We've all heard the term 'Couverture Chocolate' – whether at a patisserie, an artisanal cafe, or your everyday baking recipe – but how many of us actually know what it is?
We're here to demystify this pretentious-sounding ingredient for you.
Our Choc Fudge Cookie Gelato uses couverture chocolate.
1. WHAT DOES 'COUVERTURE' EVEN MEAN?
The chocolate is traditionally used to coat other baked goods or sweets. As it has a higher percentage of cocoa butter (the naturally occurring fat of the cocoa bean) it gives confectionary a beautiful, glossy sheen.
To quality as couverture chocolate, the chocolate must contain a minimum of 31% cocoa butter. The high percentage of cocoa butter gives you an exceptionally smooth texture, & the fine quality of the cocoa beans brings a true, deep flavour.
Cocoa butter melts at body temperature, which means you get that luscious melt-in-your-mouth texture when you enjoy a couverture chocolate dessert.
3. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING QUALITY CHOCOLATE?
Compound chocolate, or 'lower quality' chocolate, substitutes those two main ingredients with cocoa powder & vegetable fats, such as coconut oil & palm oil.
These fats have a higher melting point, resulting in a lack of the 'mouth feel' that's prized by chocolate connoisseurs, & also why most store-bought chocolate chip cookies have such crunchy chips that keep their shape even when baked.
Gourmet tastebuds & costs aside, such oils & fat actually pose a multitude of health risks, which we previously covered in our Are All Ice Creams Created Equal blog post.
4. SO WHY DO WE USE COUVERTURE CHOCOLATE?
We choose all our ingredients carefully - and that includes our chocolate. We think the taste of the dark couverture chocolate used our chocolate gelato and choc chip cookies just can't be beat.
We've used couverture chocolate right from our very first chocolate chip cookie, and never looked back.