Follower Friday is a Meme I decided to create to elaborate on the Twitter tradition of #ff to recognize one of my wonderful Social Network followers every Friday! If you would like to participate in Follower Friday just snag the button from my sidebar and make sure to link it to En Chocolat!
This week for Follower Friday I am spotlighting @sweetnothingsnj !
For today’s follower Friday I am picking Sweetnothingsnj from Sweet Nothings ! Sweet Nothings is a chocolatier based out of New Jersey and produces some delicious chocolates from truffles to fun novelties like ice cream shaped fans!
What else do I love about Sweetnothingsnj? Well if you drop by their Facebook page you get to see delicious picture updates of new items in stock in the Sweet Nothings physical store in Summit, NJ. While the Sweet Nothings NJ online website is still under construction there are plenty of mouth watering choices to pick from on the Sweet Nothings Facebook page! Some of my favorites include the fun Moonstruck truffles, the chocolate Halloween Owls, and Mrs. Prindables Apples. Sweet Nothings NJ certainly has a huge selection available in their Summit, NJ store and hopefully soon they will have their huge selection available online too!
If you are on the lookout for a chocolate gift that is sure to leave an impression then take a look around the massive selection available in the Sweet Nothings NJ store! If you’re not passing through NJ just hold your horses and soon the Sweet Nothings will have their huge selection available online! Not looking for a huge array of chocolate treats? Then just drop by and say hello on Twitter!
Many times when we endeavor to try a new recipe or even try our hand at making our own chocolate truffles for the first time we run in to terms that can appear to be a little more confusing than they should be. Take chocolate for example, how many different types of chocolate are there really when it comes to baking and what is the difference between each one? Let’s take a look.
Baking Chocolate – This term is a synonym for “bitter” or “unsweetened” chocolate. Baking chocolate is made up of approximately 50% cocoa butter. Recipes for brownies and frostings often call for the use of this type of chocolate and it can be found in your local grocery store’s baking aisle in a large block. Most recipes that call for baking chocolate are referencing this type of 50% cocoa butter chocolate and not a sweetened or semi-sweetened chocolate.
Bitter Chocolate -This term refers to the chocolate mentioned above and if often referred to as baking chocolate. The term “bitter” comes from the fact that there are no sweeteners included in the chocolate and it therefore reflects the bitterness of cacao. Chef’s and bakers use bitter chocolate so that they can adjust the sweetness of their final product themselves, catering to the other ingredients in the recipe.
Unsweetened Chocolate – This term is also used to refer to “baking chocolate” and is a chocolate that contains 50% cocoa butter and represents the true bitter taste of cacao before it is sweetened.
Bittersweet Chocolate – This term refers to a dark chocolate that contains on average 30% cocoa butter, a minimum of 50% chocolate liquor and has been sweetened and flavored with sugar and often times vanilla. Bittersweet chocolate does not contain any milk product either dried or liquid. Lecithin is often added to bittersweet chocolate to prevent separation of cocoa and cocoa butter.
Semisweet Chocolate – This term refers to the same type of combination of chocolate as is listed above; however, in general semisweet chocolate contains a lower percentage of chocolate liquor (35%.)
