Chocolate and cocoa pair well with dairy products

Meet the panel

Gabriella Mahnke, beverage scientist, FONA International Inc., Geneva, Ill.

John Pimpo, sales manager – East, Gertrude Hawk Ingredients, Dunmore, Pa.

Stacy Reed, technical service representative, Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate, Lititz, Pa.

Dana Sanza, flavorist, FONA International Inc.

Rick Stunek, marketing & sales, Forbes Chocolate, Broadview Heights, Ohio

Rebecca Wagner,business unit manager, FONA International Inc.

Neil Widlak, director of product services and development, ADM Cocoa, Milwaukee

 

We Americans have notoriously restless palates. This is especially so in today’s food-forward world, as chefs vie for celebrity status and the more adventuresome among us approach dining as an extreme sport. It’s now commonplace to find even familiar flavor favorites forced into some pretty unusual pairings, as the current practice with chocolate demonstrates.

Having made nice with everything from Kalamata olives to cauliflower, chocolate is showing up in gourmet bacon bars, sea salt truffles and smoked-chili sauces that take the Mexican concept of mole to exaggerated extremes. But our apparent impulse toward experimentation notwithstanding, we can’t help returning to those chocolate pairings that stand the test of time, like the one that marries it with good old-fashioned dairy. It’s no coincidence that chocolate continually tops our list of favorite ice cream flavors and that school-lunch milk cases clear out faster when chocolate is among the choices.

But there’s more cocoa-dairy goodness where that came from. Everything from frozen yogurt to trendy blended coffee beverages is angling for a chocolaty profile. To find out the secret behind this matchup’s success, Dairy Foodscontributing editor Kimberly J. Decker convened a virtual roundtable of suppliers and asked them to discuss the latest chocolate and cocoa trends, technologies and topics.

Dairy Foods: First of all, why do dairy and chocolate taste so great together?

 

Stacy Reed: Dairy products and chocolate complement each other in a variety of ways. In dairy foods that have mild, rounded flavors (milk, butter, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, etc.), the addition of certain chocolate varieties — especially those with roasted, caramel and fruity notes — enhances the flavor profile.

Milk products often undergo heat processing, which, much like cocoa and chocolate, can aid in flavor development through Maillard reaction byproducts such as furanones, pyranones and pyrazines. These compounds contribute the complementary flavor notes such as roasted, caramel, sweet, fruity, buttery, nutty and “ghee” that offer expanded, richer flavor bouquets to finished products.

 

Rebecca Wagner: The mouthfeel and fat content that help make chocolate creamy and rich are prevalent in most dairy applications. Additionally, every good chocolate has a smooth vanilla undertone, which dairy applications deliver nicely.

 

Dairy Foods:What’s the difference between Dutch-processed and natural cocoa, and how do those differences manifest in a cocoa product?

 

Reed: Alkalization, or “Dutching,” is a process term for a controlled rise in the pH to alter or modify the flavor and color of cocoa powder. Alkalized powders can have a pH between 6.0 and slightly above 8.0. Alkalization darkens the powders and, depending on the process, the powders can be more brown and red. Alkalization also works to neutralize the acid and fruity components in the cocoa powder, resulting in a more rounded and fudgy flavor profile. The extreme of alkalization is black cocoa powder.

Natural powders have a pH around 5.5, and they tend to be lighter in color with yellowish brown hues. They tend to have more acidic, fruity and astringent flavor characteristics.

 

Neil Widlak: Natural cocoa lacks the intense chocolate flavors identified by consumers as chocolate. Additionally, because the color and flavors are more intense in Dutched cocoa, less is required to meet consumers’ minimum color and flavor levels for acceptance.

 

Gabriella Mahnke: Most consumers prefer a light to alkalized cocoa because it just tastes better. The heavily alkalized cocoas are not pleasant, are bitter and are generally used at low percentages for color purposes.

Dairy Foods: Dark chocolate is all the rage in confectionery and baking. Does its stronger, less-sweet profile work in dairy, too? Why or why not?

