Couverture chocolate is a high-quality chocolate used by professional chocolatiers and bakers for its rich, creamy texture and high cocoa butter content. It is made from finely ground cocoa beans and is ideal for molding, enrobing, and dipping. Only a few companies worldwide produce couverture chocolate, and it is not to be confused with chocolate coating or baking chocolate.
Couverture chocolate is a special form of chocolate used by professional chocolate makers and bakers. This chocolate is richer and creamier than the basic bar or eating chocolate, with a very high cocoa butter content making it ideal for things like moulding, enrobing and dipping. Fewer than 100 companies worldwide produce the majority of the world’s couverture chocolate. Some of these companies produce only for their own private lines, while others sell to chocolatiers who lack the facilities and ability to make their own couverture in-house.
Several characteristics distinguish couverture chocolate. The first is quality. The companies that make this specialty chocolate use Chocolate Scouts who scour the world for the best cocoa beans, and the researchers work to perfect the perfect bean blend to ensure a very specific flavor profile. Huge chocolate companies like Hershey’s and Mars invest heavily in the cocoa industry to breed specialized beans to meet their needs, while smaller chocolate companies seek out interesting and exotic crops to make their chocolate unique.
The beans used in the couverture chocolate are ground particularly fine for an extremely smooth and uniform flavour, and additional cocoa butter is added to make the chocolate richer and creamier. The higher cocoa butter content also means that the couverture chocolate has a distinct glossy appearance, a very crisp snap when broken, and the ability to be melted and tempered with ease. The unique properties of Couverture chocolate make it ideal for chocolate fountains, with the cocoa butter acting as a lubricant to keep the chocolate from gumming up the fountain.
Chocolatiers use couverture chocolate to invent their own chocolate formulations, and they also use it to cover truffles, shape chocolate garnishes, enrobe fruit, and perform a variety of other tasks. Couverture chocolate is generally not mixed with an excess of other ingredients, due to the high price and quality; it is designed to be as an ingredient only. It can also be used to make chocolate shells, glossy cake coatings and so on.
Although couverture chocolate is used to cover chocolates and other sweets, it should not be confused with chocolate coating or coating, an inferior product that has much less cocoa butter. It’s also not the same as baking or cooking chocolate. When looking for couverture chocolate for cooking projects, your best source is likely a store or company that supplies bulk products to bakers and cooks. You can also get coverage directly through some chocolate companies; you may want to order samples from different companies to look for the flavor profile you prefer, as the couverture can taste radically different depending on the source of the beans and how it is handled.
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