What Are Nibs in Chocolate Making?
Cacao nibs offer a plethora of health benefits not commonly associated with chocolate, its sweet byproduct. Find out how to include them into your baking and chocolate-making recipes for a boost of minerals and antioxidants. Does this Spark an idea?
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Identification
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Cacao nibs are the fragmented pieces of a cacao bean, the raw ingredient of chocolate. The beans are harvested from cacao tree pods, roasted and crushed into small pieces. Their flavor is nutty and rich with a slight bitterness and crunchy texture.
Function
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Cacao nibs can be consumed raw but are popularly used as a healthful addition to cookies, ice cream and other desserts. In chocolate making, they are ground into a liquor to which cocoa butter, sugar and milk are added.
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Benefits
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The health benefits of chocolate more recently praised by food and health magazines deserve a closer look. As a rule, the more raw and unprocessed the chocolate, the higher the nutritional reward. Cacao nibs contain high levels of antioxidant flavonoids, essential minerals such as magnesium and sulfur and are known to trigger the release of endorphins in the brain.
Types
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In chocolate making, there are varying levels of cacao present in the product, usually measured by the percentage of liquor present. Some of the most basic types, listed in decreasing cacao content, include unsweetened, bittersweet, semisweet, milk and white chocolate (which contains no chocolate liquor).
Fun Fact
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Cacao beans, which originated in Central and South America, were once used by the native Aztec and Mayan peoples as currency. In parts of Latin America, they were still being used for this purpose until the 19th century.
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