Chocolate
Facts & Tips
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You can also use a microwave
oven to melt chocolate with good results, just be sure you stop
it frequently to stir it. Generally when the chocolate appears
melted about two-thirds of the way through, remove it from the
microwave oven and continue to stir it until smooth. The residual
heat contained in the melted chocolate will work to help melt
the rest.
The Difference in Chocolate Varieties
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. With the addition of sugar however it's
used as the base for American style layer cakes, brownies, frostings
and cookies.
Couverture
or Coating Chocolate
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, Callabaut, Lindt, and Schraffen-Berger. 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. 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.
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. The rule is the
higher the percentage of liquor the more bittersweet the chocolate
will be. Generally Europeans favor bittersweet chocolate and
Americans opt for semisweet chocolate which has more sugar than
bittersweet chocolate.
Sweet Chocolate is not as common today as it once was
years ago. Developed by the American chocolate manufacturer,
Baker's Chocolate, it is called for in a few recipes and can
be found in most supermarkets.
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