Working With Chocolate
Low melting point makes working with chocolate very tricky. If you store it in high temperatures the or to low the cocoa butter can separate. This is when you see the grey color when you open an older candy bar. Remember, if you melt it at to high a temperature you can easily scorch it. Let even a drop of liquor touch chocolate while you are melting it and it will cause it to seize (become thick and grainy).
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deeply satisfying
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More Chocolate Cooking Products
If you need to melt chocolate it is best to use the whole bars. Chocolate chips, white, milk, or semi sweet all contain less cocoa butter so that they can better hold their shape in cookies. While they taste great in cookies, this makes them harder to melt and less tasty. a microwave oven is the easiest way to melt chocolate. And admit it, when working with chocolate this way you really would like to dip your fingers in there.
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Break it into small pieces and power for 30 seconds, stir and repeat until chocolate is completely melted. If you are comfortable with the old fashion way, use a bowl over a pan of hot, not boiling water, stir until melted.This is where working with chocolate gets a little tricky. Be careful not to let steam form drops and get into the chocolate!
The different types of chocolate are all going to be used in different ways and recipes. Let’s take a look at the different flavors of chocolates.
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White chocolate has a beautiful off white color. The lack of cocoa solids gives it a very mild flavor. Use it in recipes that will not over power it with other flavors. Good in White Chocolate Mousse and Crème Brullees and Panna Cottas and Cheesecakes. |
Milk chocolate is a wonderful sweet chocolate. It is great in dipping or candy making but as far as baking it is not very often used. Chocolate covered strawberries and cherries and chocolate fountains. So when you decide to work with chocolate it really is fun and there are so many things to do with it.
| Dark chocolate is the chocolate that is really the best one for you. It has a little sugar, lots of cocoa solids, very little to no milk. Semi sweet, sweet, bitter, unsweetened are all types of dark chocolate. Do not switch out different chocolates in your recipes unless it says you can. If a recipe calls for unsweetened or bitter be sure that is what you use. It will affect the flavor and texture of what ever you are cooking. Semi sweet is great in baking, for example chocolate chip cookies, muffins, frosting. Unsweetened in cakes and frostings. |
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Now cocoa powder is just a powdered form of unsweetened chocolate. Substitute one ounce of cocoa for one ounce of unsweetened chocolate. It does not have the same amount of cocoa butter as solid chocolate there for it can be used in recipes that are low fat. Use it for dusting cakes and cookies too. Do not mix this up with the drinking cocoa or Dutch cocoa. Dutch cocoa has a richer flavor and is the preferred beverage cocoa. They can be switched out in recipes. So now you know a bit about working with chocolate.
