Baking with 85 percent chocolate

[Catherine Iino]

I am making the Rose Levy Beranbaum Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte wedding cake, which calls for three pounds of chocolate. I was able to buy a lot of Lindt bars for little money, because they were mis-manufactured and are 83 percent rather than 85 percent cocoa solids. Beranbaum doesn't recommend using anything above 60 percent or so, but this deal was too good to pass up. Would it be enough to increase the amount of sugar in the recipe, or do I need to adjust for fat or anything else as well? Or am I just courting disaster all around? (I'm not a professional baker, but I play one late at night in my kitchen . . . )

[merstar]

You definitely need to adjust both the fat and sugar amounts. Do you have Alice Medrich's book "Bittersweet?" She has lots of good information on how to adjust recipes for different cacao percentages.

[Catherine Iino]

Thanks so much, merstar. That's exactly what I need!

[paulraphael]

That's a pretty fail-safe recipe ... I think the only adjustment you'll have to make is a bit less chocolate and a bit more sugar. Just be extra careful melting the 85% chocolate; I've found chocolates like this can be trickier than other.

For more delicate cakes, the way to guarantee substitutions will work is to go to the chocolate manufacturer's websites and find the actual proportions of cocoa, sugar, and cocoa butter. Then you can be precise about not just getting the chocolate right, but also the sugar and fat (you can do things like using more or less butter, more or less sugar, etc.).

Edited January 22, 2010 by paulraphael (log)

[Catherine Iino]

Thanks. I have used 70 percent chocolate without adjustment, and it was delicious.

[Shalmanese]

For decent chocolate, the only ingredients that it should contain in appreciable quantities is cocoa powder, cocoa butter & sugar (trace amounts of lecithin & vanilla also).

3lbs of 60% chocolate translates into roughly 2.2lbs of 83% chocolate & 0.8lbs of sugar.

[paulraphael]

For decent chocolate, the only ingredients that it should contain in appreciable quantities is cocoa powder, cocoa butter & sugar (trace amounts of lecithin & vanilla also).

3lbs of 60% chocolate translates into roughly 2.2lbs of 83% chocolate & 0.8lbs of sugar.

What's tricky is that "85% cocoa solids" doesn't actualy mean 85% cocoa; it means 85% chocolate, whch itself is some combination of cocoa and cocoa butter. And different chocolates will have significantly different proportions.

[tonylombaardi]

A while ago I made a java webpage for figuring out chocolate substitutions. Feel free to use it.

Chocolate calculator

It's based on the information in Medrich's Bittersweet book and will tell you how to change sugar and fat amounts.

[Catherine Iino]

That chocolate calculator is too cool! Thank you. Thanks to everyone for their help. The cake was a huge hit. I made it in three batches, since I have only a 5 quart Kitchenaid, and in the first batch I replaced 25 percent of the chocolate with sugar. That wasn't sweet enough, so I added more sugar to the subsequent batches by feel and I'm not sure exactly how much. The good thing about the recipe is that it's not so different baked and unbaked, so you can taste as you go along. I'd guess I added another ounce of sugar per 12 ounces of chocolate, without reducing the chocolate further.

I covered the cake with a white chocolate ganache, which was another adventure, so the whole thing was kind of a giant truffle. I'll try to post a photo this evening. Served it with raspberry coulis--I love that stuff but HATE making it--and whipped cream.

I really appreciate all the advice here. Egullet is the best.