Chocolate is one of the most loved flavors in the world. Chocolate is a favorite Valentines Day treat but for most people chocolate in its various forms is welcome all year round. Chocolate in moderation is actually good for you and for many people it is a mood lifter. There is nothing better than a rich, homemade chocolate dessert or even main dish. Cooking with chocolate, however takes a little knowledge of chocolates unique characteristics.
Getting a good chocolate treat, dessert or even main course starts with choosing good chocolate. There are many forms of chocolate that can be used in cooking, powders, bars, liquids, and the familiar chip or morsel. There are premium varieties of each form and there really is a difference in the taste of premium chocolate versus the cheapest variety.
Get real chocolate
First look to make sure the chocolate product you are buying says "real chocolate". Many store brand chocolate chips for example, are chocolate flavored, which means that they are simply sugar and fat with a little chocolate flavor. Imitation chocolate lacks any health benefits and its taste is lacking too.
The best unsweetened chocolate is generally 70% or more cocoa solids with cocoa butter and little else. Semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate have some sugar and around 50-70% cocoa solids. Chocolate that has milk added and 50% or less of cocoa solids and butter is called milk chocolate. True white chocolate is made from cocoa butter and lacks any cocoa solids. The cocoa solids are where the beneficial chemicals from dry roasted cocoa beans come from and white chocolate does not contain them. Most chocolate product labels now contain the amount of cocoa solids found in the product.
It’s not just the purity of chocolate that makes it good, it’s the way it is processed and even the variety of cocoa bean used that make one chocolate taste better than another. Chocolate producers have many trade secrets they guard closely but all chocolate requires separating out the cocoa butter from the solids in liquid chocolate and then recombining cocoa butter with cocoa solids in various proportions and at various temperatures to produce a smooth textured, rich product. Then other ingredients are often added, sugar, vanilla, lecithin, milk and so on.
The chocolate to choose for cooking can vary from the chocolate you would want to choose for eating directly. Scharffen Berger and Guittard are two American companies that produce deluxe chocolate for both cooking and eating. But for most recipes a good brand label chocolate product such as Nestle, Bakers, Godiva, or Hersey, will do. Avoid store brands and cheap brands labeled chocolate flavored. If you have a favorite eating chocolate then you will probably like that brands cooking chocolate.
Use the right form of chocolate
Use the form of chocolate called for in a recipe. If it calls for cocoa powder, use a powder. Use a powdered baking cocoa not a cocoa drink mix. Substituting plain baking cocoa for Dutch processed cocoa or vice versa in a recipe generally doesn’t matter.
When a recipe calls for solid chocolate you start with chocolate in a bar or chip form. Use the variety called for in the recipe. Pure baking chocolate is not the same as semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate. It is bitter and generally requires more sugar and fat in the recipe than other chocolate. Semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolates are interchangeable. A bar marked dark chocolate could also be used in place of semi-sweet or bittersweet. Semi- sweet chips can generally be used in recipes calling for bars of semi-sweet or bitter sweet chocolate and chopped bars could be substituted for chocolate chips. Milk chocolate is not used in a recipe unless it specifically calls for it. Be sure to get the right amount of chocolate product when you are substituting.
If you are using a dark chocolate product of 65% or higher cacao in a recipe that doesn’t call specifically for this extra dark product use a little less of the chocolate, ( 25%) and add about a teaspoon more sugar per ounce of chocolate.
Melting chocolate
Many recipes call for melted chocolate. To melt chocolate break it in small pieces or use chocolate chips. The pan you use to melt chocolate must be perfectly dry. Even a hint of water will cause the chocolate to turn grainy, which is called seizing. Make sure anything thing you use to stir the chocolate is also dry. Use low heat to melt chocolate, heating chocolate to high temperatures will also cause it to seize.
You can melt chocolate in a microwave if you are careful. Wipe the microwave to remove any moisture before beginning. Put the chocolate to be melted in a microwave safe glass bowl for best results. Start with a minute or two of time, remove and stir. If the chocolate doesn’t seem to be melted enough return to the microwave for short bursts of time. Chocolate may keep its shape until stirred even though it is soft. It is easy to burn chocolate in a microwave, so check and stir often. Chocolate scorches easily and scorched chocolate isn’t pleasant tasting, throw it out.
The other way to melt chocolate is to use a double boiler. Fill a pan with water and put your chocolate in another pan that will fit over the first pan. Make sure not to get water in the chocolate! You heat the bottom pan of water to simmering and stir the chocolate on top until it is melted. Do not melt chocolate in a pan over direct heat unless there are other ingredients like milk in the pan with it.
If melted chocolate does start to look grainy add 3 teaspoons vegetable shortening per 6 ounces of chocolate and stir it in. Do not add butter or margarine as they have water in them.
Making chocolate curls and shavings - and other tips
A vegetable peeler can be used on a block of chocolate to make curls or shavings for garnishing. Chocolate should be at room temperature for shaving, just run the vegetable peeler across it. For curls the chocolate should be a little warmer. Place the bar to be shaved in the microwave for 5 seconds or so or warm the bar, (wrapped in paper or plastic), in your hands for a few minutes. Use a little more pressure on the peeler to produce good curls.
To keep chocolate chips or pieces from sinking to the bottom of baked goods, add handful of flour to the chocolate pieces in a bowl and gently toss or stir to coat the pieces with flour before adding to the batter.
Store chocolate in a cool, dark, dry place. It must be tightly covered or it will pick up off flavors and moisture. Wrap bars in plastic wrap or place in zip close plastic bags. Opened bags of baking chips should be stored in zip close plastic bags or tightly sealed containers. You can store tightly wrapped chocolate in the refrigerator. When chocolate picks up moisture it gets a white coating on it called a bloom. It won’t hurt you but it does detract somewhat from the flavor.
Using a good chocolate correctly will make any chocolate dish even more delightful.
For an index of cooking articles by Kimberley Willis click on her name at the top of the page.
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