4 helpful tips when baking with Chocolate and Cocoa Powder

For our “Tips on Tuesday” feature today, we’re sharing 4 tips to use while baking with cooking chocolate and/ or cocoa powder.

These are great tips for your chocolate recipes.

CHOCOLATE

1. Melting Chocolate

Chocolate scorches easily, so it should be melted carefully and gently. It should be melted over hot water using a double-boiler

or make-shift one with 2 cooking pans or sufurias.

Home-made Double boiler (bakingbites.com)

Take a medium pan and boil hot water in it, switch off the heat and set aside. Place another pan on top of the one with hot water, make sure it doesn’t enter inside the pan with water. The top pan’s base should be slightly larger than the top of the bottom pan, the top pan should not come in contact with the hot water.
Place the chopped, grated or small blocks of cooking chocolate into the top pan and give it some time to start melting. Slowly stir with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is melted; it’s now ready for use.

Melted chocolate (courtesy:tipnut.com)

2. Storing Chocolate

Chocolate is delicate and absorbs moisture and odors easily. Store it in a cool, dry place away from light and heat. The ideal storage temperature for chocolate is 12 to 20 degrees Celsius.

Baking Chocolate

COCOA POWDER

3. Add more liquid

Cocoa powder (courtesy:davidlebovitz.com)

4. Substituting Cocoa powder in place of baking chocolate