Chocolate science!
This is just fascinating. I've heard arguments about it for a very long time, but I only now found a scientific explanation.
Chocolate does not contain caffeine*. Caffeine is one of a class of molecules called methylxanthines. Coffee contains caffeine, tea contains theophylline, and chocolate contains theobromine (if you own dogs, this name might ring a bell, because it's the reason chocolate is toxic for them). All three of these have similar stimulant effects on the human body, so in common parlance, tea, chocolate, and coffee are all referred to as containing 'caffeine'. But chemically speaking, it's incorrect to refer to all methylxanthines as caffeine.
Anyhoo. The reason I was looking into this is that I've recently become a fan of dark chocolate. I got a 55% bar for Christmas and loved it, so more recently I bought a couple of 75% bars. But I'm finding I can't eat the really dark stuff. One square of the 75% is enough to make me twitchy, even if I haven't had any other methylxanthines in the last few hours.
What else can I do with it besides eating it straight? Yeah, this is like asking what else you can do with good red wine instead of just drinking it. I love the taste of this stuff and I'd like to make it into something else. Can I bake with it, put it in cookies or a cheesecake? Thanks in advance for all suggestions.
EDIT: And... I just went reading back in the chocolate tag, and realised that insanity_theory's bittersweet praline recipe uses exactly what I have in my desk -- 75% Lindt bars. This is good news. I'm still going to look for a cheesecake recipe, though.
* More accurately, there are very small amounts of caffeine in chocolate, but the primary methylxanthine in chocolate is theobromine by a mile. More good references for clarification in the comments.
Chocolate does not contain caffeine*. Caffeine is one of a class of molecules called methylxanthines. Coffee contains caffeine, tea contains theophylline, and chocolate contains theobromine (if you own dogs, this name might ring a bell, because it's the reason chocolate is toxic for them). All three of these have similar stimulant effects on the human body, so in common parlance, tea, chocolate, and coffee are all referred to as containing 'caffeine'. But chemically speaking, it's incorrect to refer to all methylxanthines as caffeine.
Anyhoo. The reason I was looking into this is that I've recently become a fan of dark chocolate. I got a 55% bar for Christmas and loved it, so more recently I bought a couple of 75% bars. But I'm finding I can't eat the really dark stuff. One square of the 75% is enough to make me twitchy, even if I haven't had any other methylxanthines in the last few hours.
What else can I do with it besides eating it straight? Yeah, this is like asking what else you can do with good red wine instead of just drinking it. I love the taste of this stuff and I'd like to make it into something else. Can I bake with it, put it in cookies or a cheesecake? Thanks in advance for all suggestions.
EDIT: And... I just went reading back in the chocolate tag, and realised that insanity_theory's bittersweet praline recipe uses exactly what I have in my desk -- 75% Lindt bars. This is good news. I'm still going to look for a cheesecake recipe, though.
* More accurately, there are very small amounts of caffeine in chocolate, but the primary methylxanthine in chocolate is theobromine by a mile. More good references for clarification in the comments.