Tips On Using Scharffen Berger Chocolate
Most standard semisweet chocolate is 55 to 60% cacao. When you want to use Scharffen Berger chocolate in a recipe you've previously made with standard baking chocolate, you can avoid unexpected, and unwanted, results by doing just a little math.
First, check the percentage of the chocolate you plan to use. Scharffen Berger 62% semisweet can often be used instead of standard semisweet or bittersweet chocolate without any adjustment. However, if you find the results too intense or too dry, or if the sauce or ganache curdles, try using 10% less chocolate than the recipe calls for the next time, and add up to 1 teaspoon of sugar for every ounce of chocolate called for in the original recipe.
For example, if the original recipe calls for 10 ounces of chocolate, use 9 ounces of chocolate labeled 62% and add up to 10 teaspoons of sugar to the recipe.
If the original recipe calls for 10 ounces of chocolate, use 7 ounces of chocolate labeled 70% and add up to 15 teaspoons of sugar.
But taste what you’ve made, and then use your own judgment. If you want a little more bittersweet chocolate flavor, add slightly more chocolate the next time you make it. If you find, as I do, that a great chocolate requires less sugar, add slightly less than the amount given in the adjustment and see what you think of the results.
Adapted from Alice Medrich's introduction to using Scharffen Berger Chocolate in
The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg.
Copyright © 2006 Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Inc. Published by Hyperion.
All Rights Reserved. Available wherever books are sold.
Alice Medrich, Pastry Chef, was the founder of Cocolat, and is the award-winning author of
Bittersweet
and Pure Dessert.