Cocoa nibs

            "Oh my, chocolate cream pie" one bite mini cupcake with cocoa nibs

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Continuing my love affair with cocoa, today we are looking at cocoa nibs...

Cocoa nibs are small pieces of shelled raw, or more likely roasted cocoa beans. Nibs are often used as a garnish for plated desserts, they also can be used in your baking and sometimes even accompanying savoury foods. 

Raw dried criollo cocoa bean, shell this and chop it and you will have nibs.

If you're a fan of chocolate coated coffee beans, you should enjoy nibs. Texturally the nibs are crunchy, but have some give; they are chocolately and slightly bitter with a "wine like" aftertaste due to the fermentation process used in production. They suit an adult palate. Cocoa mass, cocoa butter and cocoa powder all come from the bean/nibs.

 

top to bottom: sweetened coated cocoa nibs, cocoa beans, cocoa nibs

Uses; in your brittles to replace nuts, in your chocolate bark, as a garnish for cupcakes or plated desserts, sprinkled over sundaes, yoghurt and pavlovas, finally chopped in pie and tart bases, in cookies or your favourite choc chip cupcake recipe (replace one cup of choc chips with 1/3 cup nibs),  and the like. Join renowned food blogger and author David Lebovitz and go "savoury"; he uses cocoa nibs in his lamb sausages. Any savoury recipe where game is involved or walk on wild side and try grinding the nibs to us as a coating for fried squid. 

Nibs are available in speciality delicatessens, some supermarkets and markets. Mine today came from Power Super Foods in Australia.

Happy Baking :)

I baked today's tiny chocolate cream pie in a cute teeny tiny pie tin made by Fox Run available from Amazon.

You might also be interested in dutch processed cocoa powders...