I'm very fond of dark chocolate and recently bought a bar at Trader Joe's
that's labelled 73% Super Dark.

Is baking chocolate 100% chocolate? If not, what is 100% chocolate and what
percentage is standard baking chocolate?

Anny

"Anny Middon" > wrote in message
y.com...
> I'm very fond of dark chocolate and recently bought a bar at Trader Joe's
> that's labelled 73% Super Dark.
>
> Is baking chocolate 100% chocolate? If not, what is 100% chocolate and
> what percentage is standard baking chocolate?

See:

http://www.chocolate.com/chocolatier...e-numbers.html

The percentage number actually refers to the percent of the mass that
is cocoa solids, the rest being (primarily) sugar. Unsweetened
baker's chocolate IS very close to 100% cocoa solids. But
it's so bitter that very few people would choose to eat it as-is.

Bob M.

"Anny Middon" > wrote in message
y.com...
> I'm very fond of dark chocolate and recently bought a bar at Trader
> Joe's that's labelled 73% Super Dark.
>
> Is baking chocolate 100% chocolate? If not, what is 100% chocolate
> and what percentage is standard baking chocolate?
>
> Anny

Go he www.chocosphere.com . I think Slitti and maybe a few others
have 100% bars, if you're interested. It doesn't necessarily mean it's
for baking (though baking typically uses dark rather than milk).

-T

Bob Myers > wrote:
>"Anny Middon" > wrote in message
gy.com...
>> I'm very fond of dark chocolate and recently bought a bar at Trader Joe's
>> that's labelled 73% Super Dark.
>>
>> Is baking chocolate 100% chocolate? If not, what is 100% chocolate and
>> what percentage is standard baking chocolate?

Baking chocolate is 100% chocolate. The question is,
what proportion of "100% chocolate" is flavor and
what proportion is fat?

>See:
>
>http://www.chocolate.com/chocolatier...e-numbers.html
>
>The percentage number actually refers to the percent of the mass that
>is cocoa solids, the rest being (primarily) sugar. Unsweetened
>baker's chocolate IS very close to 100% cocoa solids. But
>it's so bitter that very few people would choose to eat it as-is.

That website makes a significant mistake.

It doesn't differentiate between cocoa butter, fat-free
cocoa solids, and cocoa solids. In reality cocoa solids
is both cocoa butter and fat-free cocoa solids.
"N% cocoa solids" includes the cocoa butter, and the
proportions can vary rather widely. You should be able
to tell by looking at the nutrition info and comparing
the percentage of the total mass that is fat (call it F%)
with the N% cocoa solids number.

(100 - N)% will be the sugar content, and (N - F)% will
be the non-fat cocoa solids content.

--Blair
"Maybe."

P.S.
Here are four basic chocolate products, in 100-gram
quantities.

Plain cocoa has no sugar and little fat.

Hershey's, Baking Ingredients: Cocoa Plain
Calories 400 ( Kilojoules 1680 )
Total Fat 10 g
Total Carbohydrates 60 g
Dietary Fiber -
Sugars -
Protein 20 g

Baking chocolate has no sugar and quite a bit of fat
(the difference probably being all cocoa butter).

Baker's, Baking Ingredients: Chocolate Squares, unsweetened
Calories 500 ( Kilojoules 2093 )
Total Fat 50 g
Total Carbohydrates 28.6 g
Dietary Fiber 14.3 g
Sugars 0 g
Protein 14.3 g

Chocolate chips are of course eating chocolate, and have
both sugar and fat.

Nestle, Baking Ingredients: Toll House, Morsels, Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Calories 500 ( Kilojoules 2093 )
Total Fat 28.6 g
Total Carbohydrates 64.3 g
Dietary Fiber 3.6 g
Sugars 50 g
Protein 3.6 g

This looks like a drinking cocoa, with so much sugar.
The actual cocoa content must be low, considering that
the fat content doesn't even register:

Ah!Laska, Baking Ingredients: Organic Chocolatey Chocolate Cocoa
Calories 357 ( Kilojoules 1493 )
Total Fat 0 g
Total Carbohydrates 82.1 g
Dietary Fiber 3.6 g
Sugars 71.4 g
Protein 7.1 g

This stuf is just weird:

Hershey's, Baking Ingredients: Cocoa, European Style, dry, unsweetened
Calories 20 ( Kilojoules 84 )
Total Fat 0.5 g 1%
Total Carbohydrates 3 g 1%
Dietary Fiber 2 g 8%
Sugars 0 g
Protein 1 g

There's no fat, no carbs, no protein, no fiber...it's
brown sand, if it's entered correctly in the CalorieKing
database.

