Bittersweet Chocolate Substitute

Chocolate is a product derived from cocoa. Along with cocoa, it contains fats like, cocoa butter or plant oils and powdered sugar. The result is a solid confection, which is one of the most popular food in the world. Chocolate is also a favorite flavor throughout the world. Chocolates can be of several different types, which can be prepared by simply altering the quantities of cocoa and the other ingredients. The chocolate that is more commonly consumed is 'sweet chocolate', which basically combines cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other types of fats, along with sugar. Other types of chocolates are, dark chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, milk chocolate and semisweet chocolates. Out of these, bittersweet chocolate is commonly used for baking and cooking.

What is Bittersweet Chocolate?

It is the chocolate that contains a small amount of sugar, along with chocolate liquor, cocoa butter and sometimes, vanilla and lecithin. It can be considered as a sweetened form of dark chocolate. According to FDA (Food and Drug Administration) of United States, chocolates that contain at least 35% cocoa liquor are bittersweet chocolates. This value can be somewhat greater in some high quality bittersweet chocolate. Due to high cocoa content, such bittersweet chocolate usually possesses a more intense flavor. They can be eaten like sweet chocolates, or used for baking and cooking. They can be commonly found in the form of chips, bars and chunks.

Replacing Bittersweet Chocolate in the Kitchen

Many times, the term bittersweet chocolate and semisweet chocolate are used interchangeably. Both the types of chocolates are also occasionally termed as 'couverture', which points to the fact that these chocolates contain at least 32% cocoa butter. However, bittersweet chocolate usually contains more chocolate liquor and less of sugar, as compared to semisweet chocolate. But still, both can be substituted for each other in baking, with good results. Semisweet chocolate can also contain up to 35% chocolate liquor, for which it can be very similar to some bittersweet chocolates. For this reason, it can be easily used instead of bittersweet chocolate. Semisweet chocolate can be ideal for cookies and brownie recipes, and it is available in the form of bars, chips and chunks.

However, many pastry chefs prefer bittersweet chocolate over semisweet chocolate, due to its rich chocolate flavor of bittersweet variety. So, you can add some cocoa powder or unsweetened chocolates to semisweet chocolate, in order to make it a better substitution. Another substitute is the widely available, sweet chocolate. Sweet chocolate contains more sugar than both bittersweet and semi sweet chocolates. In addition to these two types chocolates, you can also go for unsweetened chocolates in recipes. To replace bittersweet chocolate with the unsweetened chocolate in your recipe, all you have to do is to add some sugar to unsweetened chocolate.

To sum up, semisweet, sweet, as well as unsweetened chocolates are the three types of chocolates that can be used in place of bittersweet chocolate. These substitutes can be used in place of bittersweet chocolate for both baking and cooking. However, due to its rich and intense flavor, bittersweet chocolate is usually preferred over sweet and semisweet chocolates. Besides the flavor, it also contains flavonoids and other antioxidant compounds, just like dark chocolate. These compounds can be attributed to several health benefits, associated with dark chocolates. Therefore, like dark chocolate, consuming bittersweet chocolate in moderation too can prove beneficial for our health.