If one was baking brownies or chocolate cake that required Cocoa powder - which Swiss product would you recommend? (available in coop or migros). Cheers
I always preferred the Migros one to Cailler but sadly they recently changed their manufacturer and it’s now processed in a facility that also processes gluten and yes, my celiac is that serious. I’ve found Cailler is ok but the coop brand (Naturaplan I think it is) is really not good. Lidl also makes a decent cocoa. Recently I’ve tried a cocoa from Aligro and I am still deciding if it’s as good as the Migros one.
Most brownies recipes I've seen call for some kind of baking chocolate (dark, unsweetened, semi-sweetened). I'll supress my impulse to tell you that you are making brownies wrong and instead try to broaden my horizons by asking you to please share your excellent cocao powder based brownie recipe.
My favorite recipe calls for cocoa and oil instead of unsweetened baking chocolate. Which is helpful as the latter isn’t easy to find in CH and subbing sweetened chocolate for unsweetened gets difficult quickly in a recipe. On the other hand, my favorite chocolate cakes usually call for a combination dark chocolate and cocoa.
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons oil
1/2 cup butter
Melt together on the stove over low heat, usually I add either a shot of strong espresso but that does change the texture a bit.
Cool slightly and add to 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 3/4 cup flour. Bake at 350 F in a greased 8 inch square pan for about 30 minutes.
Yes all US measurements sorry. Works really well gluten free, as do most brownies.
Why? It’s only got 46% cocoa solids. That would make for one very very milk chocolate cake/brownie. I buy bars of 60% minimum if I’m baking with melted chocolate, up to 80% depending on the recipe and how sweet I actually want it.
It is so sad that in such a chocolate country as CH , they dont have great cacao powder . I've tried many brands and I stand behind Van Houten ,it's the best
I usually buy it in Fr or De , but when I was far away from the border, always here
The question is what you're aiming for. Is the priority a Swiss product (and thereby price and ease of availability), it's cocoa content, lack of sweetness, or what? To me the requirement of Coop/Migros indicates the first, hence the clarification that it's not a cocoa powder.
I really want to be able to get it easily in Switzerland (I don’t want a brown sugar situation - buying online imports aren’t so cheap), but something similar to what is required in British and American recipes.
Then any of the aforementioned cocoa powders will do the job. If the recipe calls for cocoa powder, don’t try to substitute chocolate and certainly don’t substitute the “chocolate powders” so common here for making chocolate flavored milk (warm or cold—can’t bring myself to call that hot chocolate lol). The Migros brand is my personal favorite over Cailler, though depending on how much you use Aligro sells big bags if like me you come to be known as the person who makes brownies for every social occasion.
Also, for brown sugar I just buy jars of imported molasses and make my own brown sugar for the recipe. Or I’ve used coconut sugar syrup, agave syrup and even maple syrup in a pinch added to the granulated sugar. In most recipes that works just fine.
Fair enough, but swapping chocolate for cocoa powder is not a straightforward swap and indeed in some recipes won’t work at all. I find the texture of chips to be lacking usually compared to bars, they often have more stabilizer added to maintain the smaller shape without melting, so whenever possible I use bars instead. They’re often cheaper too per kg, which matters if you bake a lot!