 

Reed: The dark chocolate flavor profile plays well with dairy because lactose — the natural milk sugar in dairy — helps round out the strong, somewhat bitter flavors of dark chocolate. Quite a few dark chocolate-flavored dairy foods and beverages exist in today’s market, which certainly speaks to the effectiveness of their combination.

 

Rick Stunek: Dark chocolate does work in dairy, particularly with the current trend of sugar reduction. However, it takes the right balance of cocoa and other ingredients to make it work.

 

Wagner: The sweetness of the finished product may need adjustment to get to the astringency that is indicative of a dark chocolate. Depending on the profile needed for the consumer, there may be a need for additional cocoa to support the delivery of the desired profile.

 

Dairy Foods: What other flavors complement the chocolate-dairy combination?

 

Reed: Some common cocoa flavors, such as fruity, nutty brown, coffee and vanilla, work well in a chocolate-dairy combination. In addition, some less common flavors such as spicy, winey, brown fruit and even tobacco produce unique results. In the end, the final chocolate-dairy combinations are a product of both a developer’s creativity and, to a degree, what a consumer market dictates.

 

John Pimpo: From our experience, stronger fruit profiles — cherry, raspberry, etc. — match better with dark chocolates, as does mint. Traditionally, caramels have blended better with milk chocolates, but there has been a stronger trend towards dark with caramels and other sweet pairings. Of course the hottest trend right now is sweet-salty, specifically salty caramel. We currently offer a milk caramel sea salt truffle for ice cream that has been and continues to be very popular among ice cream manufacturers. Recently there have been some requests for a dark caramel sea salt truffle as well. Our milk panned pretzel nibs are also an answer to that trend.

 

Stunek: There is a pretty broad range of flavors that work well with chocolate. The same fruit flavors, like strawberry and raspberry, that you see in confectionary products go together with dairy. Almond works really well. But my two favorites are mocha and chocolate-peanut butter. Reese’s Cups are my favorite candy bar, so I love that flavor combination. Some people worry about the allergen issue there, but it is possible to do a really good non-allergenic chocolate-peanut butter. And I love the chocolate-coffee mix, as well.

 

Dairy Foods: Speaking of mocha, blended coffee-dairy drinks are booming in retail and foodservice. What should we keep in mind when formulating with dairy, chocolate and coffee?

 

Stunek: Like anything else, everyone has a different view of what “mocha” should taste like. So it really comes down to preference and what the developers and marketing staff think works best for their market.

 

Pimpo:Coffee can be a very polarizing flavor profile. Typically the consumer who is choosing a coffee-oriented flavor really likes coffee — so your base should reflect that. However, the newest trends for coffee desserts have them paired with caramels, milk or dark chocolates, whipped cream or marshmallow variegates, etc. Developers can pair the sweet with the bold versus the bold with the sweet.

 

Widlak: Cocoa flavors and colors may behave or be perceived quite differently in a dairy or coffee environment, and the desirable properties perceived in the chocolate ingredient by itself may change in the finished product. Interactions between different flavor components and ingredients within a finished product formula can have both positive and negative impact on flavors and colors — keeps life interesting.

 

Dana Sanza, flavorist, FONA International Inc.: A lot of times this is a trial-and-error process. In coffee applications, sometimes the darker, more bitter chocolates accentuate the bitter notes of coffee in an unfavorable way. The best thing to do is have a base and test different cocoa powders, chocolate flavors, et cetera, and taste which profile best compliments the coffee ingredients. The same cocoa or chocolate is not necessarily going to work across all coffee-drink SKUs.

Dairy Foods:We’ve established that chocolate and dairy make a winning duo. But not every match is heaven-sent. For example, why is an appealing chocolate profile difficult to achieve in yogurt?

 

Reed: Chocolate and cocoa flavors don’t work well in yogurt because of the acidity caused by lactic acid bacteria. Cocoa powder can add buffering capacity, which means the cultures have to produce more acid to reach pH 4.6. This gives a higher titratable acidity and a tart flavor.

