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***New Video Alert: Chocolate Bark***

Posted by Bruce Banner on Jan 26, 2021 9:30:00 AM

Someone once said "Flowers mean I'm sorry and chocolates mean I love you".  With that being said and Valentine's Day coming up, what better way to show "I love you" with some chocolate!

 

But lets be honest, picking up a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day and any occasion is a very typical fashion.  Its time to get creative and by creative, we mean chocolate bark!  

Best known for consuming during the winter as peppermint bark.  The varieties of making chocolate bark are endless and very eye catching!

 

For more tips, tricks, and inspiration check out the video below featuring our very own chef technician Calogero Romano.

 

 

Topics: Videos, Techniques, nuts, Cacao Noel, decorations, Pastry Trends, education, Amifruit, trends, youtube, chocolate, celebration, marshmallow, Calogero Romano, dark chocolate bark, candied fruit, chocolate bark, Noel Chocolate, freeze dried raspberries, freeze dried strawberries, nutley farms, valentines day

🍫🍫🍫 FUN Facts of CHOCOLATE!!! 🍫🍫🍫

Posted by Bea Davis on Oct 19, 2020 9:15:00 AM

 

Willy Wonka

Photo Credit: newmediarockstars.com

 

With Halloween just weeks away and more holidays around the corner, chocolate has been a huge staple to celebrate the holidays. To the majority, chocolate is apart of our daily lives so why not learn some fun facts of chocolate!

 

melting chocolate

Photo Credit: foodnavigator.com

 

🍫 Chocolate was first consumed by drinking not eating. 90% of chocolate consumption history was drinking "hot chocolate".

🍫 September 13th is International Chocolate Day and Milton Hershey, founder of Hershey's chocolates birthday.

🍫 The chocolate industry is worth $110 billion per year.

🍫German chocolate cake is not from Germany. The cake is named after an American named Sam German who developed a sweet baking chocolate in 1952.

🍫100 pounds of chocolate are eaten each second in the United States.

🍫 The average person from Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and Great Britain consumes 24 pounds of chocolate each year and China 99 grams of chocolate each year.

🍫Ghirardelli brand is the U.S. portion of swiss confectioner Lindt.

 

nostalgic chocolate ad

Photo Credit: americanhistory.si.edu

🍫The United Kingdom sells 200 million Cadbury Creme Eggs each year and produces 1.5 million a day.

🍫A week before Easter🐰 , Americans purchase 71 million pounds of chocolate candy, 48 million pounds for Valentine's Day💟 , and 90 million pounds for Halloween 🎃.

🍫Harry Barnett Reese, the founder of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups was a former Hershey employee and created the famous candy in the 1920's.

🍫The scientific name for the cacao tree is "Theobroma Cacao" which literally translates to "Cacao, food of the Gods".

🍫It takes the whole years crop from one cacao tree to produce a half kilo of cocoa.

🍫Milton Hershey, founder of Hershey's Chocolate company expanded so rapidly that Milton built an entire town for his employees to live in.

🍫Napoleon always had chocolate with him. He ate it as whenever he needed an energy boost.

🍫 Chocolate producers worldwide use an estimated 20% of the world's peanut crops and 40% of their almond crops.

 

Lindt Chocolate

Photo Credit: lindt-home-of-chocolate.com

 

🍫 In 2020, Lindt Chocolate introduced the world's largest chocolate fountain that pours from 30 feet high with 1,500 liters of real chocolate pouring into a giant Lindor truffle at their latest Lindt shop, museum and factory.

🍫 Rodolphe Lindt, founder of Lindt Chocolate invented the conche press

🍫It takes about 400 beans to produce a single pound of chocolate.

🍫Each cacao tree produces approximately 2,500 beans

🍫Nutella was invented during World War Two, when an Italian pastry chef mixed hazelnuts into chocolate to extend his cocoa supply.

🍫The French celebrate April Fool's Day with a chocolate shaped fish also known as "Poisson d'Avril"

 

Noel

 

Saving the best fun fact for last!

🍫CaCao Noel is named after the founders of Paris Gourmet, Xavier and Dominique Noel!

 

 

 

More Fun Facts About Chocolate:

Mental Floss - Food History of Chocolate

EatThis.com - Chocolate Facts

Mental Floss- 30 Facts About Chocolate

Insider.com -Worlds Largest Chocolate Fountain Opens At Lindt Chocolate

Mental Floss - 38 Sweet Facts About Candy

CandyUSA.com - Story of Chocolate

Topics: Videos, Restaurant News, nuts, Cacao Noel, education, Pantry, youtube, easter, chocolate, Truffle, holiday, fun fact

Smashing Styrian Pumpkins

Posted by Bea Davis on Sep 23, 2013 10:00:00 AM

 This is not a great regional Austrian band.  It's the story of the country's special pumpkins.


There are many varieties of pumpkins from Austria but only the Gleisdorfer pumpkin from Steiermark produces the renown valued pumpkin seed and pumpkin seed oil.  

The history of the pumpkins dates back to 1492 when Christopher Columbus saw the first pumpkins in the Caribbean while discovering the New World.  It was described in the New Herb Book in 1543 as “ocean-cucumber” without knowing about its culinary and nutrient rich properties.

The earliest use of Styrian pumpkins was as animal feed, and as a staple part of the diet of the field hands.  The youth of Austria’s Steiermark, working in the fields, were the first to

Pumpkins whole

discover the pleasant taste of the unique seeds which possess a flavorful membrane over the seeds as opposed to a hard shell.  

The first specific reference to the Styrian pumpkin as a valued commodity was on February 26, 1735 during the exchange of a farm in Ettenforg from father to son.  The notes documented the process of pressing oil from these seeds for its primary use for medicinal purposes.

In March, 1773 a directive came from the Styrian State Government asserting some control over the growing of the pumpkins.  The directive’s primary objective was to reduce the amount of this healing oil “wasted” on cooking and “optimize” its use as an ingredient in salves, creams, and other apothecary products.

Nutritional Information

  • 100% Pure Cold-pressed Slightly Roasted Extra Virgin Styrian Pumpkin Seed Oil

  • Contains Omega 3, 6, 9,  The most important Omega-fatty-acids are oleic & linoleic acids

  • Vitamin E

  • No Trans Fat

  • Gluten Free

 

Today, the Botanical Registry lists this Styrian specialty as Cucurbita pepoL. Convar pepo var. styriaca GREB.  Each pumpkin produces about 150 seeds.  The seeds lose about half of their weight during the drying process resulting in only about 75g of seeds per pumpkin.  This is a very small yield when you consider that it takes 2.5kg of seeds to produce 1L of oil.  An eye-opening formular to illustrate what goes into producing 1L is as follows:
1L of oil =  33 pumpkins = 33 square yards of farmland.

The pumpkin fields in the Steiermark cover more than five times as much acreage than the well-known vineyards.  The higher price of this oil as opposed to other oils is more understandable when consideration is given to agricultural resources which are required to produce this HEALTHY and TASTY specialty.




Topics: nuts, Oils

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