Cooking With Chocolate

Besides eating and drinking for pleasure, chocolate is also used for cooking and baking, although not all types of it are suitable for use in the kitchen. Some of the most delicious desserts in the world are made out of this, but cooking with it can also be one of the most challenging. Before attempting to cook with this, know some of the basics of chocolate cooking success!

The Process of Baking Chocolate
All types of chocolate come from the seed of the cacao tree; their differences lie in how they are processed. It is used for baking has more cocoa butter, about 50 to 58 percent concentration, than the candy bars sold in stores. Also known as baking, bitter, or unsweetened chocolate, this type of is produced from hardened chocolate liquor. The cacao beans are ground and liquefied until it becomes the liquor. The liquid is then poured into molds of bars and allowed to solidify and is then packaged and sold as unsweetened dark ones. Baking or unsweetened type is what is used for making cakes, brownies, and frosting, and is the chocolate of choice for most professional cooks. However, for those looking for sweet versions, there are variations to the unsweetened variety.

Bittersweet and Semisweet, What's the Difference?
When sugar, vanilla, and lecithin are added to the unsweetened chocolate, it becomes bittersweet, semisweet or sweet type, depending on how much sugar was added. Depending on which country you are from, there are different standards for the amount of chocolate liquor required for sweetened types. According to the Manufacturers Association in the U.S., semisweet types has to contain 15 to 35 percent cocoa liquor, while bittersweet types has to contain at least 35 percent choco liquor. Unless the recipe clearly states that you need "sweetened," "bittersweet" or "semisweet," the default chocolate that most recipes require is unsweetened baking chocolate. Otherwise, you might ruin the recipe since sugar is usually added separately and the lower percentage of chocolate liquor in the sweetened varieties might mix in differently and have less flavor.

Melting Chocolate
It takes only minutes for it to melt, as you may have experienced when leaving a bar out in the car on a hot day. But changing it from solid to a velvety liquid, which looks even all throughout, without ugly clumps, may be a more challenging feat. Melting perfectly and evenly requires your full attention. In general, chocolate melts at about the same level as your average body temperature. Heating it too high will separate the cocoa butter and make clumps of mess, or simply, you can burn it. Professional bakers use a candy thermometer to melt, heating dark chocolate to about 100°F to 120°F and melt white chocolate no more than 115°F.

Guilt-free Chocolate Desserts
It doesn't mean that when you buy unsweetened over the sweetened type that your dessert is healthier. Remember that to sweeten the dessert, you still add sugar in the over-all recipe! There are alternatives, called diabetic chocolate, for those who want to watch their sugar but still crave that sweet taste.