 

Widlak: The acidic, low-pH environment decreases the chocolate flavor impact of alkali-treated or Dutched chocolates. Natural cocoa powders processed under acidic conditions, such as ADM’s Fresca Cacao, have flavor profiles that are more fruity and compatible with yogurts and other more acidic dairy products.

 

Dairy Foods: What are the key considerations when choosing between chocolate and cocoa powder as ingredients in a dairy application?

 

Reed: As ingredients, cocoa powder and chocolate are very different. There are three areas to consider when choosing which product to use: flavor, application and cost.

First, cocoa powder has a very concentrated chocolate flavor. It is often used in products when the goal is to avoid adding additional cocoa butter and sweetness. On the other hand, chocolate is a great choice when a rich, full flavor is desired. Chocolate also adds sweetness as a result of the higher sugar content.

Next, application plays an important role in ingredient choice. And since cocoa powder comes in a wide variety of colors, it allows for greater color flexibility in final products. Also, because of the lower cocoa butter content, powder is more easily incorporated in beverages compared to chocolate. However, when creating a more decadent artisan product, chocolate may be a better option.

Lastly, cocoa powder is generally less expensive as a result of fewer processing steps when compared to chocolate.

 

 

Dairy Foods: So which applications work best with cocoa powder, and which with chocolate?

 

Reed:Cocoa powders are universally used throughout many dairy applications, including dry mixes that are used in the fluid milk industry, ice cream, variegates and ice cream coatings. Typically, cocoa powder is used in place of chocolate because of its easy incorporation and more concentrated flavor. For instance, cocoa powder is more commonly used in ice cream than chocolate and chocolate liquor because it imparts a stronger flavor due to its lower fat content that does not inhibit immediate flavor delivery. And again, cocoa powder is generally less expensive than chocolate.

Chocolate can be used, but it is more difficult to handle; it needs to be melted before it can be incorporated into a dairy application. Ground forms of chocolate can be an advantage in these situations, because the smaller surface area allows the chocolate to melt faster.

 

Widlak: If the dairy product is in a solid form or frozen, a liquor can easily be incorporated into the dairy product with sufficient shear. In liquid or semi-liquid applications, a powder is generally used as the powders can remain dispersed with the addition of gums and emulsifiers.

Dairy Foods: In frozen dairy, how do textural, processing and storage considerations affect what kind of chocolate or cocoa inclusions to use?

 

Reed: Standard-of-identity chocolate is not typically found in hard-packed or soft-serve ice cream, because when chocolate is cooled to these temperatures, it becomes extremely hard to bite. Chocolate melts at body temperature. Chocolate eaten frozen doesn’t readily melt in the mouth and has the potential to chip the consumer’s teeth.

One way to get chocolate into ice cream is to melt it down and add oils such as coconut and soybean blends with a much lower melting point than cocoa butter, and then mold it back into an ice cream compound inclusion like chunks, chips and flakes. Although this product would not meet the standard of identity  for chocolate, it would still provide the consumer a chocolate flavor profile. It also allows for the term “made with chocolate” to be added to the product label.

 

Pimpo: Low-melt products work much better in hard-packed or retail ice cream. We formulate our inclusions to melt at 60°F, which provides for a much better mouthfeel. Low-melt products can be used in soft-serve applications and the now popular buy-by-the-ounce yogurt shops, but you will need a cooler table to ensure the products keep their integrity. Without that, shelf-stable chocolates can be used. And since the consumer will be eating the product immediately — and it is not being frozen — you will achieve the anticipated melt and mouthfeel.

 

Dairy Foods: What’s the key to designing chocolate-enrobed coatings for frozen dairy?

 

Widlak: Enrobed coatings face the same challenges as inclusions, and the solutions are similar. Cocoa butter in chocolate has quick-solidifying properties, referred to as “drying,” and a quick-drying coating is preferred to a coating with slow-drying properties. But cocoa butter is very brittle at frozen dairy temperatures. Upon consumption, thicker chocolate coatings break off in large chunks, making the frozen dairy product difficult to consume.

