Hi users of the internet!! As usual, last week for the DYOM mod, we had learnt about ice-cream (we made sorbet actually) and chocolate! To be honest, I have always thought that nitrogen ice-cream was a gimmick and is just there to scam me of my parent’s money, but after this lesson, I would actually try them! Also, as someone who’s favourite chocolate contains absolutely 0% cocoa (white chocolate), the chocolate mousse we had made was…well read on to find out more!

Ice cream magic

In the workshop on 6 March 2020, we had learnt about the science behind ice cream. Ice cream is actually made of 5 major components; ice crystals, fat, sweeteners, air and other solids. First of all, since this my blog I am allowed to say that ice cream should be creamy and smooth, if it is rough it does not deserve the cream in its name. Anyways, whether the ice cream is smooth and creamy depends on the size of the ice crystals formed- the smaller the ice crystals the better! Hence, the faster the freezing rate, the smaller the ice crystals. This is the reason why nitrogen ice cream is so popular -> it only takes seconds to turn your milk solution into ice cream, compared to traditional freezing which takes 45minutes!

Milk, which contains fat, adds to the richness and texture of the ice cream. (Maybe this will give you a reason to say no to dairy-free ice cream) Sorbet however, does not contain any milk 😀 perfect for lactose slightly intolerance me. Sweeteners not only makes the ice cream taste like sugar rush, but also lowers the freezing point of the mixture, ensuring that the ice cream does not over freeze and become ice cubes. This really makes you wonder about how bad dairy and sugar free ice cream might be…  Air is the cheapest (most dangerous and dirtiest ingredient that we have… stay healthy during covid-19 times guys) in the process of making ice cream. Ice cream contains many tiny air pockets, which give them the consistency we all love. Other solids refers to non-fat milk solids such as proteins and mineral salts, or even the toppings such as crushed oreos. They help give your ice cream a different texture so that you don’t get bored of the creaminess. Also, more of these solids helps prevent formation of big ice crystals!

Sadness part 1

This happened when we added ribena to dry ice!!

In the workshop, we had actually made sorbet, which was basically dry ice + syrup. As someone who loves soft serve, I was slightly disappointed that we were only making sorbet, but my bowels thank me. In the future, I would like to learn more of the Turkish ice cream, which looks delightfully stretchy, creamy and delicious! It makes me wonder how that actually happens??

How to be a chocolate scientist

The second part of the workshop involved us making chocolate mousse like a pro and using only 2 ingredients (and all of my arm muscles)! But before we become failed michelin chefs, we first need to learn about the science behind chocolate and its glory. Like all things in life, chocolate is actually very complicated as during the ‘hardening process’ there are 6 possible ways the molecules in the cocoa butter can be stacked together (polymorphs) and we only want polymorph 5. Polymorph 5 (gourmet chocolate level) gives us the shiny, smooth, snappy and “melt in your mouth” chocolate. Manufacturers (or cooks) must repeat a cycle of warming up and cooling down, aka tempering. Greasy chocolate sounds like a nightmare and to prevent this, we need to ensure that the fat molecules in the cocoa butter are able to form a dense network of compact of stable crystals. This means that little liquid fat are left over to ooze out between the cocoa butter crystals. Hence, this is why tempering is important! Also, if you see a whitish layer on your chocolate, it means that the chocolate is ‘blooming’ and the fat crystals are damaged, causing the quality to drop.

How to be a failed Michelin chef

What you need:

100g of chocolate of your choice

80g of hot water 

A bowl of ice

Energy for an arm workout

The steps are pretty simple –

1) crush chocolate for easier melting

2) Pour in hot water and melt the chocolate

3) Place the bowl of melted chocolate on top of the ice and whisk like your life depends on it

Tadaa!! You get your very own chocolate mousse :). Hopefully it turns out better looking and tasting than ours haha.

Our group had used 90% cocoa dark chocolate so the mousse was as bitter as my soul;

and we might have over whisked our chocolate mousse so it was like eating $3 tub ice-cream but without the ice…you gotta see it to believe it so here:

NOT THE MOST APPETIZING LOOKING MOUSSE

Sadness part 2

As expected, white chocolate is still the best for me, so I might actually try making a white chocolate mousse myself!! (ask me next time if i succeeded) Honestly, the chocolate mousse might have tasted much better if we had used hot whipping cream instead, but well, water is more readily accessible for everyone. So now when you are at home  and you crave chocolate mousse, here’s how you can make them easily! See ya next time 😀

Not so fun fact: Cocoa beans are expected to be extinct in 2050…white chocolate will take over the world!!