6 Chocolate Types You Should Know as a Baking Enthusiast

Chocolate bars of good quality are fine for fine chopping and melting. However, if you desire decorative shavings or big chunks, buy a piece from large brick. You will get a big chunk from specialty and natural food stores.

Cooking with Chocolate

If you are in the mood of baking to make chocolate, chop with a chef’s knife on your cutting board. To bake chocolate shavings, put chocolate bars on a clean cloth and pull the knife carefully toward you. It may take a couple of passes to get hang of it, however, they are surprisingly easy.

Be tactful when you melt chocolate as it scorches easily. Initially, you should chop the chocolate, then use a double boiler along with your chocolate in the top layer. Now, continue to stir until it gets melted.

You can also microwave the chocolate for 1-2 minutes at the lowest setting. Observe it like a hawk and intervene to stir once or twice. Melting chocolate with liquids is trickier.

Buying Chocolate

The kinds of chocolate are defined by the percentage of cocoa solids and how they are processed. A few names are used interchangeably like Nutella chocolate and simple chocolate. So, it’s best to carefully read the label to exactly know what you’re getting.

A generic rule of thumb is that the higher the percentage of solids, the lesser sweet the chocolate. The reason behind this is less sugar in the formula. Generally, a higher percentage of chocolate solids used by a Nutella chocolate supplier means not much else to muck up the flavor.

If you still are in confusion about the types of chocolate used in baking then the chocolate types in detail are mentioned below:

Unsweetened Chocolate
(Chocolate Liquor, Baking Chocolate)

A combination of cocoa butter with cocoa solids and nothing else. It contains 100 percent cocoa. Unsweetened chocolate is far bitter to consume but is quite useful for home chocolate baking, and cooking.

Bittersweet Chocolate
(Extra Dark, Semisweet, Dark, Extra Bittersweet)

This is among the type of chocolate bars people use quite often. The content of solid cocoa ranges from 35 to 99 percent and has less than 12 percent milk solids. That suggests a big range, so search for an exact number. If none is mentioned check the list of ingredients to see what else is included.

Only having a high percentage of solids doesn’t warrant good quality. However, it does reflect there isn’t a big room for filters. Try some different chocolate brands before settling on your favorites for cooking.

First, grasp the snap when you break chocolate bars into two pieces; it must sound crisp. Much high-quality bittersweet chocolate tastes like chalk if you are using them for the first time. However, they evenly coat your mouth without grittiness or waxiness.

Dark Chocolate (Sweet)

Dark chocolate bars contain 15-34 percent cocoa solids and less than 12 percent milk solids. Sweet chocolate is an “official” brand name, though it’s commonly known as dark chocolate. The stuff is fine for eating, though not good for cooking, as it doesn’t permit you to control the sweetness of your desserts as well as bittersweet and unsweetened chocolates.

Milk Chocolate

If you love sweet or melt-in-your-mouth chocolate, then milk chocolate is for you. It always has a minimum of 12 percent milk solids, 10 percent cocoa solids, and 3-39 percent milk fat. However, avoid skimping it. Make sure you include real ingredients and tastes rich and buttery.

Milk chocolate is as complex as dark chocolate or bittersweet, with the flavors muted against a lot of creaminess.

German (Or German’s) Sweet Chocolate

This isn’t from Germany. The name comes from its innovator, Samuel German, who in 1852 imagined improved chocolate bars for the Baker’s Chocolate Company. It is better than bittersweet chocolate. Not super high-quality.

White Chocolate

This type of chocolate is technically not chocolate; however, a confection structured from cocoa butter. White chocolate must contain a minimum of 14 percent milk solids, 20 percent cocoa butter, and 3-39 percent milk fat.

This chocolate type is a completely different ingredient. Although you can always supplant white chocolate for milk or dark chocolate.

Wrap Up

There is an abyss between good white chocolate bars and cheap bars. First, skim through the label of the chocolate bottle for strange-sounding ingredients. Make sure cocoa butter is the first ingredient. Always taste the product before you cook with it.

White chocolate of good quality has a subtle flavor and is not gritty, waxy, or bland. When at best, it melts slowly in your mouth and tastes like imagining eating straight vanilla. White chocolate doesn’t stick as long as dark chocolate; only a few weeks.