Emilia Dark Chocolate Cream

You all know I am a sucker for cream spreads. I have tried a lot and all of them I appreciate so much. I love this on my toast or bread in the morning for breakfast.

EXTRA DARK CHOCOLATE
The recipe for Emilia extra dark chocolate block is a perfect balance between top quality ingredients, created almost a hundred years ago to make the best chocolate desserts.

Different formats and a complete range represented by cocoa powder, both bitter and sweetened, drops to fill and decorate, dark cream to garnish or spread, make it a complete kit for the realization of any chocolate recipe, both for home and professional use.

As it is mentioned in the name, it is Sugar free because it is made of pure dark chocolate. And it is one of the italian historical products which has been in the market for so many years. The ingredients are high quality and it has a high amount of cacao, very creamy and with low calories, carbohydrates and sugar. It is also gluten-free! to all of you who are opting without gluten sweets, you may want to try this! But make sure you know like that some of the other cream spreads that I have discussed here in my blog, this contains milk and soy and has traces of almonds, pistacchio nuts and peanuts so be very careful if you are allergic to those.

Vasetto da 200g
Prodotto in Italia da Zaini

Ingredients:

• Cacao magro in polvere 26%
• edulcolorante
• maltitolo
• nocciole 25%
• latte scremato in polvere
• olio di girasole
• fibra vegetale: inulina
• burro di cacao
• burro anidro (latte)
• emulsionante: lecitina di soia, aromi.

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HISTORY

Luigi Zaini inaugurated “Fabbrica di Cioccolato, Cacao, Caramelle, Confetture e Affini” in Milan back in July 1913

He thought that each person has its own taste so he decided to create various chocolates and candies for each of them.

Zaini candies and chocolates’ elegant packaging was greatly appreciated in 1920. But the Zaini dark chocolate stood out the most and has become the diamond of the production and within the first couple of years will be called in english, the “Block”.

Their marketing centered into the Italian’s passion like sports and film. they released various figurine painted by hand, featuring cinema divas and sports personalities. They are collectibles up until this day.

In 1938 after Luigi’s passing, his wife Olga entered the scene to direct the company. She has become one of the few industrial women at the time. She has hired female staff, she imprinted the company values about fair opportunity. That is why suppliers named it the fabbrica dei tosan or la fabbrica delle ragazze: “factory of girls”.

Olga Zaini finally changed the name of “Block” dark chocolate in “Emilia” in 1955, honoring the babysitter of her children, allowing her to work full time.

She then passed the leadership to her sons, Vittorio and Piero. During the economic boom in 1960 the chocolate boxes has become a dispensable gift for the family and loved ones. And the two sons widens the success of Zaini by distributing the products to over 80 countries in the world in 1980. Vittorio’s children Luigi and Antonella then went on to continue the company in 1990.

By 2013, Zaini celebrated 100 years, having a flagship store in Milan as a Boutique-chocolat.

And just recently in 2019, in Le Nuove Donne del Cacao, Zaini talks about its commitment in the name of Equal Opportunities. It is undertaken in the Ivory Coast since 2015, in support of a female entrepreneurship project created for women cocoa farmers.

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Curiosity
The Nanny EMILIA- the family anecdote

Emilia is the nanny who in the 1940s looked after the little ones of the house, Vittorio, Rosetta, Luisa and Piero, while their mother Olga, a prematurely widowed one, took care of the management of the company. It is said that Emilia loved helping the cook especially in the preparation of desserts. Having an infinite supply of chocolate at her disposal, she dedicated herself to the creation and, sometimes, to the invention of chocolate desserts.

Of course, since there are four children in the house, they were the primary recipients of these creations. Their task was tasting lots of sweets like gateau or Bavarian chocolate cake, meringues or chocolate and candied cake for a snack.

Piero, in particular, already endowed with a refined taste at the time, has became expressive of his own opinion and always found suggestions to improve the dishes he tasted. His proposals were taken so seriously, by the cook and the nanny, that they were reported in a notebook intended for family use.

Olga then decided to change the name of the flagship product of the House, the pastry chocolate, called Block, then called it Emilia dedicating it to her.

And what happened to the recipes? Recipes were, and still are, published on Emilia chocolate packages: a custom that recurs in the many packaged food products, to advise consumers on the best way to use them. In this case, it was about recipes on the use of pastry chocolate. A few years ago the notebook came out, with the recipes invented in pairs by the nanny and the young Piero and with them the idea of ​​naming the recipes proposed on the packages after their authors. It was Piero’s honor to make the recipes. This is why the new Zaini generation decided to dedicate “Uncle Piero’s recipes” to him, reporting them on the Emilia chocolate packaging.

I hope you liked this article and I had fun writing this because the history of Emilia is very interesting. I have always thought that it pertains to one of Italy’s region but it is actually a person’s name! And if you ever come across this product, I highly recommend this! It is a true dark chocolate cream that you can eat with bread but not only that! It can be used to create other recipes!

Thank you so much for reading! See you on my next article!