Thank you, Daniel Peter

Ahhh... milk chocolate... that creamy, sweet, deliciously sinful treat! Even people who aren't chocaholics (and I'll admit that chocolate by itself is not my favorite candy) can find it hard to resist the smell and taste of this wonderful concoction. But how much do you know about this milky marvel of palate pleasing perfection?

Let's start off with who would receive the credit for inventing the process used to make milk chocolate. While Henri Nestle went on to achieve reknown for his milk chocolate candies, Daniel Peter, a famous Swiss chocolatier was the first person to develop a recipe to incorporate the use of milk in chocolate confectionary. Starting out with a very crude process of producing this sweeter, creamier chocolate in 1867, he later joined forces with Mr. Nestle (a baby food manufacturer at the time) to refine the process and through a partnership, they brought milk chocolate to the market in 1875.

So what makes milk chocolate "milk" chocolate? Milk, of course. Prior to Mr Peter's creation, the only chocolate "candy" suitable for making into bars consisted of powdered cocoa mixed with cocoa butter which was basically fat extracted from cocoa beans and treated with an alkali to remove the bitter taste. By developing a method to successfully combine cocoa powder with milk (with the help of Nestle), Peter was able to finally able to produce a creamy chocolate suitable for forming into bars and molds that was much smoother tasting, with less cocoa and more sugar. He called his creation "Gala" from the Greek, meaning "from the milk".


For the record, today, milk chocolate must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor (a smooth liquid form of chocolate with equal proportions of cocoa solids and cocoa butter), 3.7% milk fats, and 12% milk solids. Most connoisseurs would agree that European brands are still of much higher quality and better taste than those produced anywhere else in the world. But that leaves everyone else with something to aspire to, doesn't it? Anyone need a taste tester? I'm up for it!!

Now that you know the history and background of this wonderful treat, how about checking out the wonderful Etsy shops that I've featured in this post and selecting your favorite milk chocolate treat! I know I sure would love a creamy milk chocolate truffle or even a chocolate dipped pretzel right about now!

A special thank you to these wonderful Etsy confectioners for providing such tempting examples of milk chocolate yumminess! Be sure to visit them all!

Dark or Milk Chocolate Cherry and Hazelnut Bark - nikid
KISSES N GIGGLES Milk Chocolate Hand Dipped Marshmallow Suckers with Dark Chocolate Drizzle -suziesconfections
Milk chocolate Macadamia nut truffles with sea salt - VintageConfections
Milk Chocolate Walnut Fudge - Kimballsfudge
Solid Milk Chocolate Mini Wedding Cake Favor - thelittlecandycake
Milk Belgian Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods w/ White Belgian Chocolate and Sprinkles - nikid