This ingredient is a mystery.
It is not butter at all, it does not contain animal products and it does not taste of anything much; it only has a faint cocoa taste and smell.
It looks uninteresting and bland when raw; a lifeless ivory lump that resembles a bar of soap. It is a solid fat, composed of variable amounts of triglyceride fatty acids and it melts at a temperature similar to that of the human body.
This last fact makes it a very useful material for industry: from skin products to “chapsticks”, lipstick, and even medical suppositories.
Cocoa butter is a critical ingredient in our chocolate-making journey, and it can be purchased from specialised baking shops or from online retailers.
You use cocoa butter sparingly: usually between 5% to 15% (by weight) of the work material –a little goes a long way.
Cocoa butter can be tempered and it will provide extra “snap” and “sheen” to our finished products.
Using cocoa butter
For our purposes cocoa butter is used to:
- Increase fluidity.
When working with chocolate, extra cocoa butter in the recipe increases the fluidity of the work material. This is a desirable quality when working with chocolate moulds or doing fancy chocolate art.
It can be added to “chocolate fountains” to improve the visual qualities of the molten material. - Carrier base.
Cocoa butter will work as a medium to carry colours and flavours into our finished product. Advanced techniques of chocolate decoration use “cocoa butter paint” applied to the mould or to the chocolates.
Attention
A few things to keep in mind when working with cocoa butter;
- Melt together
Cocoa butter must be melted with the rest of the working material; this assures that it will be combined smoothly and that it will temper well.
Use a knife or box grater to shave the cocoa butter into flakes before melting -solid lumps of cocoa butter do not mix easily with the molten chocolate. - Do not boil or burn
Cocoa butter melts at about the same temperature as other chocolate products. And it too can boil or burn, if you heat it too much.
Just like other chocolate products, burned cocoa butter cannot be used. See “Ruined forever” to know more about it. - Do not use water
Cocoa butter is 100% fat. It does not go well with any amount of water, water-based colours or flavours, unless you use an emulsifier agent. See “Oil vs. Water” to know more about this. - Store carefully
Cocoa butter is a stable product that can last for a year or more with careful storage. Keep it away from strong smells, sunlight and humidity.
A ziploc bag in the vegetable tray of the fridge is ideal.
See our “Chocolate storage” article if you want to know more. - Do not substitute
Cocoa butter is an expensive ingredient. Some recipes substitute with other cheaper fats like palm or coconut oils.
This is not a great way to learn quality chocolate-making, and the flavour of the finished products will suffer, as substitute fats do not have the mouthfeel of cocoa butter.
Imitation “cocoa butter” might be a bit cheaper but there will always be a cost.
In Random Chocolates, only the best will do.