Hi and welcome to bold baking basics, this is where we get stuck into the fundamentals
of baking.
These videos are about getting you bake with confidence anytime anywhere.
So let's talk about chocolate, it's really important for me that you know about chocolate
because not all chocolate is created equal and how do you know what to use and in which
recipe.
I've got some really fun facts about chocolate that you can find on BiggerBolderBaking.com.
So around the world chocolate can look different however universally it is graded by cocoa
percentage.
Once you know the percentage you'll know exactly what type of chocolate you need to use.
Here are some really fun facts about chocolate that every bold baker needs to know.
So we're gonna start out at the bottom of the scale, milk chocolate.
Now milk chocolate ranges from 38-42% cocoa solids, this is sweeter than it is bitter.
There's way more sugar in this chocolate and less cocoa butter so it's a little less chocolaty.
It's not as high a quality chocolate that I would normally use in baking, often you
will find it in candy bars, it'll be given to kids, it's sweeter, it's a little bit chocolaty,
but not exactly what I use for baking.
It does taste good though.
If you like chocolate that has no bitterness and is quite sweet, this is the chocolate
for you.
This actually works really well for my s'more fudge recipe.
So now we're gonna move up the scale, our next chocolate is semi-sweet.
This is very commonly used in baking, this is 52-62% cocoa solids.
So we are little bit more bitter than the milk chocolate, less sweet, a nice balance,
if you're newer to bitter chocolate, this is a really great one to start with.
I love to use in this in baking, it melts really well, it's inexpensive, it's good quality,
it has a nice balance this is really really common.
So I like to use this in my chocolate chip cookie pie and my s'mores cheesecake.
So my next chocolate is bittersweet chocolate, now this is 63-72% cocoa solids, now as you
can see as we go up the scale the quality is actually getting better, it's getting less
a sweet and it's getting a little more bitter.
This is what I use pretty much in everything.
It is great in baking it's called bittersweet because there's less sugar and it has that
bitterness.
Bitterness is not a bad word, bitterness is not something that's yucky, it actually is
flavor, it's depth, it's exactly what you want from your chocolate, it's the perfect
balance of bitter and sweet.
If you like dark chocolate, this is the chocolate for you, it really adds great flavor to your
baking.
As we go up in cocoa solids chocolate become a little trickier to melt, it's gonna become
a little more temperamental, so always take care when melting chocolate don't do it too
fast, low and slow and you'll be okay.
So once of my favorite recipes to use this chocolate in is my best-ever chocolate chip
cookies and I'll tell you why.
I don't use chips in my chocolate chip cookies.
I use this.
I get a nice big bar I chop it up you have all different size chunks and you have that
lovely richness in your cookies so definitely 72% for those cookies.
Also I like to use this in my German Chocolate cake.
So bittersweet, 63-72%, my absolute favorite go-to chocolate.
Now the next chocolate I want to show you is on the extreme side of the scale, this
is 100% cocoa solids.
So that means no sugar added.
Now let me tell you the good things and then the bad things.
It's very good quality.
It's really really good quality, full of cocoa solids, richness, depth, everything.
That's great.
But what it doesn't have?
It doesn't have sugar.
So it's quite raw tasting and waxy so you do not want to eat this by itself and if you're
going to use this in a recipe, what I like to do is mix it with a little bit of semisweet,
or a little bit of bittersweet, I don't use this all by itself so if you buy a bar that
says 100% don't use that, mix it with something else, because this has such a high cocoa solid
as well it can be quite tricky to melt, so just keep an eye out for this, like I've bought
it by mistake sometimes and I don't know what to do with it but just add it into other chocolate
and it will boost up the cocoa, it'll make it a little bit darker, and then the other
chocolate will add sweetness to it.
Mixed with another chocolate to make it a little bit sweeter this would work well in
my chocolate Bundt cake.
So let's talk chocolate chips.
Generally these are semi-sweet nice and sweet, a little bit bitter, really good for baking.
The difference between chocolate chips and other bars is that these contain stabilizers.
These are manufactured to keep their shape so you use them in cookies, pies, somewhere
where they're supposed to stay intact.
What you don't want to use these for is in a melted recipe so like say a ganache, a chocolate
sauce, something like that.
These are supposed to serve their purpose as chocolate chips and that's it.
I like to use chocolate chips in my chocolate brownie cookies and my triple grands.
So our next chocolate is technically not chocolate so it's different to the other chocolates
I just showed you, this doesn't fall on the same scale and I'll tell you why it doesn't
contain any cocoa solids all this is cocoa butter mixed with a little sugar, some milk
solids, maybe a little bit of flavor it doesn't contain chocolate like the other ones do so
it's not graded as actual chocolate now when you're baking with this please be very careful
when you're melting it because it be a little bit temperamental the one thing I will beg
of you is please use good quality white chocolate, bad quality chocolate doesn't taste anything
like it, it's kind of waxy, it's got no flavors, so please when you're using this buy a good
quality bar.
I like to use white chocolate in my pumpkin and white chocolate lava cake and my chocolate
profiteroles.
So let's talk cocoa powder, a super important ingredient.
Cocoa powder is what's left over when cocoa butter is extracted from the cocoa bean.
So one type is unsweetened cocoa powder I use this a lot in baking, please make sure
that the package says unsweetened cocoa powder you do not want extra sugar in your cocoa
powder because it will throw off your recipe.
As always please buy good quality it's a really great staple to have in your cupboard.
Just so you know, I've said this before, hot chocolate is not a replacement for cocoa powder
okay?
Hot chocolate powder is not cocoa powder so just remember I said that.
I like to use unsweetened cocoa powder in my homemade hot chocolate recipe and my homemade
Nutella.
So our next up is Dutch process cocoa also known as a European style cocoa powder, there
is a big difference between these two and I'll tell you what they are.
It has been treated with an alkalining agent so as you can see it is a little bit different
color, it's a lovely dark color and I really love how it looks in recipes.
The thing about this is that it it's not bitter, it's really smooth, unsweetened cocoa powder
can have a tendency to be a little bit bitter and I do get comments about that, if you don't
like that bitterness buy some Dutch process cocoa powder it's really great, keep it in
your cupboard it lasts for months on end.
The one thing about using Dutch process is that in your recipe you have to leaven it
with an acid, you have to leaven it with baking soda or something like that because it has
been treated.
I like to use Dutch process cocoa powder in my homemade Oreos and in my Baileys chocolate
pudding.
So I hope you found this useful all the information can be found on my website and I'll see you
back here really soon for more Bigger Bolder Baking.