May 2005
Chocolatiers
by Celia Cheng
| Chocolatier | A chocolate artisan; chocolate maker. |
| Bonbon | A chocolate candy with filling of ganache, praline, nougat, caramel or pâte de fruit. |
| Couverture | The chocolate coating, usually made with extra cocoa butter, that forms the shell of the chocolate. |
| Ganache | A chocolate cream mixture made of cocoa, cream, butter or milk. |
| Truffle | Hand-rolled ganache. Truffles were originally named after the fungus delicacy because of the resemblance in shape. Today, the term truffle is used in a broader context, including machine made truffles that lack the irregularities of the hand-rolled ones. |
| Cacao | The tree which produces the fruit called cacao pod. Cacao also references the seed of the pod, the cacao bean, which is used to make cocoa and chocolates. |
| Cocoa | The powder residue left after the cacao butter has been extracted from the cacao solid, mainly used for drinking chocolate. |
| Cocoa Butter | A.k.a. cacao butter; the natural fat in the cocoa bean, which provides the valuable nutritious substance to make chocolate. |
| Pâte de Fruit | Fruit jelly. |
| Caramel | Mixture of sugar, butter, cream or milk. |
| Praline | Roasted almonds or hazelnuts cooked in caramelized sugar, then ground. |
| Nougat | Mixture of nuts and egg white, honey and sugar. |
