Cooking chocolate
A British and Australian shelf category, generally an ordinary sweetened dark chocolate of undistinguished quality sold for the kitchen.
What it is
Cooking chocolate is a retail category rather than a defined product. In the UK and Australia it means a moderately dark, sweetened chocolate positioned for baking — typically lower in cocoa butter and cheaper than an eating bar of the same percentage.
Some products sold under the name are compound coating rather than chocolate, which matters enormously if the recipe involves tempering or a coating. The ingredients list resolves it in a few seconds, and the difference between the two is far larger than the price gap suggests.
- Category kind
- A product format — this describes how it is sold
- Legal status
- Industry convention, not a legal definition
- Typical range on shelves
- 40–70%
What the percentage means here
Whatever it means for the chocolate inside. Where no percentage is printed, the product is often compound rather than chocolate.
Working with it
Fine for baking, where the chocolate melts into a batter. Not suitable for coating or tempering if it is compound, and the label is the only way to tell.
Commonly misunderstood
That cooking chocolate is a defined lower grade. It is a shelf position, and the products under it range from ordinary dark chocolate to compound coating.
Related
Commonly confused with
- CouvertureBoth are sold for the kitchen rather than for eating, and they are not interchangeable — some cooking chocolate is compound coating, which will not temper.
Techniques that work with this
- Baking with chocolateAdequate where the chocolate melts into a batter. Check the ingredients before using it for anything that has to set — some of it is compound.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- Directive 2000/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to cocoa and chocolate products intended for human consumption — European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 2000(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)