Differences in Chocolate Types for Cooking?

[johnsmith45678]

Still being a novice baker/pastry chef, I'm basically confounded by the array of chocolate available in the baking isle: bittersweet, semisweet, milk-chocolate, white chocolate, cocoa powder (of which there are two types: "regular" and dutch process), and I don't know what else. I've begun to educate myself a bit on the different types:

- Bittersweet has no sugar added and is nasty to eat. Presumably only for baking with other ingredients (like sugar!).

- Semi-sweet has some suger added and isn't pleasant to eat either. Similar uses to bittersweet I'm guessing.

- Cocoa powder: I know dutch processed is supposed to be smoother or less alkali or something. I don't know if cocoa powder is bittersweet or semisweet or something else and why you'd choose one over the other.

- White chocolate: just the fat from chocolate.

- Probably several other types I'm forgetting or not aware of. I thought there was a kind that had its fat removed - perhaps that's dark, or bitter/semi-sweet chocolate. Then there's also chips (for cookie-type recipes only?).

That's about the extent of my knowledge! Bittersweet and semisweet seem really similar to me - I don't know why you'd use one instead of the other (or if they're interchangeable).

Any chocolate experts (or anybody who knows more than me) who can help fill in my gaps about the uses of each type of chocolate? Any other types/forms of chocolate/cocoa?

Thanks!

[Ling]

Perhaps this is more for the pastry forum, as there are a lot of professional bakers over there who can give you some help!

Bittersweet contains sugar, as does semi-sweet. Bittersweet contains about 35% chocolate liqueur, and semi-sweet has slightly more sugar. Usually I see bittersweet as anything labelled 60%-85% cocoa solids. Bittersweet chocolate is the only chocolate I really enjoy eating...semi-sweet and milk chocolate are sweeter and I don't like them as much.

The chocolate with the fat removed is cocoa powder.

[johnsmith45678]

I found this page on Food Network which gives a pretty good summary of the various types of chocolate:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_culinar...1707813,00.html

[Patrick S]

- Bittersweet has no sugar added and is nasty to eat.

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No sugar=unsweetened, and I agree -- its nasty by itself.

-Semi-sweet has some suger added and isn't pleasant to eat either. Similar uses to bittersweet I'm guessing.

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I'd venture to say that %90+ of chocolate lovers would pick a bitter- or semisweet chocolate as their favorite eating chocolate. For instance, my favorite is a 64% (Valrhona Manjari). Basically, anything that has some sugar but is not milk or white chocolate would be considered bitter- or semisweet.

-Cocoa powder: I know dutch processed is supposed to be smoother or less alkali or something. I don't know if cocoa powder is bittersweet or semisweet or something else and why you'd choose one over the other.

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Cocoa powder is almost always sold unsweetened. Dutch is different from natural cocoa by have a different flavor and a higher pH. In some recipes the differences in pH matter, in others it doesn't. Usually the only reason it would matter is because of its interaction with the leavening agents in a recipe. In something like hot cocoa, the only factor should be taste. Having said that, I have made lots of recipes with dutched where the recipe called for non-dutched, with no problems. You should experiment and see which you like better, because its all about personal preference. But for me, I much prefer dutched.

[Patrick S]

The chocolate with the fat removed is cocoa powder.

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A lot of the cocoa butter is pressed out, but not all of it! Cocoas usually still have cocoa butter content of 10-20%.

[johnsmith45678]

I was pretty off on some of those!

Is couverture chocolate pretty hard to find? I don't recall seeing it in the grocery stores, but I've never specifically looked for (or known about) it. I remember seeing some big Ghirardelli bars...

[highchef]

I was pretty off on some of those!

Is couverture chocolate pretty hard to find? I don't recall seeing it in the grocery stores, but I've never specifically looked for (or known about) it. I remember seeing some big Ghirardelli bars...

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I've used the big giradelli bars for making peppermint bark, but I haven't used it for anything else.

couverture chocolate is available at places like sur la table, williams senoma etc. If you live in a larger city then just walk in and lay down the 10bucks a box!!

Otherwise, check the websites.