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Food Channel's top ten trends in chocolate
Published: 8/12/2012 12:30 PM
Last Modified: 8/12/2012 8:17 PM

FoodChannel.com/David Nehmer

Do you want to know what’s hot in the world of chocolate? Chocolate never goes out of style, but top chefs always find new and exciting ways to use it.

This year, The Food Channel, CultureWaves and the International Food Futurists decided to take a deeper look into chocolate and see what the trends are showing us.

Take a look at the trends and try a couple of my favorite recipes from the report.

1. Craft Chocolates. This trend combines all the worries of the world and solves them with chocolate. Locally sourced. Green. Pure. Healthy. Artisan. Premium. DIY. When you make your own craft chocolates, you can, well, craft anything you want out of anything you want.

2. Spreadable Chocolate. We perked our ears up at the 2011 National Restaurant Association Show when we heard the representative from Nutella tell a group of industry leaders that they planned to spend heavily in U.S. advertising over the next few years. He told the group that Nutella was a brand known all over Europe, but not so much in the States, and they were ready to change that.

3. Chocolate with an Ethnic Twist. We’re seeing this across all desserts, not just chocolate. But it appears to have started with chocolate, as Mexican chiles and vanilla got called out in candy bars. Then we added matcha (green tea), and began dipping our churros in chocolate.

4. Chocolate in Unexpected Places. Just when you thought we weren’t going to talk about bacon. Well, this isn’t about bacon dipped chocolate, but since chocolate is showing up more and more at breakfast, you can expect to find more and more of those flavors together. In fact, chocolate flavors are enhancing all kinds of food experiences.

5. Chocolate For the Health of It. We’ve had enough of "Death by Chocolate" and over-indulgence (well, it may depend on the day). The point is, if we can garner a few health benefits and eat chocolate at the same time, we’re all about it.

6. The Cinnamonizing of Chocolate. Cinnamon is hot right now, and we’re not just talking about the stronger Vietnamese cinnamon (marketed as Saigon Cinnamon) or the Ancho-Chile Cinnamon.

7. He Said/She Said: Chocolate. Can you tell your preference for type of chocolate by gender? Our informal tests showed yes, and science is at least saying that women prefer the stronger flavors of dark chocolate. What’s more, rumor has it that if you want to conceive a girl, eat chocolate (if you want a boy, stick to red meat).

8. A Chocolate for Every Dietary Need. It’s hard to think about flourless or sugar free or even dairy free when it comes to chocolate, but companies are responding to the need. The huge rise in gluten-free diners has had a bigger impact on menus than all of the calorie counting that worried restaurants so much a few years ago.

9. Crowdsourced Chocolate. Call it whatever you want: mash-up, personalization, customization. This trend says that chocolate is showing up with some unusual combinations in what we call a mash-up of ingredients. After all the ways Americans have reinvented chocolate over the last few years, what else is left?

10. Chocolate Pairings. Chocolate and roses, yes. Chocolate and cheese. Chocolate and wine. It’s not new to put chocolate with something else that complements it, but we’re seeing a lot more of it.

Mashup Cupcakes

1 box chocolate cake mix
Chocolate wafer cookies
Mini peanut butter Snickers, chopped (or candy of your choice)

1.Preheat oven to 350°F.
2.Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
3.Place a chocolate wafer in the bottom of each liner.
4.Drop a few pieces of candy on top of the chocolate wafers.
5.Make cake mix as indicated on package.
6.Spoon cake batter over the candy to fill the liners.
7.Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Chocolate Cinnamon Mousse Pie

30 chocolate wafers
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon Mexican vanilla
2-4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream (optional, for topping)
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (optional, for topping

Preparation
1.Crush cookies in blender or food processor until only small crumbs remain.
2.Mix in butter and cinnamon.
4.Process until thoroughly blended.
5.Press mixture into pie plate.
6.Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool crust to room temperature.
7.Melt chocolate and 1/2 cup whipping cream in microwave in 30-60 se cond intervals. Stir between heating cycles.
8. Add vanilla and allow to cool.
9. Whip cream in separate mixing bowl until stiff. Add powdered sugar and ensure that it’s thoroughly blended.
10.Carefully fold whipped cream into cooled chocolate mixture.
11. Spoon into pie shell and gently press into place using spoon or knife.
13. Cover with a bowl, and cool in refrigerator at least overnight.
14. Whip cream and sugar as previously described. Spread topping over the center of the pie, or use a pastry bag to pipe 1/2 inch stars across the top.

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Taste

Food Writer Nicole Marshall Middleton joined the Tulsa World in May 1993 after graduating from Oklahoma State University. She has covered crime, city government and general assignment beats during that time - but mostly crime. But when she isn’t at work, Nicole is a devoted food hobbyist. She enjoys meal planning and cooking with her husband, Steve, every day of the week and on holidays it’s a family affair. When the opportunity to become the food writer at the Tulsa World presented itself in the summer of 2011, Nicole jumped at it. She is excited to explore a new side of Tulsa and make the transition from crime to cuisine. .

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