These are espresso chocolate pots de crème I made for dessert last night, with fine Grenadan dark chocolate provided by Maria, and a recipe courtesy of everyone’s favorite pâtissier LaDawn.

OM NOM NOM.

Yeah, if I had packed that, there would have been toothpaste biscuits (Mint Slice) and Dark Chocolate KitKats in there. Shame on your friends for being remiss.

WHAT ARE THESE DARK CHOCOLATE KITKATS OF WHICH YOU SPEAK, AND WHY ARE THEY NOT IN MY MOUTH AT THIS VERY MOMENT?

westvillageidiot:

And there was cheese.

Vince Giordano’s European cheese shop, 2009

WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN CHEESES.

If you try to reharden chocolate that’s been melted (say, in making chocolate covered strawberries), you’re frequently left with a matte finish and crumbly texture that in no way resembles the dark glossy chocolate you began with.

Testify, sister.  I’ve melted bucketloads of chocolate of all kinds, and only by accident have been able to get it to re-harden properly¹.

Apparently chocolate can solidify into any of six different forms:

Cocoa butter, one of the dominant ingredients in chocolate, contains several triglycerides that lock into a crystal form when cooled. However, there is not just one form that the triglycerides can lock into, but six of them (β(I) through β(VI)). Each successive form is more stable and has a higher melting point. Almost all commercial chocolate is in the β(V) form — from what I can tell, you only get to sample β(VI) in the afterlife, if you’ve been very, very good.

Huh.  I had no idea.

If someone were to ever write a “physics of food” book, I would be at the front of the line to buy it.