Americans eat 12 pounds of chocolate each year and as Halloween approaches, I think I'm already into my 13th pound of the stuff. I love chocolate in all its candy forms - Reese's peanut butter cups, M&M's, Hershey's miniatures - these go into the "approved for mommy" stack as I sort through my daughter's Halloween candy haul.
While I'm familiar with the sight and smell of chocolate in its processed form, the botanical form was a mystery until a recent visit to the Atlanta Botanical Garden's exhibit "Chocolate: From Seed to Sweet." Through a series of interactive outdoor exhibits, my girls and I learned the process from the bloom on the cacao tree to the chocolate bars in the girls' plastic orange pumpkins.
Walking through the outdoor exhibition, we learned about the mustard yellow seed pods of the cacao trees. The farmers harvest the seed pods, then grind them into chocolate liquor, which is then separated into cacao butter and powder. The exhibit stations are designed for children to roast, winnow, grind, mix and mold the cacao beans. And I learned this interesting fact - cacao ( (ca-COW) refers to the tree and beans inside the seed pods; cocoa refers to the byproducts of the cocoa bean - cocoa butter and cocoa powder. And here's another factoid - each cacao pod is about the size of a pineapple and holds enough seeds to make about seven milk chocolate or two dark chocolate bars.
That concentrated dark chocolate appears at my house each Halloween in the form of Hershey's Miniatures. When I was young, I gave away the Special Darks and gobbled up all the milk chocolate. These days, while I still have a taste for the milder milk chocolate, I have a hankering for dark chocolate, and Special Dark is the way to go.
When I weary of eating the chocolate straight, I make a luscious sauce that can be used in many ways - on ice cream, on spoons, on fingers, but is delightful on a perfectly poached pear. This is the very essence of a simple, elegant, seasonal dessert. A ripe pear, poached in a flavored syrup, caressed with chocolate. It's divine.
Poached Pears
Take extra care when peeling the pears and be sure to trim the bottoms 1/4 of an inch so that they sit level on the plate.
2 quarts water
2 cups sugar
1 cup apple juice
1 cinnamon stick
3 slices lemon
6 pears such as Bartlett or Bosc, peeled, bottoms trimmed 1/4 inch
1. Place all ingredients, except for pears, in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Gently place pears in liquid and reduce heat to a simmer. Let cook for 20 minutes. Remove pears from liquid and serve with chocolate sauce.
Chocolate Sauce
24 Special Dark miniatures, unwrapped
4 ounces heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch salt
1. In a microwave safe bowl, place chocolate and cream. Zap for 1 minute at 50% power. Remove from oven, whisk and then return to oven. Zap for 1 minute more at 50% power. Remove from oven, stir with whisk. Repeat in microwave if necessary, but it should be fine at this point. Add vanilla and pinch of salt. Whisk until smooth and garnish poached pears.
My daughters decided to help, so the plates took a turn from elegant to eerie. (Kind of what would happen if Norman Bates and Vampira had a child who grew up to be a pastry chef.)
Text & images © 2010, Lucy Mercer, with the exception of the first picture, provided by the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Thanks to the Atlanta Botanical Garden for information on the chocolate exhibit.
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Nola: My girls loved this - we were all licking our plates. We kind of have a thing for chocolate around here.
Abrawang: Now I know what to do with the leftover chocolate sauce - fondue! I may have to bake a pound cake for the occasion!
Diana Ani: My older daughter took the picture of all the plates together - you know what they say about the family that blogs together…(I’m not sure, either, but we do have fun working on projects in the kitchen).
Christine: And you should have seen her face after she ate the pear - more chocolate on her!
Zul: I love chocolate, but I find that there are times when just a little bit is all you need. And there are other times when a lot of chocolate is exactly what you need.
Grace: This week is shaping up to be a celebration of dark chocolate. I couldn’t stand it when I was a kid - now I hoard it. (and my evil twin seemed to be satisfied with chocolate, but she was mulling making a succotash out of candy corn. Still working on it.)
Lisa: the exhibit will continue through December at the Botanical Garden. The scarecrows in the garden are worth seeing, too. It’s a great outing for kids!
Theresa: What a lovely gift of sacred chocolate. I can’t wait to see what you make with it!
Fusun: Thanks for reading! I’d always thought poached pears was a sophisticated dessert - it only looks that way - my kids were all over this!
Linda Shiue: In my circle, Special Darks were traded for Reese’s or Charms Blow-Pops or Tootsie Rolls or, in moments of desperation, Smarties.
Linda Seccaspina: Thanks for reading! Give the recipe a try!
Sheba: Thanks for stopping by.
Paul: I’m waiting for your version of poached pears - something sphericated & chocolatized & altogether yummy & amazing.
Felicia: I wish we had been friends when we were kids - I’d get all the milk chocolate & you’d get all the dark chocolate. I like green apple Jolly Ranchers, too.
Bellwether: I may change the name of my blog to “From my demented kitchen…” the plates kind of happened, organically, as the wordsmiths say. Thanks for visiting!
Janice: I’m glad we’re on regular Salon - especially your blog - more people should read your charming stories of how to love a family!
Kaateasley: Thanks for visiting!
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