Chocolate Survival Guide
By Bruce Weinstein | 2/7/2006


It's nearly Valentine's Day, our national celebration of sweets. Here are some easy tips to help you get your chocolate kicks, minus the guilt.

Not all chocolate is created equal.
Splurge on good quality chocolate. Look for high-end brands like Baker's or Scharffen Berger, available in many gourmet stores. A good chocolate is like good red wine — it has a brightness that mellows as it melts in your mouth.

Always read the label carefully. Some chocolate makers cut their products with hydrogenated fat. The worst offenders are those who make white chocolate, which tastes best when made only from cocoa butter, the natural fat in the cocoa bean.

Whether you choose white or dark, buy pure, good-quality chocolate. If you're going to treat yourself, you might as well treat yourself right.

Dark chocolate is a flavorful alternative.
Many people think all chocolate has milk or cream in it. But only milk chocolate contains dairy. Dark and bittersweet chocolate are unadulterated products of the cocoa bean. For chocolate lovers, they're a straight-up fix. Semi-sweet chocolate also contains no dairy, but it has as much as 60 percent added sugar (thus, it's "semi-sweet").

Bark is better as a bite.
Chocolate bark (a slab of candy that resembles tree bark) is a wonderful way to enjoy chocolate without a lot of fat. Look for dark chocolate bark with dried fruits or plain, thin-sliced nuts. It's loaded with flavor; a real treat with a cup of coffee or tea.

Chocolate is best at room temperature.
Chocolate tastes best when it's about 10 degrees below body temperature. (In fact, chocolate melts just one or two degrees below body temperature, which is why it can end up on your hands.)

Choose fruit-filled rather than creams.
Ever wonder why a vanilla cream chocolate has more calories than a chocolate-covered cherry? The difference is in the center. A chocolate-covered cherry has a real fruit center while the vanilla cream contains fondant, a creamy filling that is often made from hydrogenated fats, cream and artificial flavorings.

Get crunch without the fat.
Chocolate-covered fat-free pretzels will give you just as much crunch-kick as chocolate-covered cashews. Each is delicious, but fourteen Harry's pretzel nuggets (without chocolate) have fewer calories than fourteen small, dry-roasted, no-salt cashews (without chocolate).

Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough are the authors of The Ultimate Brownie Book (William Morrow, 2002).


-- Edited by Colette at 14:07, 2006-02-07

-- Edited by Colette at 14:09, 2006-02-07