The Basics of Chocolate
All you need to know on just about every kind
I approach chocolate the same way I do cheese or wine: Mastering the types and nuances is a lifelong journey, so start with the best quality you can afford and find without hassle. If the chocolate is delicious when you take a bite — and in my recipes, by chocolate, I usually mean dark chocolate — it’s certainly good enough for baking. This is why I avoid chocolate chips and packaged chocolate sauces. It’s simple enough to buy a good bar in a supermarket, then chunk, chop, or melt as needed.
How to Buy Chocolate
The type of chocolate is determined by the percentage of cacao, the solids remaining from the beans after processing, to the amounts of other ingredients such as milk or sugar. Fortunately, this number now appears on the labels of most types of good quality chocolate. This is a huge step since some of the common names are used interchangeably. It’s now easier to read the label to know exactly what you’re getting. The higher the percentage of solids, the less sweet the chocolate and the more intense the flavor, since there’s less sugar in the formula. Here’s a quick rundown of the lingo.
