HomeRecipe Articles Links Forum Sign In Register Categories Search for Recipes Ethnic Main Dishes Soups & Stuff Baked Goods Fruits, grains & veggies On the Side Sweets & Desserts Snacks & Appetizers Holiday Foods Special Diets Miscellaneous Pizza Famous Recipes Free Newsletter Get the Chef's top picks right in your inbox! Your Email Subscribe Unsubscribe Ask The Chef Can't find the recipe your looking for? Have a cooking or food preperation question? No problem. Ask The Chef! Latest Recipes Top Recipes Our Friends Article Home -> Recipe Information Quick Guide to Chocolate, published on 19 Oct 2006 An Overview of Chocolate: Chocolate is produced from the cocoa bean. The beans are roasted and shelled, and the soft center is processed into a smooth liquid called chocolate liquor. This liquid is made up of cocoa solids, which provide the chocolate flavor and cocoa butter which contributes to the smooth texture of chocolate. Increasing or decreasing the amount of chocolate liquor and combining it with sugar and flavorings produces different types of chocolate. Varieties of Chocolate: When preparing a recipe make sure and use the type of chocolate called for, as different types of chocolate react to heat and moisture differently. Here's a quick guide to the most common types of chocolate: Unsweetened chocolate is chocolate liquor, hardened and cooled. Most often used as a base ingredient. Bittersweet chocolate contains up to 75% chocolate liquor. When used in baking it adds a dark intense flavor with just enough sweetness to make it pleasant to eat. For best results look for varieties with 65% to 75% cocoa solids. Semisweet chocolate has at least 35% chocolate liquor with sugar and cocoa butter added. It's the most popular type of chocolate in the world for eating and baking. Milk chocolate contains 10% to 15% chocolate liquor with cocoa butter, sugar, milk and vanilla added, which results in less chocolate flavor than other varieties. Cocoa powder is chocolate liquor with most of the cocoa butter removed, which results in a fine powder. It adds an intense fudgey flavor to baked goods. White chocolate isn't really chocolate at all because it contains no cocoa solids. Higher quality white chocolate melts more evenly and has more flavor than lower quality. White chocolate is more fragile and must be melted more carefully than other chocolates. Decorators or confectioners chocolate is a chocolate-flavored candy used for decorating or coating. It melts easily and hardens quickly. By Chef Jeff for www.recipequick.com . Related Articles •   Common Recipe Abbreviations •   Common Recipe Substitutions •   Quick Guide to Kohlrabi •   Quick Guide to Salt •   Quick Guide to Corned Beef Brisket •   Quick Guide to Butter •   Quick Guide to Poppy Seeds Related Recipes •   Quick Poppy Seed Cake •   Poppy Seed Dressing •   Fruit and Romaine Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing •   Easy Cheddar Cheese Balls •   Lemon Poppy Christmas Stars •   Banana-Poppy Seed Muffins •   Grandma's Dainty Daisy Biscuits •   Onion Cake •   Beef Bulgogi •   Cocktail Buns •   Mu Shu Pork •   Bootleg Beans •   Christmas Cranberry-Pistachio Fudge •   Crab-Boil Spices •   Spiced Popcorn •   Benihana's Fried Rice •   Broccoli Salad •   Broccoli-Raisin Salad •   Cajun Style Blackened Scallops •   Baked Stuffed Salmon

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