All About Cocoa Powder

As far as food goes, cocoa powder is pretty important to my family and me.  We need it for brownies, pudding, basically a whole lot of desserts.  Hot chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, fudge; it's a pretty big list.  For us and millions of others, chocolate is a serious morale booster and good comfort food.  
It makes me sad and uncomfortable that the cacao beans we get cocoa from are entirely imported, mostly from Africa.  We have no domestic production.  So we have to store what we'd like to have on hand before the political situation in the world gets any more interesting than it already is.

Fortunately, cocoa has a pretty good shelf life.  Taste testers at Cook's Illustrated couldn't detect a difference between fresh cocoa and cocoa that was two years out of date.  Even with cocoa six years past date, only half of the taste testers could detect a difference, describing it as "duller, weaker, or more mellow." No one reported an off flavor. Basically, cocoa does not become toxic or unpalatable; it merely loses flavor.  To preserve flavor as long as possible, store cocoa in an airtight container. 

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between hot cocoa and hot chocolate?  Hot cocoa is made from cocoa powder, milk and sugar.  Hot chocolate is made from melted chocolate, milk and sugar.

Natural cocoa powder is lighter in color.  Baking soda is the usual leavening ingredient when working with natural cocoa powder. Most American recipes are written for natural cocoa.

Dutch process (also called alkalized, European, or Dutched) cocoa is darker, alkalinized, and less bitter.  The flavor is smoother and more mellow.  Heavily alkalized cocoa is almost black.  It's what is used in Oreo cookies.  Baking powder is the usual leavening for baked goods with Dutch cocoa.

For best results with baked goods, use the cocoa that the recipe calls for.  For sauces, puddings, and ice cream, the type of cocoa used is less critical to the recipe's success.  Of greater importance is personal preference.

Becky's Best Brownies
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 tablespoons cocoa
3/4 cup chopped nuts
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the center.   Add in the oil, eggs, and vanilla and stir well.  Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips.  Spread in a 9x13 pan and bake 30-35 minutes.


For further reading:
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/11455-dont-toss-expired-cocoa-powder
https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/does-cocoa-powder-expire/
https://www.eatbydate.com/other/sweets/how-long-does-cocoa-last-shelf-life/
https://www.doesitgobad.com/does-cocoa-powder-go-bad/

6.5.22

DIY Disinfecting Wipes

The loss of life and employment and other very real consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is beyond tragic.  The repercussions will be felt for years, even if we didn't experience the loss of a loved one.  However, it's also important to keep a healthy perspective on things and look for some humor.  One of the other great casualties of this pandemic has been the difficulty of finding any cleaning and disinfecting supplies anywhere.  Our homes are really clean by now, and yet no one is spontaneously dropping by to notice.  This pandemic thing is really a tragedy.
Like many of you, we're going to be running out of wipes soon.  We only use our wipes in the car.  (Routine cleaning takes care of the house.)  Because we only use them in the car and we don't go out a lot, we only need to make a small batch.  I make bigger batches for my husband to take to work.

Here are two options:

Bleach-based Disinfecting Wipes

Disinfecting wipes bleach to water ratio
Bleach (common household bleach, 5-6%)	Water
3 ¼ teaspoons	1 cup
2 tablespoons + ½ teaspoon	1 pint
¼ cup + 1 teaspoon	1 quart
½ cup + 2 teaspoons	½ gallon
1 cup + 4 teaspoons	1 gallon

Peroxide-based Disinfecting Wipes using 3% hydrogen peroxide (this is what's commonly sold in drugstores)

Disinfecting wipes peroxide to water ratio
3% Hydrogen Peroxide	Water
1 tablespoon	5 tablespoons
2 tablespoons	½ cup + 2 tablespoons
3 tablespoons	1 cup – 1 tablespoon
¼ cup	1 pint – 2 tablespoons
½ cup	1 quart – ¼ cup

Using Hydrogen Peroxide to Boost Seed Germination

This pandemic has prompted many millions more people to plant gardens this year, and that is really a huge blessing to all.  A self-reliant society is a strong society.  Unfortunately, however, demand has far outstripped seed supply, and people everywhere who were even a little slow to this game are having difficulty finding vegetable seeds.  Many are resorting to using old seeds, some that are even many, many years old.
Whether these old stocks of seed will germinate depends a great deal on how the seeds were stored and the type of seed:  tomatoes remain viable much longer than onions.  (For more information on seed viability, see here.)  If you are looking to plant old seed right now, there isn't much you can do to mitigate factors affecting how the seeds were stored or the type you saved.  However, you can drastically improve your germination rates with this simple tip. 

While this tip is meant specifically for boosting the germination of old seeds, even fresh seeds perform much better using this method.  A study showed that corn seed, which usually has a germination rate of about 70%, boasted a 95% germination rate.  That's significant when every seed counts.

We know that seeds need heat and/or light, water, and oxygen to germinate.  The water has to penetrate the seed coat for the oxygen to get inside the seed and begin its magic.

Some gardeners make it easier for water to penetrate hard seed coats by using some form of mechanical scarification, either by nicking or scraping the seed with a butter knife or using sandpaper (or an emery board) to rough up the surface a bit.  This method works a lot better with squash seeds than carrot seeds.  For the very small seeds, some growers shake seed in a baggie with a little bit of sand to do the same job.  Both of these techniques enable water to penetrate the seed coat faster and hasten germination, but they don't actually boost the amount of oxygen available to the seed.

Hydrogen peroxide scarifies the seed chemically.  It penetrates the old, hard seed coat faster and carries extra oxygen to the interior of the seed, dramatically enhancing the germination rate of even really old seeds.  

There are a few different ways to do this.

The first is to soak the seeds for 30 minutes in an undiluted solution of 3% hydrogen peroxide--straight from the brown bottle in your medicine cabinet.  Rinse, and plant as usual.

The second is to dilute hydrogen peroxide in water and soak the seeds for 18-24 hours, rinse, and plant as usual.  If you go this route, check the weather forecast first to be sure the following day will be good for planting.

3% Hydrogen Peroxide	Tap water
¼ teaspoon	2½ tablespoons
1½ teaspoons	1 cup
1 tablespoon	1 pint
2 tablespoons	1 quart
½ cup	1 gallon

A third method is to put seeds on a paper towel dampened with the solution, roll it up, and put it in a plastic bag in a dry area.  Spray with the solution as the paper towel dries out.  Plant the seeds when they sprout.  

Using hydrogen peroxide to boost seed germination is only effective when there is still some life left in the seed.  If the seed is so old that it is dead, it will not work. 

Links to related posts:
How to Test Vegetable Seeds for Germination

For further information:
https://www.hunker.com/12629366/how-does-hydrogen-peroxide-affect-seed-germination

5.2.22