Hello Steemers! We all like chocolate in a cake, in chocolate bread, in a dessert but, what is chocolate? as elaborated? How do we know which chocolate to use? We have seen on the shelves, in the scene, heard, eaten chocolate and its derivatives, today I will explain the wonderful world of chocolate in the bakery and pastry.

What is Cocoa?

It is a tropical fruit that comes from the Cacao tree, scientifically called Theobroma Cacao, it is grown in tropical areas of Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Its fruit is a corn ear shaped and with about 40 seeds inside. Annually there are two harvests, one main and the other half. Once the fruits are harvested, the seeds are extracted, fermented and dried to obtain the cocoa beans.

From the cocoa bean, products such as:

• Cocoa powder.

• The cocoa butter.

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What is Cocoa Powder?

The cocoa powder, comes from cocoa beans, which are fermented, dried, roasted and then crushed in a mill. Once we have cocoa shavings, we press and extract the natural edible fat cocoa butter present in the cocoa bean. This cocoa paste is dried and ground, turning into cocoa powder.

If it is of quality, cocoa powder does not contain gluten or external components, cocoa powder is marketed in two forms: natural and alkalized or dutch type.

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Differences between natural cocoa and alkalized cocoa.

• Natural cocoa powder: this has an intense bitter taste this due to its high pH level, around pH 5. When a recipe requires simply cocoa powder without sugar, it usually means natural cocoa.

• Alkalized cocoa powder: this has a darker shade, with a softer and delicate flavor, it dissolves in liquids easily. The alkalized cocoa has a pH of 7 its coloration is brown with reddish tones and has better solubility. It is preferred by many confectioners, to make cakes and cookies, given its flavor and color, it mixes better with the other ingredients and absorbs liquids better.

If you replace natural cocoa with alkaline cocoa, increase 30 g of powder to
Bake for every 15 g of baking soda you remove. If you do not use enough bicarbonate in chocolate products, the color of the finished product can vary from light brown to dark brown, depending on the amount you use. If you use too much, the color will be reddish brown. This color is suitable for chocolate cakes, but may not be desirable in other products.

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Content of starches in cocoa powder.

Cocoa powder contains starch, which tends to absorb moisture in a paste. Consequently, when adding cocoa powder to a mixture, for example to convert a vanilla cake into chocolate cake, the amount of flour is decreased to compensate for the addition of this extra starch. The settings vary according to the product. However, here is a rule of almost general use:

Subtract the flour 3/8 (37.5%) of the weight of the cocoa powder that is added. That is, the weight of cocoa powder is multiplied by 3/8 (0.375). The result is the amount of flour that must decrease.

So, if you add 400g of cocoa powder, put 150g less flour. Of course, chocolate also contains starch. When, for example, melted chocolate is added to the fondant, it loses elasticity because of the starch, and usually it will have to be lowered. However, the drying effect of starch is often compensated for by the softening effect of cocoa butter.

Process to make Cocoa Powder.

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What is cocoa butter?

Cocoa butter is the part or material of edible natural fat of cocoa present in beans. Approximately 50% of the content of cocoa beans is butter; which is extracted during the production of cocoa powder. Its main use in baking is to thin the melted chocolate tops to give them the right consistency.

This intermediate product has a very characteristic smell and flavor. It is the only component of cocoa used in the preparation of white chocolate, so it can be said that the base of this candy is cocoa butter.

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What is Bitter Chocolate?

Bitter or unsweetened chocolate is a type of chocolate made with roasted cocoa beans without the addition of milk. It does not contain sugar and has a strong bitter taste. It is used to flavor products that have other sweeteners. Some variants allow its use as a base for desserts, cakes and cookies. A minimum of 35% cocoa and a maximum of 85% should be used.

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What is sweet chocolate?

Sweet chocolate is bitter chocolate to which sugar and cocoa butter are added in different amounts. If the percentage of sugar is low, sweetened chocolate may be called semi-sweet or, when it has even less sugar, semi-ripe. Both products must contain at least 35% chocolate liquor, and their sugar content may be between 35 and 50%. A product labeled as sweet chocolate can contain as little as 15% chocolate liqueur. ** Do not confuse sweet chocolate with milk chocolate **, when you specify sweet chocolate in a recipe, you can use any sweetened chocolate, although of course, the results will vary. Semi-raw chocolate is specified if a good chocolate class with a high content of chocolate liquor is essential in order to obtain the best results.

Since sweet chocolate only has half the bitter chocolate content, it is not economical to add it to very sweetened products because almost twice as much is needed. For example, it is better to use bitter chocolate when preparing a chocolate fondant with a simple white fondant base.

When pure sweet chocolate is used as a cover for candies, cookies and other products, the chocolate must be prepared by a process known as tempering, which consists of carefully melting the chocolate without letting it get too hot, and then lowering the temperature to a certain level.

The less expensive chocolates, to which a part of the cocoa butter is replaced by other fats, are handled more easily and it is not necessary to temper them. However, they do not have the flavor or the edible qualities of good chocolates. These products are sold under the name of "cookie cover" or "cake cover".

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What is Milk Chocolate?

Milk chocolate contains liquor, powder, butter or cocoa paste, milk powder and sugar. It is usually used as a chocolate coating and in various preparations. It rarely melts and then incorporates it into the mixes, because it contains a relatively low proportion of chocolate liquor. During its preparation, less than 40% of cocoa paste is used, although some people make it with a higher proportion than this.

It must contain whole or semi-skimmed milk, or milk solids with a minimum of 10%, with a minimum content of 3% non-fat cocoa solids. When speaking of non-fatty solids, it refers to all the components of cocoa, to which the content of fat and moisture was reduced, such as carbohydrates, fibers, proteins and minerals.

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What is white chocolate?

White chocolate is made with cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids. It is mainly used in baking. Some economic brands, in which the cocoa butter is replaced by another fat, do not really deserve the name of chocolate, since they do not contain chocolate or any of its ingredients. It must be a homogeneous product made from milk solids with a minimum of 10%, sugar, with the addition or not of cocoa butter, sweeteners and food additives.

White chocolate can be stuffed, with dried fruits, cereals, liquors, among others and can be presented in the form of tablets, bars, chocolates and confectionery products.

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In this post I explained the types of chocolates we use in the bakery and pastry, I hope you liked it.

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