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Can I Substitute Chocolate Chips For Cocoa Powder

Can I Substitute Chocolate Chips For Cocoa Powder

Can I Substitute Chocolate Chips For Cocoa Powder

Chocolate chips can be substituted for cocoa powder in many recipes. To substitute, simply use 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips instead of 2 cups of cocoa powder. Cocoa powder imparts a deep chocolate flavor to a meal. You cannot substitute chocolate chips for cocoa alone, as they contain sugar and cocoa butter, as well as cocoa solids.

If you ever wondered whether you could recreate chocolate chips using cacao powder, well, the answer is a BIG YES, it can be used along with butter to make some tasty chocolaty chips. Unlike cocoa powder, chocolate chips have lots of cocoa butter; it helps small chunks of chocolate keep their shape while baking, which is probably why it is called for in chewy cookie recipes.

You should also consider that darker chocolate has a higher amount of cocoa butter, and it can also contain other fats that will help melt it more smoothly. Because unsweetened chocolate is made with the entire beans, ground up, it naturally contains both cacao solids and fats (it is around 55% cocoa butter). Your best bet for using chocolate in place of cocoa powder is going to be unsweetened chocolate ($2, Target) because all the other chocolates are going to have sugar and therefore require more adjustment to work in your recipes.

If you get chocolate chips ($2, Semisweet, or Sweet), then you can use Chocolate Chips ($unsweetened) as an excellent substitute for cocoa powder. Avoid super-sweet dark chocolate, and avoid using semi-sweet baking chips that are melted down, have lots of added sugar, and lots of added fat. If you need to make melted chocolate chips in your next recipe, you can do this also with chocolate bars, just be sure to scale things down. Since all the baking chips have very consistent fat levels, you do not have to make additional adjustments in your recipes.

Learn to make chocolate chips from cocoa powder

Just like with the Unsweetened Chocolate listed above, you will want to decrease the fat content of your recipe to get better results. Even when adjusting fat, swapping in a little oil into the recipe to make up for adding cacao butter, the results are not exactly the same. If you want to make your chocolate bakes even fattier, you could leave out 1 tablespoon of butter, oil, or shortening. Depending on how much chocolate you have to add, you may want to cut back on sugar and butter in the recipe, but if the recipe calls for, say, 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder, I would not worry about making changes in the rest of the recipe.

The important thing to note is if you are looking to substitute the cocoa powder for the dark chocolate, you are going to need to adjust your fats (maybe adding less butter to the recipe) and may need to decrease sugar as well depending on what chocolate you are using. This means if you are going to substitute cocoa powder for dark chocolate, you should be using the best quality dark chocolate to bake with, as this provides both flavor, structure, and texture in a recipe. While I would NOT recommend substituting chocolate for cocoa (or vice versa) in the recipe, it is something that can be done if necessary. Use this substitution in recipes calling for smaller amounts of chocolate, or substitute plain chocolate for unsweetened chocolate in recipes calling for both plain chocolate and bittersweet or semisweet chocolate.

IngredientsAmount
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder3 tsp
Sugar3 tsp
Butter1 tsp
Amount of ingredients required for each ounce of semi-sweet chocolate.

You can add the unsweetened powder in addition to sugar and shortening to approximate the flavor of semi-sweet chocolate. If your recipe calls for 3/4 cup of cocoa, that is 12 tablespoons, then add 12 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips to your ingredient list. For each ounce of semi-sweet chocolate, you need 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 tablespoon butter, margarine, or shorten. Combine three tablespoons cocoa powder, three tablespoons sugar, and one tablespoon butter to create your own chocolate chip replacement.

While unsweetened baking chocolate and chocolate chips are the best substitutes, you can get by with Carob, Dutch-processed cocoa powder, or a hot cocoa blend. If using chocolate chips in place of Dutch-process cocoa, stir in 1/8 teaspoon baking soda per ounce of chocolate chips. Add 1 tablespoon sugar per ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, and substitute ounce-for-ounce unsweetened baking chocolate for the semisweet baking chocolate. You could swap the same quantity of bittersweet baking chocolate for semisweet and probably not notice much of a difference.

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Because of the lower cacao butter content of the chocolate chips, they might not melt as well as the semisweet baking chocolate; also, there might be a slight difference in texture and sweetness in the end product. Once the processors have extracted the cocoa butter, they are left with a solid, crumbly substance that is then ground down to a fine powder. When chocolate liquor is crushed, most of the cocoa butter is rendered out, which is pressed away, leaving behind the solid cakes, which are ground into a fine powder. In the chocolate making process, cacao nibs are ground to chocolate liquor, much like nuts are ground into nut butter.

You can use nibs of cocoa which has strong chocolate flavors and has a soft (less sweet) texture. If you would like a similar effect as you would get from cacao powder, you can also grind your chocolate baking chips with a rolling pin (make sure to place the chocolate chips into a plastic bag first) or run them through your food processor. Simply chop up the chocolate bars into pieces and stir into the recipe, if you are replacing chips in your baking dishes.

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Keep in mind, original hot chocolate powder is typically made up of cocoa powder, powdered milk, and sugar, so you may have to adjust how much sugar to add to your pie. You will need around 2x more hot chocolate powder for your hot chocolate than you do for cocoa powder in the recipe, but I would always test your mixture to ensure that you are happy with the flavour of your chocolate, and add more hot chocolate powder as needed. One batch followed recipe instructions for using cocoa powder, which was sifted in the dry ingredients; the second batch, I replaced the cocoa powder weight for melting, unsweetened chocolate, which was added in with creamed butter and sugar.

While one batch had a good chewiness and a light snap, the unsweetened chocolate had a soft chewiness, with crumbles that seemed to dissolve and became like sand in my mouth. There was not enough cacao solids to give Old Fashioned Chocolate Sugar Cookies a kick, and the cookies were overly sweet without a bitter cacao finish.

You might not think white chocolate would fit, but you could throw it in there as a healthier alternative, and use it like you would any other chip. Frosting is a particular application, and chances are that your recipe relies on a powdered, rather than melted, chocolate for the technology.

Can you substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips for unsweetened baking squares?

Replace one ounce of unsweetened chocolate with three Tablespoons of semi-sweet chocolate chips. This will increase sugar, so skip one tablespoon from your recipe. Due to their formulation to maintain their shape, chocolate chips take a little longer to melt, but they still do.

How many chocolate chips do I substitute for cocoa powder?

If you want to substitute your chocolate chips for cocoa powder, use 1 ounce or three tablespoons of semi-sweet chocolate. This should replace one tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and two teaspoons of sugar and shortening in order to effectively prepare your baked goods.

Chocolate chips vs. cocoa powder: which is better?

Cocoa powder is a better alternative as it is lower in fat and higher in non-fat cocoa solid content than unsweetened chocolate. Since it is more concentrated with cocoa flavor, you will also require less cocoa powder to get an intense chocolate flavor in your baked good.

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