recipes

What is Chocolate? Don't Go Through the Rest of Your Life Not Knowing

All of your chocolate questions, answered. 
Image may contain Food Dessert Chocolate and Fudge
Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Pearl Jones

Ever find yourself breaking off a square of chocolate and thinking, what even is this stuff? Like, other than the solidified nectar of the gods! So you Googled, “what is chocolate” and that brought you here. That’s honestly what we’re banking on. Hope it worked.

So what is chocolate? Chocolate starts with cacao beans that are fermented, dried, roasted, and ground up. Then it’s melted into “chocolate liquor,” which is separated into two parts: Non-fat cocoa solids, which, along with sugar, maybe some milk, and probably some soy lecithin to hold it all together, are the basis for our chocolate bars, and fatty cocoa butter, which might also make its way into your chocolate bar (and your chapstick).

Now let’s get on to the more important details, the ones that affect your baking and chocolate-eating lifestyle. What’s the difference between dark chocolate and milk chocolate and the much-maligned white chocolate? What does that percentage mean?? Why do we have to do math when we’re eating chocolate??? TEMPERING???? Answers, coming right up.

  • Image may contain Food Dessert Chocolate Confectionery and Sweets
    Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Pearl Jones
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    Meet the Whole Chocolate Family

    On a stroll down the baking aisle, you’re most likely to see the following chocolate products. But the labeling system (white, milk, dark, “Kisses”) is confusing and vague. What you really need to understand is the cocoa percentage: how much of the chocolate is made up of cocoa solids—that is, roasted cocoa beans that’ve been ground into a liquid—and parts thereof (such as cocoa butter). So a 60% bar is 60% cocoa product, 40% other stuff (usually sugar, vanilla, and soy lecithin, to hold it all together). The other thing to know? That it’s okay to love milk chocolate more than dark.

    1. Dark chocolate: A big umbrella category with no meaningful standards, it includes bittersweet, semisweet, unsweetened, and all of that pretty-packaged chocolate we think of as “adult.”

    2. Milk chocolate: Lots of milk and sugar, and then a small percentage of cocoa solids, usually around 32% (though 10% is the legal minimum). Soft and creamy. Eat at the movies and in bed.

    3. Semisweet and bittersweet: Interchangeable terms. It has to be a minimum of 35% cocoa (which is, ironically, very sweet), but in the test kitchen, we like to bake with and snack on 60%–70%.

    4. White chocolate: Haters will say it’s not “real” chocolate since it’s made from cocoa butter (the fat extracted from cocoa beans), milk, and sugar. If you’re looking for cocoa solids, you won’t find ’em.

    5. Cocoa powder: Big chocolate flavor with less fatty cocoa butter. The powder should be unsweetened and 100% cocoa. Anything else is hot chocolate mix.

    6. Cacao nibs: 100% pure cocoa, these tiny pieces of roasted cocoa beans are cute but potent. Use as an ice cream garnish or mix into brownie batter for crunch. May even be healthy?

  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food styling by Pearl Jones
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    Less is More

    Ingredient lists on chocolate bars should be short. Cocoa/cacao should be first, followed by sugar and, maybe, cocoa butter, lecithin, and vanilla. There will be milk in milk chocolate. Anything else—corn syrup, vanillin (fake vanilla), butter oil (don’t ask!), milk substitutes, “love”—deserves a side-eye.

  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Pearl Jones
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    Melting Moment 

    Whether you’re melting chocolate for brownies or frosting, success hinges on gentle indirect heat to prevent scorching. You can use a microwave (stir between 15-second blasts), but many recipes call for a double boiler, which is just a fancy expression for the following steps: 

    1. Fill a small pot with a few inches of water and bring to a gentle simmer.

    2. Put your chocolate—chips, wafers, chopped bars—in a heatproof bowl that fits into the pot but doesn’t touch the water below.

    3. Whisk or stir frequently until the chocolate is glossy and smooth.

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    Graduate From Chocolate Chips 

    We’re setting morsels aside and baking instead with coin-size wafers (also called pistoles, disks, or fèves): They melt and create chocolate puddles in your cookies, while chips stay perky and distinct due to stabilizers. Look for wafers in the bulk aisle and save the chips for your pancakes.

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    Swap Rules

    So you’re wondering whether you can use last year’s Halloween candy to make chocolate pudding. Hold it right there: Cheap candy bars have stabilizers and coatings that react differently when melted or mixed with water or eggs. But that doesn’t mean you can’t play around a little. Here’s how: 

    • High-quality chips, wafers/ disks, or chopped bars will all work as long as they’re close to the same cocoa percentage that’s called for.

    • If you’re folding in chocolate pieces (as opposed to melting them)—for, say, banana bread or scones—use whatever you prefer. It won’t make or break the recipe.

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    If You Have Chocolate and Heavy Cream, You Have Truffles 

    You may be buying them in gold-flecked boxes, but truffles are the easiest chocolate dessert to make at home. Save yourself $25. Heres how:  

    1. Bring 1¼ cups heavy cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat.

    2. Pour over 9 oz. chopped bittersweet chocolate (70%) in a medium bowl and let sit until chocolate is softened, about 3 minutes.

    3. Stir until smooth. Cover and chill until ganache is firm enough to hold a shape, at least 3 hours. Scoop out scant tablespoonfuls and roll into balls. Place truffles on a parchment-lined baking sheet as you go.

    4. Chill truffles until firm, at least 1 hour. Doctor them up with a dusting of cocoa powder, freeze-dried fruit, chopped nuts, or candy googly eyes.

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    Where You Source Your Chocolate Matters

    Listen up: A lot of chocolate production relies on child labor and trafficking. Seek out fair-trade, slave-free chocolate like Guittard, Tony’s Chocolonely, or Ritual Chocolate (see slavefreechocolate.org for a complete list).

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