On another thread, Cristina gave her recipe for brownies, and there was a question about unsweetened chocolate. Judith said she hadn't been able to find it in Italy, and I posted that I'd found 99% chocolate. Cristina then posted that she used fondente amarone, which I thought was just bittersweet chocolate.

For a long time tho I've been confused about the different percentages you see on chocolate bars. I thought that chocolate that was 99% would be basically unsweetened, while chocolate that was 50-60% was semi-sweet, 60-70% bittersweet, and the 85% extra bitter.

Can someone please explain to me the differences?

not a chef expert ,but the higher the %cacao the bitter it is. choco finds a balance at around 50-60% mixed in with sugars to do good justice to chocolate.

Yes, I understand that concept, but does it then follow that unsweetened chocolate MUST be 99/100%, or is it possible for unsweetened chocolate to be a lower percentage, or for a 72% chocolate, for example, to be unsweetened?

Barb, I think the way you've thinking all along is essentially correct. The percentage refers to the amount of chocolate solids (cocoa solids and cocoa butter) the bar has, so while it could be possible for a 75% chocolate to be unsweetened - i.e. the remaining 25% could be ingredients other than sugar - in reality since sugar is one of the ingredients that is always added that scenario is unlikely. I believe other things that are added besides sugar are lecithin and sometimes vanilla and additional cocoa butter.

I have a wonderful cookbook by Alice Medrich which explains all the ins and outs of chocolate and she explains how to adapt recipes for different types of chocolate. I think she's written a couple books - the one I have is called Bittersweet and I highly recommend it.

-Krista

Barb - there is a nice chart here: types of chocolate which explains it.

Jerry

So I guess my translation was off but a long shot. Sorry about that. Should be Baking chocolate, anywhere above 50%, I use around 65%

Oh and Barb, I use fondente amaro, amarone is a type of wine

quote:

Originally posted by Cristina:
Oh and Barb, I use fondente amaro, amarone is a type of wine

Shows you where MY mind was...COMBINING two wonderful tastes!

here is a table describing the percentages from the French perspective; its in French but will get some points out if you want me to.the site tell all about chocolates its the choco club



http://www.choco-club.com/tableaucomposition.html