Dark chocolate
|dahk chok-o-let|
Try the Good Food app - subscribe todayDark chocolate is made with cocoa solids, cocoa butter, and sugar. Discover how to buy the best dark chocolate, store it, and how to cook with it.
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What is dark chocolate?
Dark chocolate means the shiny, dark-reddish brown treat produced from the cacao bean, theobroma cacao, widely sold as pressed blocks, bars or as a coating for sweet fillings.
Before Joseph Fry developed the first mass-produced chocolate bar in Bristol, in 1847, dark chocolate was more commonly consumed as a thick, gritty drink that needed constant stirring to keep it emulsified. This original drinking chocolate was simply ground up cacao beans, sometimes made into pastilles, to which hot water or milk, sugar and spices were added.
Mr Fry’s technique involved separating the beans from their fat, known as cocoa butter, and the cocoa solids. Dark chocolate bars are made by adding back only a proportion of cocoa butter to a greater or lesser proportion of cocoa solids in a complicated process that requires careful milling and exact changes of temperature to create a smooth texture. Tempering then encourages the mixture to crystallise and set in a way that gives both snap and shine.
Watch our video tutorial on how to work with different types of chocolate:
How to cook with dark chocolate
The expression ‘cooking chocolate’ is meaningless as all chocolate can be used in cookery. The term was once used to indicate a higher cocoa solid content with less sweetness than mass marketed chocolate bars, but as 70% or higher cocoa solid chocolates are now widely available on supermarket shelves, you can choose according to your preference. If the chocolate you select does not give a deep enough colour or flavour, mix in cocoa powder (or cacao) until the colour and flavour are more satisfactory.
Gentle pulsing in a microwave is possibly a better way to melt chocolate than over hot water, because it is so much faster – it will be molten while holding its shape. Use only short bursts and stir often to prevent it from turning grainy.
Discover our dark chocolate recipe collection.
How to store dark chocolate
Chocolate does not need to be refrigerated, but in hot weather or centrally-heated houses, lightly chilled chocolate is nicer to eat. Long-term cold storage will make the chocolate bloom with what looks like clouds of mould. This is quite harmless and is unlikely to change its flavour. At a cool, constant temperature, chocolate keeps its virtue for many weeks, perhaps months.
Availability of dark chocolate
Good or bad, you are never far from chocolate.
Choose the best dark chocolate
Purists will say dark chocolate needs only to include cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar and, perhaps, vanilla. The higher the stated cocoa solid content of a bar, the deeper and more bitter that chocolate will taste. However, a stated high cocoa solid content does not mean a low sugar content, and sugar might be amplified as the cocoa solid content is increased. This should be made clear on labelling.
Whatever the taste, there are two infallible tests that reveal where dark chocolate has been carefully made with good ingredients. First, high quality dark chocolate must have a noticeable shine, almost mirror-like, something obtained only by precise tempering – the final process of production. Second, it must have a definite snap when you break it. Without both of these, you have something inferior, whatever its price.
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