To reduce the solids that impart the brittle properties, coating manufacturers will add a vegetable oil to the chocolate coating, make a coating using a lower melt-point fat with quick-drying properties, like coconut oil, or use a combination of fats to deliver a coating that solidifies, dries quickly and has sufficient solids to provide a bite or snap upon consumption, but also is pliable so it is not too brittle.

 

Dairy Foods:What inclusion and variegate innovations have widened the variety of “fun stuff” we can mix into frozen dairy products?

 

Reed:Under the Wilbur Chocolate brand, Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate offers a milk and dark ice cream coating, both made with vanilla, and a #95 flake with a strong dark-chocolate flavor. Ice cream products are also available from the Peter’s Chocolate product line.

 

Pimpo: According to a recent article, the No. 1 ice cream trend for 2012 is peanut butter. Gertrude Hawk’s most recent innovation for the ice cream/dessert industry is a low-melt cut peanut butter cup.

Recent innovations to match culinary dessert trends include our caramel sea salt truffles, espresso chips and milk pretzel nibs.

 

Dairy Foods: Dairy is famous for its healthy halo; increasingly, so is chocolate. Any comments on how bringing the two together can give chocolaty decadence a good-for-you name?

 

Reed: Increasingly, dark chocolate has received positive press about potential health benefits associated with its consumption, since it is made with higher cocoa solids, which contain antioxidants. As a result, dark chocolate can be paired with dairy products to create an indulgent formulation with marketable health claims. In addition, cocoa powder is being used in protein shakes and protein powder mixes. It provides a great chocolate taste without adding additional cocoa butter fat and sugar to the product.

 

Stunek: We have certainly done quite a bit of work with sports recovery products and fortified dairy beverages. Chocolate is a great vehicle for that because so many people love it, it can mask the unwanted tastes of other nutritional ingredients and it blends so well with other flavors.

 

Widlak: Diets enriched with cocoa flavanols have been demonstrated to increase levels of beneficial bifidobacteria in the gut, suggesting that benefits on human health from this association could be realized, although that has yet to be proven definitively. Both Mars and Nestle are sponsoring extensive research in this area. [See related article on page 46.]

Dairy Foods:Chocolate milk poses an interesting paradox. It’s controversial in some school lunchrooms but touted as an ideal sports recovery beverage. Any comments?

 

Stunek:Paradox is a good word for it. Twenty or thirty years ago in school we were drinking full-fat milk with probably 27 grams of sugar. It didn’t seem to be an issue for us health-wise; then again we didn’t come home from school and sit in front of the TV for the rest of the day, either.

Kids certainly cut back their consumption of milk when chocolate is not offered in schools. Unfortunately this reduces their intake of calcium, vitamin D and other nutrients they really need. On the good side, chocolate milk has gotten a lot of positive press for sports recovery. The carb-protein-vitamin combination is what makes it so good for you. I would like to see more dairies promote it in this manner by sponsoring athletic events and teams. As difficult as it is for small dairies to battle for dairy’s image on a national level, it can be done on a local level.

 

Dairy Foods:What low-sugar, low-calorie and/or low-fat chocolate and cocoa ingredients help us formulate school-friendly chocolate dairy products? What taste or texture tradeoffs might they entail?

 

Stunek:The toughest part of formulating school milk is dealing with the skim requirement. In my opinion, there is almost nothing you can do at the required cost to mask that lack of fat. Going from 3.25% to 2% fat or from 2% to 1% is stepping down a bit. Going from 1% to skim is like jumping off a cliff. It makes that much of a difference.

Ultimately it comes down to getting the proper cocoas that work well with the skim milk and sugar target. Different sugar levels require different cocoa blends. There is no one cocoa that is right for everyone.

Additionally, there has been an increased use of sweetener modulators that are effective in making the product taste sweeter than the 22 grams of sugar or less that some districts require.

 

Dairy Foods:What does “sustainability” mean with respect to cocoa and chocolate ingredients?

