Hybrid chocolate won’t melt in the heat!
Scientists say a cornstarch concoction has that milk-chocolate taste
Cocoa beans lie within a cross-section of a cacao pod. Although tropical countries tend to be the world's biggest cocoa producers, the finished chocolate doesn't stand up to the tropical heat. Now Nigerian researchers have come up with a heat-resistant formula that preserves the milk-chocolate taste.
Most brands of chocolate melt at temperatures between 77 and about 91 degrees Fahrenheit (25 to 33 degrees Celsius).
S.O. Ogunwolu and C.O. Jayeola, food scientists at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria, have mixed cornstarch with cocoa to produce a heat-resistant chocolate that they say compares "favorably with conventional milk chocolate in terms of color, taste, smoothness and overall acceptability."
The starch acts as a chocolate thickener and prevents the outflow of cocoa butter — the natural fat of the cocoa bean — when the heat is on. The researchers found that using 10 percent starch was ideal and produced a product that was comparable to milk chocolate in taste tests.
The new concoction stays firm up to 122 degrees F (50 degrees C).
The recipe is outlined in the current issue of the British Food Journal.
