Cooking with Chocolate for Newbs

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 so don't just shove it in your banana bread recipe. Chocolates make up the several most delicious desserts around the world however, using it when cooking could be quite a tough job. Prior to start cooking with this, let us first learn about the basic information about chocolate cooking success.

The Way to Bake Chocolates

Actually, chocolates regardless of what type, come from the seed of the cacao tree; their distinctions would depend on the way they are processed. As compared to candy bars sold in the market, they are more often used in baking since it contains more cocoa butter, around 50 to 58% concentration. This kind of chocolate, which is also termed as baking, bitter, or unsweetened chocolate, is created from hardened chocolate liquor. To obtain a liquor, the cacao beans will first be grounded and then will be liquefied. With the molds of bars, you will pour the liquid straight there and then wait for it to harden; when it is already hard, it will be wrapped and then sold as unsweetened chocolates. Baking or unsweetened type is what is used for making your cake recipe, brownies, and frosting, and is the chocolate of choice for most professional cooks. But, whenever you want them to be sweeter, there are also varieties of unsweetened chocolates.

What Makes Bittersweet different from Semisweet?

Bittersweet, semisweet or sweet types are made from adding sugar, vanilla, as well as lecithin to the unsweetened chocolate in accordance with the amount of sugar added. The standards for the amount of chocolate liquor to be added for sweetened types would vary depending on which country you are located at. According to the Manufacturers Association in the US, semisweet types has to contain 15 to 35 percent cocoa liquor, while bittersweet types has to contain at least 35 percent choco liquor. In most recipes, the traditional type of chocolate that you will be using are the unsweetened ones except when a certain recipe would specify that you have to have a sweetened, bittersweet or the semisweet type. Whenever the recipe do not specify the type of chocolate, you have to make use of the standard type since your product might be too sweet as sugar is separately added or might not have enough sweetness or flavor.

How to Melt Chocolates

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 in order for you to melt it perfectly and evenly, you have to place your full attention. In most cases, chocolates melt at the same temperature level with your usual body temp. Heating it too high will separate the cocoa butter and make clumps of mess, or simply, you can burn it. Expert cooks would tend to use a thermometer to melt the chocolate. For dark chocolates, it will be around 100F to 120F and for the white chocolate, it should not go beyond 115F. This makes for an excellent sugar cookies recipe.