A Brief History of Desserts

So just when did pie become filled with fruits or sugar become associated with candy? Sugar-philes may be interested in following some of the following dates:

• 1381 - First printed recipe for Tartys in Applis, or apple pie
• 1400 - Gingerbread was made by soaking bread crumbs in honey and spices
• 1600 - Pralines were created by a table officer of French nobility
• 1700 - Eclairs--with a cream center and chocolate topping evolved slowly over several hundred years
• 1740- Cupcake recipes were commonly recorded by this time
• 1800's - Lemon meringue pie wasn't invented until the 19th century but meringue and lemon custards were common before then.

Chocolate and the Industrial Revolution

Chocolate remained a handmade and relatively expensive luxury in Europe for many centuries. However, by the 1880s the inventions of the Industrial Revolution made mass production and solid chocolate candy affordable to a much broader spectrum of the population.

The steam engine made it possible to grind cacao beans to produce large amounts of chocolate and make it extremely inexpensive. Other industrial processes, such as the cocoa press and conching machine made it possible to create smooth, solid chocolate for eating. It was not just for drinking anymore.

In the early part of the 19th century Conrad Van Houten succeeded in separating cocoa powder from cocoa butter, which led to a major improvement in the quality of chocolate. This invention turned the Netherlands into a major chocolate supplier. It was Switzerland that built the first chocolate factory. This factory was quickly followed by others built by famous modern names of Lindt, Tobler and Nestle. In the 1870s the latter two companies perfected a process for manufacturing milk chocolate.

By this time chocolate was no longer regarded solely as beverage. More of it was consumed in the form of solid tablets, and various types of candy. Worldwide production rose from 10,000 metric tons in 1830 to 115,000 in 1900.

Chocolate Today

Today cacao production hasn't changed much since ancient times. While new processes and mechanization have improved the ability to farm chocolate and the speed at which it is produced, the farming processes remain basically unaltered. It is still mostly harvested, fermented, dried, cleaned and roasted by hand.

The key difference today is that about two-thirds of the world's cocoa production is in Western Africa with about half the total sourced from the Cote d'Ivoire. This cacao provides billions of consumers with an incredible variety of chocolate candies, as well as baking chocolate for professional chocolatiers and pastry chefs.

It is now used to make delectable confections such as homemade milk chocolate, chocolate frosting, and lovely chocolate truffles.

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