Varieties of Chocolate: How Do You Use Them?

Hope you are having a wonderful week. Did you know that there are many different kinds of chocolate?

Different forms and flavors of chocolate are produced by varying the amount of the ingredients. Other flavors can be obtained by varying the time and temperture when roasting the beans. It is an amazing process! Let's see what makes them all so different.

"Unsweetened Chocolate'' is pure chocolate liquor, also known as bitter or baking chocolate. It's unadulterated chocolate: Ground roasted chocolate beans with no other added ingredients imparts a strong, deep chocolate flavor in all the sweets you add it to. However, with the addition of sugar, it's used as the base for American style layer cakes, brownies, confections, and cookies.

Dark Chocolate is chocolate without milk as an additive, sometimes called plain chocolate. The US Government calls this Sweet Chocolate, and requires a 15% concentration of chocolate liquor. European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids.

"Couverture" is a term used for cocoa butter rich chocolates of the highest quality. Popular brands of couverture used by professional pastry chefs and often sold in gourmet and specialty food stores include: Valrhona, Lindt, Cacao Barry and Esprit des Alpes. These chocolates contain a high percentage of chocolate liquor (sometimes more than 70 percent), as well as cocoa butter, at least 32-39%, are very fluid when melted, and have an excellent flavor. Try these some time. The taste experience is extraordinary: It is a Chocolatier's delight.

In fact, chocolate of this quality is often compared to tasting fine wine because subtleties in taste are often apparent, especially when you taste a variety of semisweet and bittersweet couvertures with different percentages of sugar and chocolate liquor.

Milk Chocolate, is chocolate with milk powder or condensed milk added. The US Government requires a 10% concentration of chocolate liquor. European rules specify a minimum of 25% cocoa solids.

Semi-Sweet Chocolate is used for cooking purposes. It's a dark chocolate with a higher sugar content and often lower cocoa content than true dark chocolate.

Bittersweet Chocolate is chocolate liquor (or unsweetened chocolate) to which sugar, more cocoa butter, lecithin, and vanilla has been added. It has less sugar and more liquor than semisweet chocolate but the two are interchangeable in baking. The best quality bittersweet and semisweet chocolate is produced as couverture and many brands now print the percentage of chocolate liquor it contains on the package. Remember this rule: The higher the percentage of liquor the more bittersweet the chocolate will be.

Generally Europeans favor bittersweet chocolate and Americans prefer semisweet chocolate which has more sugar than bittersweet chocolate.

White Chocolate isn't really true chocolate as I mentioned before in my blogs. It's a confection based on cocoa butter without the cocoa solids and doesn't have the mood altering components. However, it's still rich with flavor and has so many uses which we'll discover in the future.

There are two types of Unsweetened Baking Cocoa available: natural cocoa (like the sort produced by Hershey's and Nestle) and Dutch-process cocoa (such as the Hershey's European Style Cocoa and the Droste brand). Both are made by pulverizing partially defatted chocolate liquor (unsweetened chocolate) removing nearly all their cocoa butter. There is a difference; however, and I'll share two important hints with you.

Natural Cocoa is light in color and somewhat acidic with a strong chocolate flavor. Hint #1: In baking, use natural cocoa in recipes which call for baking soda (because it's an alkali). Combining the two creates a leavening action that allows the batter to rise during baking.

Dutch-Process Cocoa has been processed with alkali to neutralize its natural acidity so it's darker often with a reddish cast. Dutch cocoa is slightly milder in taste and deeper in color than natural cocoa. Hint #2: Use Dutch cocoa in recipes that call for baking powder as its leavener (raising agent).

And then you have the old-fashioned Chocolate Bar that frequently contains ingredients such as peanuts, almonds, walnuts, fruit, caramel, or even crisped rice. Other chocolate confections contain alcoholic liqueurs, or sometimes luscious flavors such as mint, orange, or starwberry. Chocolate is a common snack favorite with young and old alike all over the world.

Well, there you have it. A quick run-down of the varieties of chocolate found in the World of Chocolate. Hope this will be of help to you when choosing the right Chocolate for your recipes.

Till next time-May your kitchen be filled with joy and happy children.