Imagine opening your oven to a puddle of chocolate…and you thought you were baking loaves of biscotti! According to Shirley Corriher, food chemist extraordinaire and speaker at our recent Baker’s Dozen meeting, this happened to a chef in LA. Why you ask? She used Dutch process cocoa in her recipe not natural cocoa powder.
Cocoa beans are naturally acidic and natural cocoa powder has the advantage in that it’s acidity enables the proteins in baked goods to set quickly. On the other hand, Dutch process cocoa is neutral and your cake, cookies, etc. may look like a big, unbaked blob when you remove them from the oven if you were suppose to use cocoa powder in the recipe.
Unless you know your recipe absolutely requires Dutch process cocoa, avoid it! These powdered chocolates are not interchangeable.
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Enjoy!
