CHOCOLATE AND COCOA

Chocolate and cocoa are derived from cocoa or cacao beans.When the beans
are fermented, roasted, and ground, the resulting product is called chocolate
liquor, which contains a white or yellowish fat called cocoa butter.

Cocoa
Cocoa is the dry powder that remains after part of the cocoa butter is
removed from chocolate liquor. Dutch process cocoa, or dutched cocoa, is
processed with an alkali. It is slightly darker, smoother in flavor, and more
easily dissolved in liquids than is natural cocoa.
Natural cocoa is somewhat acidic. When it is used in such products as
cakes, it is possible to use baking soda (which reacts with acid) as part of the
leavening power.
Dutched cocoa, on the other hand, is generally neutral or even slightly
alkaline. Therefore, it does not react with baking soda (see table below).
Instead, baking powder is used as the sole leavening agent. If you are
substituting dutched for natural cocoa, you must increase the baking powder
by 1 oz (30 g) for each 1⁄2 oz (15 g) soda omitted.
If not enough soda is used in chocolate products, the color of the finished
product may range fromlight tan to dark brown,depending on the quantity used.
If too much is used, the color will be reddish brown. This color is desired in
devil’s food cakes, but it may not be wanted in other products.When switching
from one kind of cocoa to another, you may have to adjust the soda in your
recipes.
Baking Soda Needed to Balance the
Acidity of Typical Cocoa Products
Amount of Amount of
baking soda baking soda
per lb per kg
Natural cocoa 1.25 oz 80 g
Dutched cocoa 0 0
Bitter chocolate 0.8 oz 50 g
Sweet chocolate 0.4 oz 25 g
Bitter Chocolate
Bitter or unsweetened chocolate is straight chocolate liquor. It contains no
sugar and has a strongly bitter taste. Because it is molded in blocks, it is also
referred to as block cocoa or cocoa block. It is used to flavor items that have
other sources of sweetness.
In some less expensive brands, some of the cocoa butter may be replaced
by another fat.

Sweet Chocolate
Sweet chocolate is bitter chocolate with the addition of sugar and cocoa butter
in various proportions. If the percentage of sugar is low, sweetened chocolate
may be called semisweet or, with even less sugar, bittersweet. Both of these
products must contain at least 35% chocolate liquor, and their sugar content
ranges from 35 to 50%. A product labeled sweet chocolate may contain as little
as 15% chocolate liquor. Do not confuse sweet chocolate with milk chocolate
(described below). In this book,when sweet chocolate is specified in a recipe,
any sweetened chocolate may be used, although the results will, of course,
vary.Bittersweet chocolate is specified if a good grade of chocolate with a high
chocolate liquor content is essential for the best results.
Because sweet chocolate has only half the chocolate content of bitter
chocolate, it is usually not economical to add it to products that are already
highly sweetened because twice as much will be needed. For example, it is
better to use bitter chocolate when making chocolate fondant from plain
white fondant.
Good-quality chocolate products—including not only dark chocolate but
also milk chocolate and white chocolate (see below)—are often called
couverture, which means “coating” in French.When couverture is used to coat
candies, cookies, and other products, the chocolate must be prepared by a
process called tempering.This involves carefully melting the chocolate without
letting it get too warm, then bringing the temperature back down to a certain
level.The process requires a fair amount of skill.
Less expensive chocolates, which have part of the cocoa butter replaced
by other fats, are easier to handle and don’t require tempering. However, they
do not have the flavor and eating qualities of good chocolate.These products
are sold under such names as cookie coating, cake coating, baking chocolate,
and coating chocolate. Do not confuse coating chocolate with couverture.
These two products are entirely different, even though couverture means
“coating.” It would be less confusing if this lower-quality chocolate were
referred to only as baking chocolate, without using the word coating.

Milk Chocolate
Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate to which milk solids have been added. It is
usually used as a coating chocolate and in various confections. It is seldom
melted and then incorporated in batters because it contains a relatively low
proportion of chocolate liquor.

Cocoa Butter
Cocoa butter is the fat pressed out of chocolate liquor when cocoa is
processed. Its main use in the bakeshop is to thin melted couverture to a
proper consistency.

White Chocolate
White chocolate consists of cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids. It is used
primarily in confectionery. Some inexpensive brands, in which another fat is
substituted for the cocoa butter, don’t deserve the name chocolate at all, as
they contain neither chocolate nor any of its components.

SUBSTITUTING COCOA
AND CHOCOLATE
Because cocoa is the same as bitter chocolate, only with less cocoa butter, it is
often possible to substitute one product for the other. Shortening is usually
used to take the place of the missing fat. However, various fats behave
differently in baking. Regular shortening, for example, has about twice the
shortening power of cocoa butter, so only half as much is needed in many
products, such as cakes. The procedures below take this difference into
account.
Because of these varying factors, as well as the different baking properties
of cakes, cookies, and other products, it is recommended that you test-bake a
small batch when making a substitution in a formula. You can then make
additional adjustments, if necessary. No single substitution ratio is adequate
for all purposes.

Starch Content of Cocoa
Cocoa contains starch, which tends to absorb moisture in a batter.
Consequently, when cocoa is added to a mix—for example,to change a yellow

Procedure for Substituting Bitter Chocolate for
Natural Cocoa
1. Multiply the weight of the cocoa by 8⁄5. The result is the amount of chocolate to use.
2. Subtract the weight of cocoa from the weight of chocolate. Divide by 2. Reduce the
weight of shortening in the mix by this amount.
Example: Substitute bitter chocolate for 1 lb natural cocoa.
8⁄5 × 16 oz = 26 oz chocolate (rounded off)
= =5 oz less shortening
10
_2
26 oz – 16 oz
__
2
Procedure for Substituting Natural Cocoa in Place of
Bitter Chocolate
1. Multiply the weight of the chocolate by 5⁄8. The result is the amount of cocoa to use.
2. Subtract the weight of the cocoa from the original weight of chocolate. Divide this
difference by 2. The result is the amount of shortening to add to the formula.
Example: Replace 1 lb chocolate with natural cocoa.
5⁄8 × 16 oz = 10 oz cocoa
= = 3 oz shortening
6 oz
_2
16 oz – 10 oz
__
2
cake to a chocolate cake—the quantity of flour is reduced to compensate for
this added starch. Exact adjustments will vary depending on the product.
However, the following may be used as a rule of thumb:
Reduce the flour by 3⁄8 (37.5%) of the weight of cocoa added.
Thus, if 1 lb cocoa is added, the flour is reduced by 6 oz. Or, if 400 g
cocoa is added, reduce the flour by 150 g.
Chocolate,of course,also contains starch.When melted chocolate is added
to fondant, for example, the fondant gets stiffer because of this starch and
usually requires thinning. Often, however, the drying effect of the starch is
balanced by the tenderizing effect of the cocoa butter.