What I found would surprise any baker accustomed to starting a dessert recipe by melting a pound of pricey chocolate with a stick or two of equally extravagant butter.
I made shortbread, muffins, two kinds of cookies and many cakes, using powders that cost as little as $2.50 and as much as $16 for about half a pound. Last week, in a whirlwind of shopping and baking, I was able to buy and try no fewer than 15 varieties. Natural food stores known for carob now offer a choice in cocoa: organic Ah!laska or Green & Black’s Fairtrade Organic Cocoa. I first noticed the phenomenon a couple of years ago in France, where every good chocolatier sells bags of cocoa, but lately even supermarkets here carry Ghirardelli alongside the Nestle’s and the house brand. High-end chocolate producers like Val rhona, Christopher Norman and Fauchon now make cocoa powders that leave Hershey’s in the dust. It even lost its cachet as a hot drink once it was replaced by melted Callebaut and cream.īut lately cocoa has been turning up on all the best shelves. Then it became scorned as the low-fat but sad alternative to chocolate used by so many pastry chefs during the recent reign of nutrition terror. For years it was considered the poor substitute for chocolate, the pallid powder that needed major help from margarine and still could not produce a decent brownie.