers come from the species Hibiscus sabdariffa<\/i>, sometimes called roselle, which has its own connection to the winter holidays: it stars as the main ingredient in a spicy punch<\/span><\/span><\/a> served at Christmastime in the Caribbean.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For my recipe for Merry Hibiscus Truffles, and to learn what they have to do with gomphotheres, see the full blog post here: https:\/\/botanistinthekitchen.blog\/2019\/12\/19\/dreaming-of-white-cocoa-hibiscus-and-a-happy-gomphothere\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Images<\/span><\/b>:\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/botanistinthekitchen.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/12\/img_0763-e1576723078536.jpg?w=756&h=724<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/botanistinthekitchen.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/12\/gomphothere.001-e1576723177679.jpeg<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Katherine Preston (A Botanist in the Kitchen) \u2019Tis the season to sound the trumpets and pronounce judgment upon the holy or evil status of traditional holiday foods. 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