 

Stunek:Sustainable cocoa is cocoa produced using sustainable practices that encompass growing methods, employee safety, worker age restrictions and other criteria. There are certifying bodies for this. However, the large cocoa buyers as a whole have also worked to improve conditions on all these farms regardless of whether or not they are certified.

 

Dairy Foods:What tradeoffs — in cost, functionality, sourcing reliability — come with formulating with sustainable chocolate and cocoa ingredients?

 

Stunek:In a nutshell, you are paying more for a less consistently available product. Committing a large portion of your supply to sustainable cocoa would be a very risky proposition. There is a reason the large candy makers haven’t already converted to full sourcing of sustainable beans: because there aren’t enough certified sustainable farms yet. That will likely work itself out over time as more sources of sustainable beans become available. But right now I would say we are still in the early stages of developing this whole practice on a certified basis. 

Cocoa, chocolate and how to tell the difference

 

Dairy Foods: What is cocoa, what is chocolate and how do they differ?

 

Gabriella Mahnke: Cocoa and chocolate come from the Theobroma cacao plant. The pods from the tree are removed and shelled, and inside are cocoa nibs. The nibs are ground to a cocoa mass, which is pure chocolate, and most commonly melted into what is termed chocolate liquor.

Cocoa powder is produced by pressing out the fat — called cocoa butter — to produce a cake that is then ground to cocoa solids. Fat is left in the cake: high-fat cocoa ranges from 22% to 24% BF, while most cocoa used is 10% to 12% BF, and there is also the more uncommon “defatted” cocoa.

 

Neil Widlak: Dark chocolate contains chocolate liquor, sugar and additional cocoa butter, while milk chocolate contains chocolate liquor, sugar, milk powder and cocoa butter.

 

Stacy Reed: Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate contains a minimum of 35% chocolate liquor. Traditionally, the term “bittersweet” is reserved for chocolates with higher cocoa-solid content. Sweet chocolate contains 15% to 35% chocolate liquor, while milk chocolate must contain a minimum of 10% chocolate liquor. Milk chocolate must also contain 12% milk solids. Lastly, white chocolate must contain a minimum of 20% cocoa butter and 14% milk solids.

 

Editor’s note:Standards of identity for cacao products appear in Title 21 Section 163 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

Research links cocoa flavanols to cognitive improvements in older adults

Any news that cocoa and chocolate antioxidants are good for you is good news. And companies like Mars Inc., Germantown, Md., have an interest in generating rafts of research affirming just that.

Indeed, Mars has collaborated with research institutions for decades “to advance understanding of cocoa flavanols,” the company says, and it recently worked with scientists from Italy’s University of L’Aquila on a study, published online in August in the journal Hypertension, showing that cocoa flavanols may improve cognitive function in elderly subjects with nascent memory decline.

In the double-blind, controlled study, 90 healthy older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were randomly assigned to once-daily servings of a drink containing either high (990 mg), intermediate (520 mg) or low (45 mg) doses of cocoa flavanols. While the low-dose (LF) drinks contained highly processed alkalized cocoa powder, the high (HF) and intermediate (IF) versions were made using Mars’ Cocoapro process, which retains the cocoa’s naturally occurring flavanols even after processing. Additionally, the drinks were calorically and nutritionally matched and tasted and looked the same, thus blinding participants to their identities.

After the eight-week study period, the team tested the participants’ cognitive functioning using a standard battery of tests. It found significant improvements in processing speed, working memory and executive function in the intermediate- and high-flavanol groups.

“Specifically, improvements were demonstrated in both the HF and IF groups and to a lesser extent in the LF group,” the researchers said in a press release. Further, an integrative measure of overall cognitive function known as the z score improved only among those in the IF and HF groups, not in the LF cohort.

The study also revealed significant reductions in blood pressure in both the HF and IF groups, consistent with the findings of several previous studies. And participants in the HF and IF groups also enjoyed a reduction in insulin resistance, “suggesting an influential role of glucose metabolism,” according to the release.