The Baking Answer Book Read Online Free PDF

sheets by heaping tablespoonfuls, about 3 inches apart. Sprinkle a generous pinch of sea salt on top of each cookie. Bake until the tops are cracked and shiny, 10 to 12 minutes. Carefully slide the parchment sheet with the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
    Q What kinds of chocolate should I have on hand?
    A Different types of chocolate are used to get various results in baked goods.
    Chocolate Varieties
Unsweetened chocolate , often called baking chocolate, contains cocoa solids and cocoa butter but no sugar. It has a chalky rather than smooth texture and a bitter flavor, but when baked into brownies, cakes, and cookies, it imparts a deep chocolate flavor and fudgy texture. It is commonly sold in boxes of eight 1-ounce squares for easy measuring, although large blocks may be purchased at gourmet stores and online from baking supply purveyors, in which case you will have to chop and weigh it yourself.
Bittersweet (or dark) chocolate and semisweet chocolate are made by combining unsweetened chocolate with sugar and refining it further. The difference between the two is in the percentage of sugar. Bittersweet chocolate averages about 46% sugar while semisweet is about 57% sugar. An equivalent amount of one of these will impart less chocolate flavor to a cake than unsweetened chocolate would. Sweeter and less bitter than unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet and semisweet chocolate are used in recipes such as flourless chocolate cake that don’t contain a lot of sugar and that benefit from this type of chocolate’s complex flavors.
In addition to sugar, milk solids and vanilla are added to milk chocolate , giving it a very mild chocolate flavor. It isn’t often used in baking, because this flavor becomes diluted to the point of muteness when mixed with other ingredients. Reserve milk chocolate for chocolate chunk cookies and sweet chocolate frostings.
White chocolate is not officially chocolate because it contains no chocolate solids. It gets its richness and muted chocolate flavor from cocoa butter. Delicate and subtle, it won’t have much impact when added to baked goods. It’s best reserved for mousselike cake fillings.
Chocolate chips have less cocoa butter than blocks or bars of eating chocolate, so they won’t completely melt when baked into cakes and cookies. Of course, they can be melted in a microwave or on top of the stove, and come in handy when you need just a few ounces of chocolate to drizzle over a cake or cookies as a garnish. For richer ganache frostings and fillings, it’s best to stick with bittersweet or semisweet chocolate.
Cocoa powder (see page 37 for more information) is made by removing the cocoa butter from processed and ground cocoa beans and grinding what is left into a fine powder. This powder, when added to doughs and batters, adds intense chocolate flavor. Simple cakes and cookies made with cocoa powder, enriched with butter and sweetened with sugar, can be remarkably fudgy and delicious.
    Q I understand that specific types of chocolate are better in certain recipes than others. But is there a way to substitute, say, semisweet for unsweetened?
    A It’s best to use the type of chocolate specified in a recipe, but, in a pinch, a careful substitution will work. Use the following conversions:

    Q What is the difference between Dutch-process and regular cocoa powder?
    A Dutch-process (or alkalized) cocoa powder has been processed with an alkali to reduce acidity, making it milder tasting and giving it a darker color. Non-alkalized cocoa powder has a slightly more bitter taste, but is also more intensely chocolaty. The difference between the two is not only in taste and color, however. Because of their different pH levels, alkalized and non-alkalized cocoas interact differently in recipes calling for baking powder or baking soda. Recipes calling for Dutch-process cocoa powder use baking powder, which is essentially baking soda with added acid,