Weekend Kitchen: Cocoa Bits
Crunchy cocoa nibs add an elemental chocolate kick to biscotti as well as to pan-seared duck breast.
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Chefs with a passion for chocolate in any form are tracing the flavor back to where it begins: to cocoa nibs, the fermented and roasted seeds of the cacao tree. These brittle mahogany nuggets, resembling roasted coffee beans, are what the ancient Mayans and Aztecs ground and brewed for the original hot chocolate. When crushed, sweetened and emulsified, nibs make the smooth chocolate bars we crave. But as inventive cooks have discovered, even unadorned nibs can play a culinary role, adding a pleasantly bitter crunch to biscotti, or a sly cocoa hint to a pounded spice rub for duck. To Alice Medrich, the San Francisco chocolate maven, nibs have a primal chocolate taste, hinting of roasted nuts, berries and wine. Fold them into chocolate-chip-cookie dough or a brownie batter, or add a few when you grind coffee beans. Keep cocoa nibs in the freezer to prevent oxidation.
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