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Bittersweet vs. Unsweetend Chocolate


Susan G

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Help! I'm trying a new recipe for Christmas cookies, and it calls for bittersweet chocolate. The only brand I've found in that variety is Ghirardelli, and this brings two questions:

Is there much difference in the taste of the finished product between semi-sweet, or unsweetend, and bittersweet?

Is there a favored brand of bittersweet chocolate, and where can I get some?

(OK, that was three questions :smile: )

Thanks for the guidance!

I'm a canning clean freak because there's no sorry large enough to cover the, "Oops! I gave you botulism" regrets.

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The folks at Scharffen Berger can explain this much better than I can.

http://www.scharffenberger.com/faq.php

I recommend you try their chocolates if they are available in your area or if you don't mind paying to have them shipped.

This is great chocolate. Valhrona is another favorite of mine, which I buy at Trader Joe's near the check out stand for a decent price.

I prefer bittersweet for eating and for baking. I use unsweetened sometimes too... I like it for covering fruit and candied ginger. The unsweetened chocolate contrasts really well. Although I found that using it for covering strawberries isn't that good.

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Thanks for the link! I had suspected there was some overlap in terms, but not confident enough to sally forth on hunch alone!

There's a new Trader Joes in Santa Fe.......I'll cruise it for Valharona if I can't find the Sharfenberger!

I'm a canning clean freak because there's no sorry large enough to cover the, "Oops! I gave you botulism" regrets.

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Unsweetened chocolate has no sugar. It's made of nonfat dry cocoa solids and cocoa butter.

Standard bittersweet or semisweet (where the cocoa percentage isn't noted) will consist of about 55% nonfat dry cocoa solids and cocoa butter and 45% sugar. Semisweet and bittersweet tends to be interchangably in this category.

Chocolates such as Scharffenberger or Valhrona specify the percentage of dry cocoa solids and cocoa butter used in the bar. In this category you can tell which chocolate will taste slightly sweeter -- a chocolate with 62% cocoa is 38% sugar whereas a 70% bar has 30% sugar.

Alice Medrich suggests that you can substitute bittersweet and semisweet chocolate for unsweetened provided you reduce some sugar and butter in the recipe.

I use Scharffenberger chocolate for most of my baking. But Valhrona is very popular among more serious bakers. Both should be available at Whole Foods.

Source of information is Alice Medrich's Bittersweet

Edited by bloviatrix (log)

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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Thanks for the link!  I had suspected there was some overlap in terms, but not confident enough to sally forth on hunch alone!

There's a new Trader Joes in Santa Fe.......I'll cruise it for Valharona if I can't find the Sharfenberger!

If you're heading to Trader Joe's, I recommend picking up some of their "Pound Plus" chocolate. They come in milk, milk with almonds, and both 59% (I think) and 70% dark chocolates. The manufacturer (which they don't divulge) is most likely Callebaut and the quality is very good. Of course Valrhona is excellent, but also extremely expensive in the small bars that Trader Joe's sells.

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Alice Medrich suggests that you can substitute bittersweet and semisweet chocolate for unsweetened provided you reduce some sugar and butter in the recipe.

I exchange bittersweet with semi-sweet all the time with no adjustments in my recipe. Adjusting the sugar isn't necessary just optional if you want a less sweet flavor. In my area (Chicago Burbs), my clientele does like bittersweet chocolate in anything.

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Chocolate has a standard of identity as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21. Semisweet chocolate is defined basically as chocolate that contains no less than 35% liquor. It lists bittersweet chocolate as being synonymous with semisweet -so from a legal standpoint, bittersweet is the same as semisweet. That said, industry practice has taken on a sort of self regulation, whereby bittersweet is typically thought of as those semisweet products which have, at minimum, 50% chocoalte liquor present.

Hope that helps

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Thank you so much everyone for the help! This has been great! The cookies are baking now - -I'll let you know how they turned out!

I'm a canning clean freak because there's no sorry large enough to cover the, "Oops! I gave you botulism" regrets.

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