Dark Chocolate

Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate is made out of cacao, sugar and (most of the time) cacao butter. 

Some craft chocolate makers are not using additional cacao butter, but I love to add cacao butter. It makes my chocolate smoother and due to the reduced viscosity,  it’s way easier to work with. 

Check out my YouTube video about dark chocolate:

Dark chocolate is considered “dark” from 70 - 100%. But what does the percentage actually mean? 

A 70% dark chocolate usually contains:

  • 70% cacao solids and cacao butter

  • 30% sugar (and other ingredients like inclusions, vanilla, salt..)

Great dark chocolate bars

Ritual Chocolate

Fruition Chocolate Works

Areté

What is couverture? 

Couverture is a high quality chocolate with a high content in cacao. Especially the cacao butter content is increased, which makes chocolate easier to work with. Since couverture is made for dipping or enrobing the viscosity is lower that in common dark chocolates. 

Usually couverture consiste of: 

  • 35% cacao solids

  • at least 31% cacao butter

If you want to use a high quality couverture, I absolutely want to recommend Valrhona. I used it for my Ecole Chocolat program and I loved working with it - easy to work with and yummy. 



Angela Pfleiderer