at Wed, 07 Jun 2006 03:57:08 GMT in >,
(tert in seattle) wrote :

writes:
>>at Mon, 05 Jun 2006 22:46:39 GMT in >,
(tert in seattle) wrote :
>>
>>>I'm using a recipe from a cookbook written in German and I suspect
>>>it's important that I use the right type of chocolate. The recipe is
>>>for a chocolate icing ("glasur") that uses powdered sugar, water, and
>>>"kochschokolade."
>>>
....
>>
>>If you wanted to stay German, Feodora's 75% is an exceptionally good
>>chocolate, delicate in flavour and smooth in the German style. Hachez'
>>Arriba 77% is also not too bad, although for its percentage decidedly
>>on the mild side. However, it will give an extremely smooth texture to
>>your icing. Both you can buy at http://www.chocosphere.com.
>
>Thanks Alex. I've looked around and found another recipe I'd like to
>try. This one calls for couverture.
>
>http://fred.zimmer.name/vap/4/Db/p34...herglasur.html
>
>I bought a lot of Guittard unsweetened chocolate disks for making the
>torte ... I'm not sure what the cocoa butter content is but is it safe
>to assume it's high enough to use for the melted couverture?

It might be a little *too* high. Unsweetened chocolate contains around 50-
55% cocoa butter - although the same could be said of the Hachez Arriba
77%. Most couverture chocolates have about 36-42% cocoa butter. But it
should broadly be OK. Guittard's unsweetened is decent although in the
Seattle area you can get some that are better - e.g. Bonnat and Slitti. A
few stores in Seattle have carried Cluizel's Noir Infini and Domori Puro,
but I've not seen them locally for a while.

Subbing pure unsweetened chocolate for bittersweet packs a much stronger
wallop - far more than the difference in percentage, so be ready for that.
As long as you like powerful chocolatiness it shouldn't be a problem,
though. The exception is when the glaze was to be used for something milder
that you didn't want to obscure. For instance, something flavoured with
strawberries would probably disappear behind a pure unsweetened. You'd want
something very mild like Domori Porcelana for that.

--
Alex Rast

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