As a kid, eating chocolate while my mother was cooking with it was very tempting. When we grow up, we know that the cake or whatever we are doing with the chocolate will be better than the chocolate itself, so maybe it is easier for us not to touch the cooking chocolate in the meantime. But can you eat the cooking chocolate as you would eat regular chocolate?
In this article, we will talk in more detail about what you should expect from your cooking chocolate in terms of taste and texture when eaten on its own and what the difference is between regular and cooking chocolate.
Cooking chocolate is also known as baking chocolate, so we will talk about it as cooking chocolate to avoid writing”cooking/baking” chocolate every time I mention it. Also, chocolate chips are cooking chocolate as well, and they are more convenient than regular cooking chocolate because it’s easier to portion them.
Can you eat cooking chocolate as is?
Cooking chocolate is safe to eat without cooking it since it is like regular chocolate, but usually, it has a lower content of sugar and fat since most of the time, you will add those to your recipe.
So since it’s safe to eat the final product, be it a chocolate cake or anything else, it should also be safe to eat the cooking chocolate on its own.
I said “usually” it has less milk and sugar because this is not a rule. You can find cooking chocolate with more milk than regular chocolate since all three types of chocolate(white, milk, and dark) are available as cooking chocolate as well as regular chocolate.
What does cooking chocolate tastes like?
Cooking chocolate usually has a strong, bitter taste since it is generally low in milk or sugar. If you buy milk or white cooking chocolate, it will taste better.
I think it is not worth eating cooking chocolate on its own, but this doesn’t mean it is not safe. Make sure you don’t go overboard and eat the one that has 0 sugar if you are not used to dark chocolate.
Cooking VS Regular Chocolate
So, why buy cooking chocolate when you can use regular chocolate instead. While this is true, you can find regular chocolate that can easily substitute for cooking chocolate, but most of the time is more expensive than cooking chocolate with the same ingredients.
The Price is actually one of the biggest differences between regular and cooking chocolate. This is because cooking chocolate and cooking chips usually come in bigger sizes, so you get them at a better price because you buy more.
But equally important is the thing that cooking chocolate comes without the fancy packaging or the funny shapes and branding add to the chocolate itself.
Usually, they are regular square shapes in a pretty simple package. Since you will not make them as a gift or give them to your child to make it happy, the producers know that they should not focus on the design of the chocolate that much.
Can you make ganache cooking chocolate?
It is possible to make ganache with cooking chocolate, but you need to make sure that you choose one with a bit of milk and sugar; otherwise, due to the high-fat content, it can split, and it will be a mess.
I know this from my experience since I tried to make ganache with dark chocolate, and I will never do that again. I found out later that you can fix it by adding a bit of milk and stirring it again. And it works because my chocolate has split again, even if I mixed dark with milk chocolate this time and adding milk fixed it.
Tempering cooking chocolate
Tempering cooking chocolate is possible if you choose one with a bigger cocoa butter content. You can temper any kind of chocolate, but the results will be better with the ones with more cocoa butter.
In many cases, cooking chocolate is not the best choice when it comes to tempering since many of them have less cocoa butter than regular chocolate.
Read Also: Can Chocolate Mold?
Conclusion
Eating cooking/baking chocolate is safe, but the taste and texture are not as good as regular chocolate. Also, regular chocolate usually has a lot of extra flavors and more milk and sugar content than cooking chocolate.
If cooking chocolate is the last sweet thing in the house and you don’t have any other option, sure, go for a little snack.
