Couverture Chocolate

karlitob

Hi all

I’m making a chocolate for a birthday and i want to be quite special. The recipe calls for couverture chocolate which I know is 35% cocoa butter minimum for dark chocolate.


I know that this is couverture

https://www.stuff4cakes.ie/index.php?route=product/product&path=137_234&product_id=13498

But I can’t seem to tell if the following is couverture. Rang the company - not much help to be honest. The person who answered the phone didn’t know. I presume it isn’t as it’s cheaper.

https://www.stuff4cakes.ie/index.php?route=product/product&path=137_234&product_id=10290

I’m happy to get the good stuff just wondering if anyone knows any company in Dublin I can pick it up from - want to save a bit on delivery.


Appreciate any advice. Thanks.

https://www.stuff4cakes.ie/index.php?route=product/category&path=137_234

Newhomebuyer

karlitob wrote: »

Hi all

I’m making a chocolate for a birthday and i want to be quite special. The recipe calls for couverture chocolate which I know is 35% cocoa butter minimum for dark chocolate.


I know that this is couverture

https://www.stuff4cakes.ie/index.php?route=product/product&path=137_234&product_id=13498

But I can’t seem to tell if the following is couverture. Rang the company - not much help to be honest. The person who answered the phone didn’t know. I presume it isn’t as it’s cheaper.

https://www.stuff4cakes.ie/index.php?route=product/product&path=137_234&product_id=10290

I’m happy to get the good stuff just wondering if anyone knows any company in Dublin I can pick it up from - want to save a bit on delivery.


Appreciate any advice. Thanks.

https://www.stuff4cakes.ie/index.php?route=product/category&path=137_234

Sorry not sure about couverture but callebaut is the most recommended brand for bakers

phormium

I think picking a couverture chocolate was more important back years ago as there wasn't much choice in the chocolate market, Dairy Milk was the main eating chocolate and Scotbloc passed as cooking chocolate. Back 30 odd yrs ago I used to buy 5 lb blocks of couverture choc from specialist suppliers.

These days you can go into Aldi/Lidl/Tesco to name but a view and buy very good quality bars with cocoa solids content up to 80%. Lidl do particularly nice chocolate, can't remember brand but there are various levels of cocoa solids in it. In general for most baking I use Tesco own brand 70% dark choc. I also have a bag of Callebaut chips in the press and they are around 55% I think, I use them for chocolate biscuit cake but sometimes use a mix of the supermarket stuff if I don't have a need to order a big bag. I bought a lovely bar of around 40ish% recently in Lidl, deliciously creamy chocolate to eat but not dark enough for baking.

So in summary I don't really think you need to be particularly looking for couverture with the wide range of good chocolate out there these days

tscul32

Either the Belcolade or the Callebaut are lovely in baking. I get the Belcolade if I only want 1 kg, otherwise I get the Callebaut, mainly because I like the smaller chips more than the larger flat Belcolade buttons. The dark, 54% is lovely in either. We use them for choc biscuit cakes, regular choc cakes, ganache, moulding chocolates and hot chocolate. And I get them from stuff4cakes, my dark Callebaut arrived this morning along with my smaller bag of white Belcolade.

RacoonQueen

Belcolade is Couverture. Either of those work great in cake baking. Have used both in the past. I also use https://lilyobriens.ie/all-chocolates/by-type/baking Lily's quality has gone down I feel since they were taken over a few years ago but still decent chocolate for use in baking.

All go well in boiling milk to make a hot chocolate too.

You could be super fancy and use the Valrhona one

www.chocolate.ie/shop-chocolate/brands/valrhona/valrhona-jivara-40-cooking-drops.html
https://www.chocolate.ie/shop-chocolate/brands/valrhona/valrhona-guanaja-70-cooking-drops.html

karlitob

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Belcolade is Couverture. Either of those work great in cake baking. Have used both in the past. I also use https://lilyobriens.ie/all-chocolates/by-type/baking Lily's quality has gone down I feel since they were taken over a few years ago but still decent chocolate for use in baking.

All go well in boiling milk to make a hot chocolate too.

You could be super fancy and use the Valrhona one

www.chocolate.ie/shop-chocolate/brands/valrhona/valrhona-jivara-40-cooking-drops.html
https://www.chocolate.ie/shop-chocolate/brands/valrhona/valrhona-guanaja-70-cooking-drops.html

Thanks everyone. I want the cake to be special so want to use couverture as advised. I have to say I found the answer to this question very hard to find out. Think I left it too late to buy from stuff4cakes - they won’t send til Tuesday (tomorrow is a bank holiday and need it for Wednesday). Got some chocolate in donnybrook fair that look like callers and wonder was it a repacking the same way they do it in chocolate.ie

phormium

Is the chocolate for decorating it or for using in the mix to bake it?

Just checked out of curiosity the bag of Callebaut I have, it says Dark Couveture Chocolate, it's 54.5% cocoa solids, cocoa butter is listed in the ingredients but no percentage given. I can't say I have noticed the cocoa butter content in chocolate when I buy it, just once it's mentioned and not some other fat instead! It's usually the cocoa solids content I go by.