....yeah...that's just got to be a bad entry...the USDA database
shows it's 20% protein, 10% fat, and 60% carbs, identical to
regular Hershey's cocoa.

"Breakfast cocoa," according to the USDA, has about 4
grams more fat than the regular stuff, per 100 grams.

Blair P. Houghton wrote:
> This stuf is just weird:

I think somebody needs a chocolate bar?

bobmarley > wrote:
>Blair P. Houghton wrote:
>> This stuf is just weird:
>
>I think somebody needs a chocolate bar?

I have about 19 of them in the fridge door. Perugina,
Droste, Valhrona, El Rey, Callebaut...

--Blair
"Everyone needs a stash."

at Mon, 31 Jul 2006 20:44:58 GMT in
>, lid (Bob
Myers) wrote :

>
>"Anny Middon" > wrote in message
gy.com...
>> I'm very fond of dark chocolate and recently bought a bar at Trader
>> Joe's that's labelled 73% Super Dark.
>>
>> Is baking chocolate 100% chocolate? If not, what is 100% chocolate
>> and what percentage is standard baking chocolate?
>
>See:
>
>http://www.chocolate.com/chocolatier...e-numbers.html
>
>The percentage number actually refers to the percent of the mass that
>is cocoa solids, the rest being (primarily) sugar. Unsweetened
>baker's chocolate IS very close to 100% cocoa solids. But
>it's so bitter that very few people would choose to eat it as-is.

Only true if the brand you're buying is a low-quality brand. Low-quality
100% tastes that bitter not because it's basic to chocolate but because the
chocolate itself is simply bad. If a 100% isn't tolerable eaten straight
it's a good indication that you're getting bad chocolate.

For instance, Michel Cluizel, Domori, Bonnat, Slitti, and Lindt all make
very good 100% (or near-100%) chocolate Ghirardelli isn't far behind.

That said, the 100% chocolate isn't necessarily the percentage most people
would *prefer*, if you could choose to eat any percentage. Serious
chocoholics seem to gravitate to 70% or thereabouts. More casual consumers
often seem to like 60%. But both are usually OK with a 100% - if it's a
decent chocolate to begin with.

As for "standard" baking chocolate - there is no such thing. Virtually any
chocolate of any percentage can be labelled as baking chocolate. I've seen
percentages anywhere from 43% up to 100%. Usually they're labelled by a
descriptive such as "semi-sweet", "bittersweet" "unsweetened", although
these terms are pretty vague. Unsweetened should be 100%.
--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

When you see "chocolate liquor" in a list of ingredients in a chocolate
candy (as in a bar of chocolate, or a chocolate covered cherry), what is
that referring to? I know it isn't alcohol. (Or could it be?) A
customer asked in the store the other day, and I gave an answer that I
thought was right but thought I'd check with the expert. (My answer had
to do the chocolate liquor being the part of chocolate that's not the
cocoa butter.)


--Lia

at Wed, 02 Aug 2006 11:54:31 GMT in <D5-
>, (Julia
Altshuler) wrote :

>When you see "chocolate liquor" in a list of ingredients in a chocolate
>candy (as in a bar of chocolate, or a chocolate covered cherry), what is
>that referring to?

Chocolate liquor is the raw cocoa mass after it's been ground. It does
include the cocoa butter. Indeed, you might say that if you're buying a
100% (unsweetened) chocolate you're simply buying chocolate liquor.
Typically, "unsweetened chocolate" has been a little more processed
(refined, conched) while chocolate liquor tends to refer simply to ground
cacao bean, but it's largely semantic.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Blair P. Houghton wrote:

> I have about 19 of them in the fridge door. Perugina,
> Droste, Valhrona, El Rey, Callebaut...

ha! that's outrageous

i wish I had those in my fridge