Everyone knows that the best part of a brownie is the edge. They even have brownie pans that wind all over the place so you get nothing but edges. Clever, but I've owned two and they are a pain to clean.

The thing is that they have edges - but hard edges that you can't clean. What makes the edge of a brownie so good is that you have the crunchy edge next to the chewy middle.

Most pans focus on edges - but create corners that don't add to the texture and are hard to clean.

The simple solution is a donut pan. Pick the size you want depending on portion - or mix em up to add some texture like in the picture above. You can pick them up on Amazon:


It has the right amount of surface area to give that crunchy edge - but since it's round, it just wipes clean. Genius.Diane Rodriguez

Chocolate = Awesomer!

Just when you thought science couldn't get any more awesomer(sic), those brilliant African (and Belgian) Chocolate Scientists have done it again. In a week, when Sri Lankan Rice Scientists published how to halve the calories in rice and make it a super prebiotic(food for your gut microflora), and we were reminded of how Italian Pasta Scientists had found something very similar with Pasta(simple really, for both just cook one day, refrigerate and eat the next day, cold or reheated).

Now, the African and Belgium Scientists, discovered easy methods the cocoa bean processors can greatly increase the really really good things in chocolate and at the same time, improve the taste too! And the best part is that there are no added chemicals, weird processing, or other additives to make this happen.  Actually, a caveman could do it.

Essentially what they found was to simply add a step of storing and aging the large pods the chocolate beans come in for a week, and then roasting them slightly cooler but for a little longer.

Chocolate pods are typically split open immediately and the beans set to ferment a few days, and then roasted at a moderately low temperature(compared to roasting coffee).  Roasting is what brings out the awesome chocolate flavors.  Both the immediate fermenting and the roasting degrade the polyphenols, the antioxidant good guys in chocolate.  The aging before fermenting and slightly lower roasting temperature seem to greatly protect those antioxidants, while at the same time making the flavors fine or even better.
The really good things in chocolate are in the dark chocolates(look for 55% plus cacao) and in the cocoa, not so much in milk chocolates and not all in white chocolates.  You gotta love science!!!!

So can you really eat all the chocolate you can handle? Well, not yet.  But soon, eating Chocolate will be a whole lot better for you - and tastier.  So eating more chocolate should cause more good than harm!
Links:

• http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-found-a-way-to-make-chocolate-better-for-you-and-sweeter

Chuck Goecke