Author Archive: Joanna Maligaya
Chocolate Anise Truffles
May 29, 2013
Anisette refers to an anise-flavored liqueur popular in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France. It is colorless and, unlike other famous anise-based liqueurs, it doesn't have licorice.
This liqueur has a strong and overwhelming flavor when you drink it straight, and could even irritate the throat because of its high alcoholic content. In mixed drinks, though, it yields a sweet tolerable flavor. What about in sweet treats?! Try this on for size!
Mood-enhancing Dark Chocolate
May 24, 2013
A recently published study in Australia claimed that dark chocolate enhances one’s mood by means of boosting calmness and feelings of contentment. How is this possible? It’s all in the polyphenols that cocoa is known to be rich in.
Polyphenols are naturally found in plants and are a basic element of the human diet. Such compounds are proven to lessen oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is linked to a lot of diseases. Also, polyphenols are said to have outstanding psychological effects.
“Anecdotally, chocolate is often linked to mood enhancement,” Matthew Pase, a PhD candidate at the University of Swineburne in Melbourne and lead author of the study, claims. “This clinical trial is perhaps the first to scientifically demonstrate the positive effects of cocoa polyphenols on mood.”
Red Velvet Chocolate Cake
May 22, 2013
Ever since I came across a red velvet cupcake some years back, I've been in love with red velvet cakes/cupcakes. I don't know about you, but I think it's one of the prettiest looking cakes known to humans.
Red velvet cake is described as a cake with either a dark red, bright red, or red-brown color. It is typically prepared as a layer cake that has cream cheese or cooked roux icing as topping. You get the reddish color by adding in beetroot or red food coloring.
The most commonly used ingredients are buttermilk, butter, and flour for the cake and cocoa, beetroot, or red food coloring for the color. The amount of cocoa differs depending on the recipe.
Low-calorie Chocolate Tea, Anyone?
May 17, 2013
Twins Jodi and Stella Kean initially planned on having a tea bar, but when such plan didn't come about, they started their own novelty tea business.
"When the lease on the shop fell through we came up with the idea for choclateas. I don't think people realize how many calories and how much sugar is in a cup of hot chocolate. We wanted to create something that felt like a treat but was healthy," the Daily Express quoted Stella as saying.
They found a tea supplier and worked with an array of different flavors to come up with their tea containing fewer than 20 calories per cup. Last December, the twins were given start-up loans of 5,500 pounds. Melissa Middleton, who has plenty of businesses in the Newscastle area, also became their mentor.
Kahlua Creamy Fudge
May 15, 2013
According to Wikipedia: “Kahlúa is a Mexican coffee-flavored rum-based liqueur. It is dense and sweet, with the distinct taste of coffee, from which it is made. Kahlúa also contains sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla bean.”
This fudge recipe is a very rich and flavorful one. When you set it up nicely, it’s a fantastic addition to any party tables. It depends on how strong you want the Kahlua taste, you can add to the amount of Kahlua stated.
You need not use a candy thermometer, you just need a timer and it always turns out great. It’s definitely a keeper!
Chocolate Is Better For Your Teeth Than Fluoride?
May 10, 2013
A recent groundbreaking study published in the dental journal, Caries Research, verified what the inventors of Theodent™ toothpaste have always been claiming.
Twix Ice Cream Pie
May 8, 2013
If you love ice cream and like working with it in the kitchen, this recipe is for you.
We all love ice cream. Some love eating it, others love making it and then eating it. Give your usual ice cream pie oomph, and take it to a whole new level of deliciousness! This time, use Twix candy bars. Nobody can say no to Twix!
It feels just right when you whip this up. It will lure in the young ones and the once young, I tell you! No matter the weather. 🙂
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Twix Ice Cream Pie Spread one of the chopped Twix bars on the bottom of the cookie crust. Stir together the chocolate ice cream and spread it evenly over the Twix bar. Immediately cover the pie loosely with plastic wrap and freeze for at least four hours, or until ready to serve. |
Enjoy! 🙂
Chocolate Makes People Smarter
May 3, 2013
Chemical addictions, as we all know, have a tendency to be destructive. It really is quite scary. Fortunately most people have less damaging "addictions" in life. It’s no secret that a bulk of the world’s population enjoys a bit of chocolate, at least every now and then.
Statistics have shown that the average American consumes around 11 pounds of chocolate annually (depending on whose numbers you look at).
Chocolate may not be a life essential. It’s not as though it would be the death of somebody if chocolate just disappeared from the face of the earth. However, if you took it away, one of the biggest and yummiest pleasures you can get on the planet Earth would also be extinct. And maybe a powerful brain food would be done too!
Quite interesting, a study last year in the New England Journal of Medicine displayed how chocolate not only tastes good, but it also has the power to make a person kind of smarter. Something like that.
According to an article with the title "Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive function, and Nobel Laureates," the majority of Nobel Prize winners come from countries that prove to have high consumption of chocolate.
For instance, Switzerland has about three times the number of Nobel Prize winners per capita, while the people in their lands eat twice as much chocolate on an annual basis.
According to the graph below (which I found in an article at Scientific American) showing a plot of chocolate consumption in kilograms versus the number of Nobel Prizes per country, there is a strong correlation of 0.79. (Sweden appears to be the biggest anomaly. If you take it out, the correlation jumps to 0.86.)
Pretty cool! Perhaps this shows that when an entire country is "addicted" to chocolate, big things can happen.
Chocolate Oreo Ice Cream Cake Roll
May 1, 2013
At some point in my life, I was crazy about Oreos. As a kid, I remember not being able to sleep if I didn't have my Oreo fix. I was the typical kid who would open the sandwich cookie, and lick the filling. Then I would close it again, and dunk it in my tall glass of milk. You get the picture.
Chocolate and Acne
April 26, 2013
Researchers at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands, collected blood samples from seven participants before and after consuming exactly 48 g of chocolate on a daily basis. This happened consecutively for four days.
The chocolate consumed had approximately 30% cocoa. The blood cells collected were then exposed to bacteria known as Propionibacterium acnes.
These bacteria are said to be a contributory factor for developing acne when they grown inside clogged pores. When it happens, the pores become inflamed. It leads to growth of Staphylococcus aureus, which is another type of skin bacteria that could worsen acne.
The blood cells produced more interleukin-1b after the participants had chocolate. Interleukin-1b refers to a marker of immune system inflammation when they were exposed to Propionibacterium acnes.
The researchers claimed that such findings indicated that eating chocolate may increase the inflammation which adds up to acne. Chocolate consumption also increased production of another immune system factor, known as interleukin 10, after having been exposed to Staphylococcus aureus, according to a report at MyHealthNewsDaily.
Interleukin 10 allegedly lowers the immunity against microorganisms. That being said, higher levels of interleukin 10 may end up in conditions that would pave way for bacteria to infect pimples, and aggravate them, according to the researchers.
Despite the many talks about chocolate and some other foods that are linked to acne, little is known as evidence to show they actually cause acne, said Dr. Kanade Shinkai, a dermatologist at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, who has acne treatments as specialty.
However, past studies have shown that high-glycemic foods, like white bread, could be associated with acne. This is because they are known to release sugar into the bloodstream rather quickly. While the acne problems of some people are affected by diet, others’ acne issues are not influenced by diet at all.
Shinkai made a warning against broad dietary restrictions, like avoiding diary, considering dairy products are significant sources of calcium and vitamin D for a lot of people, and the health advantages that come with the products outweigh the effects of acne, she claimed.
This research was published in the journal Cytokine.