Scaling a chocolate recipe
Quantities scale linearly. Times, temperatures and pan depths do not, and that is where scaled recipes fail.
Doubling a ganache is arithmetic. Doubling a baked chocolate dessert is not, because heat reaches the centre of a deeper pan more slowly and the surface sets before the middle cooks.
The general rule is to scale quantities exactly and keep pan depth constant — use two pans rather than one deeper one. Where depth must increase, drop the oven temperature by ten to fifteen degrees and extend the time, checking early.
Tempering does not scale down well either: below about 200g the chocolate cools faster than you can work it.
- What it is for
- To scale a chocolate recipe without the failures that scaling introduces.
- Works with
- Dark chocolate, Couverture
Method
1. Scale all quantities by the same factor, by weight rather than by volume.
Where people go wrong: Scaling by cups. Volume measures compound their own error as the quantity grows.
2. Keep the depth of any baked item constant by using more pans rather than deeper ones.
3. Where depth must increase, reduce the oven temperature by 10–15°C and start checking well before the scaled time.
When it goes wrong
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Doubled bake is raw in the middle and overdone at the edges | Deeper pan rather than a wider one. | Split across two pans at the original depth. |
| A small batch of tempered chocolate set before it could be used | Small volumes lose heat quickly. | Temper at least 300g even if you need less. The surplus keeps and can be re-tempered. |
Related
Works with
- Dark chocolateQuantities scale linearly. Times, temperatures and pan depths do not, and that is where scaled recipes fail.
- CouvertureQuantities scale linearly. Times, temperatures and pan depths do not, and that is where scaled recipes fail.
Covered in
- Substituting chocolate in recipesThe other axis on which a recipe gets changed.
- Chocolate quantitiesWhat does and does not scale linearly in chocolate work.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)