I like most chocolates except the brandy flavoured ones. So out of precaution I like to check out those small leaflets you get with chocolates that show what flavour and type chocolates are.
Just one issue – I’m no chocolate expert, and Belgian chocolate names like ganache, fondant and mendiant mean very little to me and most of the jargon leaves me puzzled.
I thought it might be time to become chocolate savy so here you go - with a little professional help, I have compiled a glossary of the most common terms used in the chocolate industry. After all we should know what eat, shouldn’t we?
- Bouchon – (BOO-shon) French for cork – often used to name distinctive champagne cork shaped chocolates.
- Croquant – caramelised sugar with chopped roasted hazelnuts and/or almonds
- Caramel – caramelised sugar mixed with fresh cream and butter.
- Eau de vie – (OH de VEE) Fruit brandy.
- Feuilletine – (fo-yer-TEEN) a praline texture with small pieces of oven backed pancakes (crepes dentelles).
- Fondant – (FON-dernt) a mixture of sugar, water and glucose used in the production of creamy textured confectionery and chocolates – can also be a covering paste.
- Fresh cream – whipped fresh cream with added butter and glucose.
- Ganache – (ger-NASH) a mixture of chocolate and cream, with a relatively smooth texture. Created when a 19th Century apprentice knocked some cream into a tub of chocolate. His boss called him “un ganache” – an imbecile!
- Gianduja – (jon-DOO-yah) a blend of chocolate, very finely ground hazelnuts and sugar with a silky smooth texture - typically much smoother than a praline.
- Kastanjes – (kas-TAN-ya) Chestnut-shaped chocolate.
- Mendiant – (MON-dee-on) Literally “beggars” in French. Piped discs of solid chocolate studded with fruit and nuts.
- Nougat – mixture of whisked egg white, boiled sugar, nuts and candied fruit
- Pates de fruit – (PAT der froo-EE) pure fruit pastilles.
- Praline (PRAH-leen) paste of crushed hazelnuts/almonds, caramelised sugar and chocolate.
- Truffle – often handmade from ganache and chocolate mass, cream and a little butter, shaped into a round ball or piped into a peak – soft yielding texture
- Tuile (TWEEL) curved chocolate pieces containing chopped caramelised almonds – literally “roof titles” in French.
- Marzipan – Molten sugar mixed with finely ground almonds.
Are you salivating yet?
———————–
Why not treat someone special – or yourself, to a box of chocolates? Just check out our range of mouth watering Belgian chocolates.