Chocolate For Breakfast Continental Style
Dark Chocolate is Best
Chocolate for Breakfast
In many parts of Europe, Spain and Italy particularly, chocolate is a big part of their diet, especially at breakfast.
Try eating chocolate for breakfast, continental style, instead of your usual 'fry up'. You will feel just as satisfied, and it truly is more healthy than fried eggs and bacon.
Eaten as part of a well balanced diet, chocolate can be very healthy. Pure chocolate, with a high cocoa level, contains antioxidants and other nutrients which are very good for our system.
Coffee and Napolitana
Breakfast Continental Style
A continental breakfast usually consists of fresh bread or bread rolls, sweet rolls, croissants, and an array of cheese, boiled eggs, Ham, marmalades and jams, and chocolate, usually in spread form.
You will also see croissants filled with chocolate spread, or covered with chocolate.
The French Pain au Chocolate, or Napolitana in Spain, is a flaky pastry filled with chocolate, and sprinkled with chocolate on top; another common breakfast food.
Children often will be given a piece of fresh bread or baguette, with a piece of chocolate, as a mid-morning snack.
Chocolate Con Churros
In Spain, one of the most popular breakfasts is
Chocolate con Churros
This is a cup of very thick hot chocolate, served with churros, which are long, thin doughnut-like pastries, usually eaten dipped in the chocolate.
The chocolate is made in the normal way you would make hot chocolate or cocoa, but with added cornflour or cornstarch.
Boil 3/4 of the milk, add cocoa powder, and sugar to taste.
Mix cornflour with the remaining cold milk and stir till smooth, then add to the mixture on the cooker, stirring all the time, until thickened.
Whisk a little to make sure it is smooth and creamy.
Serve steaming hot with Churros which you can make yourself, too.
Churros
Ingredients
200 g of flour
250 mL of water
50 mL sunflower or vegetable oil
Salt
Hot oil for frying
Icing gun, syringe or bag with a wide nozzle.
To Make
Boil the water, add the oil and two pinches of salt, turn down the heat and sift the flour into the mixture, stirring all the time, until it forms a ball, with nothing left stuck around the pan.
Remove from the heat, and fill your icing bag .
Pipe the mixture directly into the oil, in strips 3-6 inches long.
Fry until golden, remove from heat and sprinkle with sugar if desired.
Delicious!
More Delicious Morning Treats
Another common breakfast, especially for the young ones, is chocolate milk, either hot or cold, with biscuits or cereals.
Chocolate croissants or soft rolls filled with chocolate spread, can be bought individually wrapped, and children take this for their mid-morning snack at school.
This is not to say that they only eat chocolate, of course they eat ham and cheese, eggs, fruit, all the more widely known breakfast and snack foods, but they do use chocolate as an important part of a healthy diet.
Obesity and heart problems are less common in these parts of Europe, so they must be doing something right!
Don't overdo it!
It really is possible to have too much of a good thing!
Enjoy your chocolate, but within reason.
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