Enhanced Chocolate

Anyone who enjoys chocolate, is probably considering this title to be a misleading one. Rest assured, I am just going to go into some of the complimentary flavors, and little hip tricks that help to allow you to enjoy the full spectrum of tastes that chocolate can reveal.
First, anytime chocolate is warmed, cooked, heated or frozen it brings out the chocolatiness in full force. The heating is due mostly to carmelization, but as in the case of cocoa based desserts it is termed blooming the cocoa. This is done by simply heating up one of the liquids going into the recipe and pouring it over the cocoa prior to adding it to the whole recipe. Trust me it works, although i haven't figured out why. Doing this to processed chocolate is a little more tricky because burnt chocolate is simply offensive and is typically unsalvageable for much of anything. Third chocolate was not meant to be mixed initially with water, so if you are try to cut the calories from the cream, butter or other medium stated in the recipe DON'T. If you're going to enjoy a dessert you might as well have fun with it.
Flavors known for bring out the best in chocolate include;
Orange, coffee, lemon, berries, almond, peanuts, okay all nuts, vanilla, molasses, cinnamon, apricot, grapes, maple and mint.. I am sure the list exceeds this but these ar eth ones I am familiar with. Add some extract, essences, or the food/ fruit itself, can bring out dark to floral notes in the confection that were previously unimaginable. So next time you are cooking up a batch of brownies try adding one ingredient that may make that batch of baked goodness infamous in the mind of your tasting crew.
My favorite combo is Dark chocolate with orange extract, served with fresh berries. The sweet sour, bitter, combo is sublime. Have fun experimenting, after all cooking is just a bunch of written home chemistry projects, that go to for grading to an entirely subjective audience. So hope you have a great weekend.
Ms. Brownie