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."

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."

My translator says it's "cooking chocolate". If so, just
use a good quality chocolate.

--
Reg

Isn't that what the walrus in the old beatles song says?

Reg wrote:

> 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."
>
>
> My translator says it's "cooking chocolate". If so, just
> use a good quality chocolate.
>

Additionally, the German brands I found through Google appear to be
around 44%-51% cacao.

--Charlene


--
A lot of people don't know things that aren't true. --Steven Wright


email perronnellec at earthlink . net

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

the writes:
>Isn't that what the walrus in the old beatles song says?

F-

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 22:46:39 +0000 (UTC), 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."

"Cooking chocolate". It's dark chocolate in bars, the one one usually
uses for cooking.

Nathalie in Switzerland

kochen=cooking hens koch-chocolade is chocolade sutable for cooking

--
Peace, and may the Blessing of the L'rd be upon You
have a good day
TONYC

Remove nospam from
"tert in seattle" > wrote in message
...
> 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."
>

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."
>

Cooking chocolate. However, and this is especially true given that you're
doing icing, do *NOT* buy "baking chocolate" as is packaged in the US - the
stuff that comes in 1-oz roughly square chunks wrapped in paper and then in
a cardboard box. The most common brand, Baker's is as I've said numerous
times, so bad I wouldn't even use it to kill the neighbour's dog, and
virtually all the other brands are also quite poor, not to mention low in
cocoa butter which will give your icing a poor texture.

Instead, buy a decent-quality bar chocolate - and you can pick your
intensity to suit. As a general guideline, 50% cocoa solids is mild and
sweet, 60% is strong but sweet, 70% is strong and powerful, 85% is strong,
and aggressively un-sweet, and of course 100% is very strong indeed. None
of these, btw, need be bitter.

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.
--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

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."
>>
>
>Cooking chocolate. However, and this is especially true given that you're
>doing icing, do *NOT* buy "baking chocolate" as is packaged in the US - the
>stuff that comes in 1-oz roughly square chunks wrapped in paper and then in
>a cardboard box. The most common brand, Baker's is as I've said numerous
>times, so bad I wouldn't even use it to kill the neighbour's dog, and
>virtually all the other brands are also quite poor, not to mention low in
>cocoa butter which will give your icing a poor texture.
>
>Instead, buy a decent-quality bar chocolate - and you can pick your
>intensity to suit. As a general guideline, 50% cocoa solids is mild and
>sweet, 60% is strong but sweet, 70% is strong and powerful, 85% is strong,
>and aggressively un-sweet, and of course 100% is very strong indeed. None
>of these, btw, need be bitter.
>
>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?

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

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

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

>>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.

I'll just be using it for the sachertorte which I want to be as
powerfully chocolatey as possible. The traditional recipe calls for
either slathering the whole cake in apricot marmalade or putting a thin
layer of it in the middle. I expect apricot marmalade to mount a more
serious challenge to chocolate than strawberries would. But maybe the
marmalade's there more to provide moisture than apricot flavor in which
case the question is moot.

Thank you for the encyclopedic answers. For my next trick I will attempt
to mix water and chocolate.

tert in seattle wrote on 08 Jun 2006 in rec.food.cooking

> I'll just be using it for the sachertorte which I want to be as
> powerfully chocolatey as possible. The traditional recipe calls for
> either slathering the whole cake in apricot marmalade or putting a
> thin layer of it in the middle. I expect apricot marmalade to mount a
> more serious challenge to chocolate than strawberries would. But
> maybe the marmalade's there more to provide moisture than apricot
> flavor in which case the question is moot.
>
> Thank you for the encyclopedic answers. For my next trick I will
> attempt to mix water and chocolate.
>
>

pre freeze a thin sheet of the apricot marmalade filling...say on a half
sheet pan (using wax/parchment paper of course). Carefully place this on
cake...trim to fit; remove paper. A light dusting of icing/convectionary
sugar and corn starch (mixed) will act like glue and hold the filling to
the cake layers , so less chance of slipage.

--
-Alan