What Is Chocolate and How to Use It

What Is Chocolate?

Before the Aztecs named it xocolatl, Mayans concocted hot cocoa's ancient cousin around 250 A.D. using knowledge developed by cultivators at least 2,000 years earlier. Our zeal for cooking with chocolate hasn't wavered since. We use it to enrich stews, season roasts, and create swoon-worthy desserts and special treats, especially around the holidays.

Behind the scenes, there's quite a process that includes fermenting, roasting, grinding and more to create the rich, luscious, melt-in-the-mouth chocolate we know and love.

It starts with raw, bitter cacao beans, the seeds of the cacao tree — a plant that traces its roots to South American rain forests. Today, cacao is also grown in parts of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and other warm, humid areas along the equator.

Farmers mainly raise three cacao varieties: Forastero, which features robust cocoa notes; Criollo, a rare bean with fruity, tobacco aromas and delicate flavor; and Trinitario, a hybrid with a forward chocolate taste. Soil composition, climate, and elevation also play a role in cacao flavor.

Chocolate makers blend cacao varieties or may source from a single bean, farm, or region to create distinct flavor profiles. The percentage of cacao used in making bittersweet, semisweet, and milk chocolate also affects the taste.

The recipes that follow showcase the results of the cacao-to-chocolate journey. Mix up indulgent, chewy cookies and creamy ganaches, simmer a mole sauce made with chiles and cinnamon- infused chocolate, stir together a versatile cocoa rub, and more. There's a world of flavor to discover.

Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa

"I used coconut cream instead of dairy, and added whipped coconut cream and cayenne pepper on top," says Allrecipes Allstar Buckwheat Queen.

Get the recipe: Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa

Flourless Triple Chocolate Cookies

A sprinkle of salt on these rich, chewy (and gluten-free!) cookies balances the sweetness and slightly tames the bitter notes in chocolate with higher cacao percentages.

Powerful Powder

Unsweetened cocoa powder is dried chocolate liquor with most of the cocoa butter removed. Dutch-process cocoa is made the same way, but from alkali-treated cacao beans, so it's less acidic and has a mellower taste. Both should be stored in airtight containers in a cool, dry place.

Get the recipe: Flourless Triple Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate Ganache Layer Cake

Use unsweetened chocolate and cocoa in this luscious cake and save your favorite bittersweet chocolate for a ganache that plays out in two ways: Whipped and chilled, it's a creamy filling. Heated and drizzled, it's a glossy glaze.

Pomegranate and Chocolate?

Yes, please! Juicy, fiber-rich pomegranate seeds offer a bright flavor contrast to this cake, not to mention an antioxidant boost. Dark chocolate and cocoa are high in flavanols shown to fight cardiovascular disease. And polyphenols in pomegranate are linked with reduced inflammation and LDL cholesterol.

Get the recipe: Chocolate Ganache Layer Cake

Chicken Mole with Four Chiles

"I love this recipe; it's the closest I've seen to real, traditional mole. There are many variations you can make. I used pumpkin seeds instead of almonds, and added cloves and peppercorns when puréeing the ingredients," says reviewer Rosali.nd.

Mmm, Mole!

Mole (MOH-lay) is a Mexican sauce made with dried chiles, nuts, seasonings, and (often) Mexican chocolate, which has a grainy texture from ground cocoa beans and an undercurrent of cinnamon. The rich, complex sauce isn't sweet, per se, but the chocolate adds depth. Look for Mexican chocolate (also used to make hot chocolate drinks) at Latin and specialty markets.

Get the recipe: Chicken Mole with Four Chiles

Pepper-Crusted Filet Mignon with Chocolate-Port Sauce

Make a quick, velvety pan sauce with chocolate and port and turn a steak into a celebration.

Get the recipe: Pepper-Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Chocolate-Port Sauce

Cocoa Rub

Get the recipe: Cocoa Rub

How Chocolate Is Made: From Cacao to Chocolate

1. Cacao tree fruit pods are cracked open, and the beans and pulp inside are extracted.

2. Cacao beans and pulp are wrapped in banana leaves or in special boxes and left to ferment until the pulp melts away, leaving only the beans.

3. The beans are dried (usually in the sun) for one to two weeks. In that time, they turn a reddish- brown color.

4. Cacao beans are roasted to develop flavor, then cracked open to expose the meat, which is crushed into cocoa nibs.

5. The nibs are ground to a paste called chocolate liquor and mixed to develop flavor.

6. The liquor is tempered (a heating and cooling process) to create solid chocolate. The liquor can also be separated into dry cocoa solids (powder) and cocoa butter (the fat from the beans).

Types of Chocolate

Unsweetened = 100% chocolate liquor and cocoa butter.

Bittersweet and Semisweet = at least 35% chocolate liquor and cocoa butter, plus sugar. The FDA doesn't further delineate between bittersweet and semisweet or define Dark chocolate, although many makers label non-milk chocolates with 60% or more total cacao as bittersweet, and those with 70% or more as dark.

Milk = at least 10% chocolate liquor and cocoa butter, plus sugar and dried milk.

Ruby = a naturally pink, fruity chocolate made with chocolate liquor and cocoa butter from specially grown cacao beans, plus dried milk and sugar.

White = at least 20% cocoa butter, plus sugar and dried milk. Contains no chocolate liquor.

This article originally appeared in the December/January 2022 issue of Allrecipes Magazine.

Related:

• How to Choose the Right Chocolate for Cooking and Baking
• Our Top 10 Favorite Chocolate Recipes
• Chocolate Recipes