Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate for baking and eating

Dark chocolate is made of cacao, or ground cocoa beans, and sugar. According to Cook's Illustrated, the terms "bittersweet" and "semisweet" are largely meaningless, since sugar content in chocolate is not regulated and some bittersweet chocolates contain more sugar than semisweet bars.

In addition to sugar and cacao, dark chocolate may contain vanilla, emulsifiers, milkfat, and added cocoa butter or other fats for a smoother texture and richer mouth feel. Most dark chocolate contains at least 55 percent and as much as 99 percent cacao, and the greater the percentage of cacao, the lower the level of sugar. Experts say that most consumers prefer chocolate with about 60 percent cocoa, which offers a just-right balance of sweet and bitter flavors. Connoisseurs, however, claim that higher-cacao bars provide a richer experience: as high-cacao chocolate melts, flavors of coffee, nut, smoke, tobacco, vegetables and even flowers can be noticed. (High-cacao chocolate should be reserved for eating plain, since melting and baking destroy some of chocolate's volatile flavor compounds.)

Although it often takes a backseat to flavor, texture can make or break chocolate. Quality chocolate should be shiny, break with a snap, melt smoothly and taste creamy. Although manufacturers are reluctant to discuss their methods, many add milkfat for creaminess and conch chocolate in stainless steel rollers, which aerates, homogenizes and expels acids. (Conching is a process that kneads liquid chocolate thoroughly to produce a smooth taste and mouth feel.) All chocolate that is to be eaten raw is conched, but a handful of chocolatiers, including Scharffen Berger, conch their baking chocolate as well.

Callebaut (*Est. $8.75 for 17.5 ounces) , a Belgian chocolate with 60 percent cacao, outperformed all other chocolates in the latest tests at Cook's Illustrated. Testers called it "complex," "creamy" and "earthy," and said that it not only had a rich flavor, but baked into "what a brownie should be." Testers liked the balance of sweetness and bitterness and picked up on a caramel aftertaste. What's more, Callebaut cost less than most other chocolates tested. Callebaut is, however, hard to find in most supermarkets (it can be ordered online or you can find it in gourmet shops).

San Francisco-based Ghirardelli, which is now owned by Lindt, manufactures a 64-percent-cacao baking bar (*est. $3 for 4 ounces) that has been both winner and runner-up in dark chocolate tests at Cook's Illustrated. Pastry chef Elizabeth Falker of Citizen Cake lists Ghirardelli among her favorite chocolates. Testers found this chocolate "assertive" in brownies and "creamy, glossy, and rich" in other applications. Ghirardelli chocolate has an advantage in that it's easy to find in supermarkets, but on a price-per-ounce basis it's more expensive than Callebaut.

In a Food & Wine poll of 100 pastry chefs, the majority (53 percent) said they use Valrhona chocolate. They specifically cite the Manjari variety (*est. $4 for 2.6 ounces), which is said to have a fruity character. Chloe Doutre-Roussel, one of the world's foremost authorities on chocolate, calls Valrhona Manjari one of her "desert-island bars." In Cook's Illustrated tests of baking chocolate, Valrhona Le Noir (*Est. $4.50 for 3.5 ounces) semisweet earns a rating of "recommended" for its "well balanced" and "sharp" chocolate flavor. It bakes into "fudgy" brownies and "supersmooth" pots de crème. Some testers would prefer a longer aftertaste, however. Valrhona Le Noir is also preferred in the taste test at the L.A. Times, where testers tasted each bar raw and didn't try any baking.

We read mixed reviews of Dagoba chocolate bars. Testers at both Prevention and Cook's Illustrated praise Dagoba's 59 percent cacao dark chocolate bar for its strong chocolate flavor and smooth texture. Editors at Cook's enjoyed the hints of apricot and almond they detected in this chocolate, but some found it too sweet. Editors at the San Francisco Chronicle, on the other hand, crowned the Dagoba 59 percent bar the best of the 14 chocolate bars they sampled. Prevention praised the "decadent" Dagoba Roseberry bar , which contains the same 59-percent-cacao chocolate infused with rose hips and studded with raspberries.

We also read inconclusive reports about Scharffen Berger semisweet and bittersweet chocolate. Editors at Prevention say that the company's semisweet (62 percent cacao, *est. $4.50 for 3 ounces) and bittersweet (70 percent cacao, *est. $4.30 for 3 ounces) bars would please any chocoholic. In a Food & Wine article, Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery in Boston says that Scharffen Berger is "excellent and straightforward." Testers at Cook's Illustrated, however, found the fruitiness of the semisweet bar overpowering. They noted a whole range of fruit flavors, from cherry to prune, but some said the cherry tasted like cough syrup. Baked into pots de crème and brownies, Scharffen Berger semisweet was slightly "gluey" and lacked the intensity tasters craved. It's probably best to eat Scharffen Berger semisweet and bittersweet chocolate raw and use other bars, such as Callebaut 60 percent, in dessert recipes.

If you want the best chocolate bar that money can buy, reviews say you should seek out Amedei (*Est. $10 for 1.75 ounces) , an Italian chocolate that has won raves from critics around the world. Unlike nearly every other chocolate maker, Amedei imports its own cocoa beans and roasts, husks and grinds them in its Tuscan factory. In a Food & Wine article, Pete Wells reports that when he bit into the Amedei Toscano Black 70 percent, he had the "sensation of getting all the deliciousness any sane person could want." The only drawback is the price, say reviews.