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International olive oil expert and judge, and member of the Scientific Society – Alexandria University.
Have you ever heard of olive oil chocolate? This is what we looked for after hearing it from a friend who brought a special Italian product with him. We stopped this product, and this blend had a distinctive flavor.
We've found that over the past 15 years, mixing olive oil with chocolate has gone from being a curiosity to everyone's favorite flavor. If you search for “olive oil chocolate” on the Internet, you'll find an abundance of delicious recipes for chocolate cakes flavored with olive oil.
This trend is believed to have sparked a passion for discovery for olive oil cake and chocolate, prompting a select group of professional chocolate makers (as well as confectioners) to develop this delicious blend by making olive oil an essential ingredient in chocolate itself. Now we see chocolate products with olive oil in the market.
There are many great similarities between quality chocolate and olive oil. Simply put, both are made by crushing the fruit. Olive oil is extracted from the pulp of the olive fruit, while the seeds (cocoa beans) are used in chocolate. Thus, the flavor of both types of delicacies is affected by a similar set of complex factors, such as: genetic variety, cultivation conditions, processing method, and cultivation soil. The taste of both can also change from one harvest season to another.
These flavor complexities are a key part of why chocolate and olive oil are great partners in the culinary world. In addition to the natural balance of sweet and bitter, there is a deeper harmony of scents. Olive oil can have a spicy, sweet or bitter taste, or have a herbal fruity taste with distinctive notes of walnuts or green tomatoes (which taste lovers desire), or homogeneous and harmonious with distinctive characteristics, all of which are in harmony with the wide range of cocoa and chocolate flavors.
Anyone with a fine sense of taste will be impressed by how these fine details are intertwined. Therefore, we find courses to learn the taste of olive oil from specialized experts.
Besides this blend of flavors, texture plays a key role in making chocolate and olive oil the perfect combination. One of the reasons why good chocolate melts smoothly is that cocoa contains about 50% It is fat, also known as “cocoa butter.”
Fortunately, cocoa butter melts at a temperature between 34 and 38 degrees CelsiusIt is a temperature similar to that of our bodies. This is why chocolate is usually stable at room temperature, but it starts to melt as soon as it enters the mouth.
Many chocolate makers add extra cocoa butter to make the chocolate softer, but it is possible to replace it with other fats and oils. In poor quality chocolate, you can often find a substitute for cocoa butter from cheaper fats such as palm oil or vegetable oils. However, some of the best chocolate makers in the world are now taking a different path, using special oils that complement cocoa and enhance the flavor of chocolate. The aromatic and fruity olive oil tops this list.
It is worth mentioning that researchers at the “La Sapienza” University in Rome have developed a chocolate product based on the “Oleuropein” (Oleuropein) that causes bitterness in olive oil. It is a substance derived from extra virgin olive oil that helps keep blood sugar low.
The most prominent results of the study are:
The new chocolate was tested on 25 patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and 20 healthy people. They were asked to eat 40 grams of cocoa and hazelnut cream (natural or fortified with 4% oleuropein). The results showed that eating chocolate with olive oil in diabetics reduces the peak of blood sugar that occurs two hours after eating chocolate without olorubin.
In previous studies, it has been determined that a substance oleuropein It is responsible for the protective effect of extra virgin olive oil on metabolism (found in olives and olive leaves). It avoids fluctuations in blood sugar after eating, which is a very common issue among diabetics that contributes to increasing the risk of atherosclerosis and thus increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Thus, olive oil chocolate helps to avoid the increase in blood sugar that may occur after eating regular chocolate, allowing patients to enjoy this food without having to resort to sugar-free products.
