The type of chocolate you choose for candy-making depends partly on your recipe.
Chocolate is graded based on its cocoa butter and chocolate liquor content. The type of chocolate you choose when making candy depends on the category of confection you're cooking. Candies with soft middles and chocolate coatings call for a high-fat chocolate that melts easily, while chunky candies with clustered centers containing chocolate chunks demand a sturdier cocoa product. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Couverture Chocolate
Couverture chocolate is a high-grade chocolate with up to 39 percent cocoa butter. It contains a high percentage of cocoa liquor and cocoa powder from premium cocoa beans. Couverture chocolate has a very low melting point and is ideal for dipping and coating truffle centers, buttercream centers and dried and fresh fruits. Brand names of couverture chocolate you can find in your neighborhood grocery store's baking aisle include Callebaut, Sharfenberger and Valrhona.
Candy Coating
Grocers and craft stores sell this candy-making alternative by the pound in easily measured chunks. The white version is called almond bark, while the chocolate edition is labeled confectioners coating. Neither product is authentic chocolate; even the chocolate variety lacks the actual chocolate liquor that makes for true chocolate. But the coatings, which consist of sugar, flavoring extracts and vegetable fat, melt well, coat evenly and firm up at room temperature, making them well-suited to recipes that call for dipping or rolling candy centers in a chocolate robe. This option is also less expensive than premium ingredients, such as couverture chocolate, but many professional chefs feel the lower cost shows up in a less-refined taste.
Semisweet Chocolate Chips
These morsels hold up well in candies that call for chocolate chunks, such as nut-chip clusters or candy centers studded with small pieces of unmelted chocolate. Chips generally come from medium quality cocoa beans and they possess a relatively low cocoa-butter content, so they don't melt as well and need refrigeration to set well. Because these chips are designed to hold their shape, they're not as useful in candy coating or dipping. Used in melted form, chips can develop a coarse, grainy and dull texture that looks and tastes unappealing in candy coatings.
Chocolates to Avoid
Chocolate varieties generally aren't interchangeable in candy and baking recipes. Follow your recipe's instructions and use the chocolate called for on the ingredients list. Never use milk chocolate candy bars in your candy making, unless called for in a recipe, because the grade of chocolate is often subpar and the price is relatively high. Candy bars also often have added sugars and condensed milk, which can overwhelm the taste of more subtly flavored candy centers. Unsweetened chocolate, which is simply hardened chocolate liquor, is also a poor substitute in candy-making because of its strong taste and its resistance to melting.
Tags: candy centers, chocolate liquor, chocolate choose, chocolate chunks, chocolate coatings