Chocolate Recipes

Chocolate (help·info) (see below for etymology) describes a number of raw and processed foods that originate from the tropical cacao tree. It is a common ingredient in many kinds of sweets, chocolate candy, ice creams, cookies, cakes, pies, and desserts. It is one of the most popular flavours in the world.

Chocolate is made from the fermented, roasted, and ground beans taken from the pod of the tropical cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which was native to Central America and Mexico, discovered by ancient Mayas and Aztecs, but is now cultivated throughout the tropics. The beans have an intensely flavoured bitter taste. The resulting products are known as "chocolate" or, in some parts of the world, cocoa.

Theobroma is Greek for "drink of the gods."

The bean products are known under different names in different parts of the world. In the American chocolate industry:

Cocoa is the solids of the cacao bean

Cocoa butter is the fat component

Chocolate is a combination of the solids and the fat