Difference between chocolate, couverture, couverture and fat glaze

Differences in the world of chocolate

There are so many different chocolate-like products. How are you supposed to know which product is suitable for what? In this blog post, we want to clarify the situation and explain the differences between normal, commercially available chocolate, couverture and cake or fat icing in more detail.

Chocolate

Normal chocolate, which is available in every supermarket, does not melt as well as couverture, as the cocoa butter content is much lower than in couverture. As a result, normal chocolate always remains somewhat viscous and it is very difficult or almost impossible to coat a praline with a wafer-thin layer of chocolate. You can see this difference particularly well when melting normal milk chocolate and milk couverture. Normal milk chocolate remains very thick, whereas milk couverture melts beautifully. In general, we therefore never recommend using standard chocolate for making pralines, bars or figure moulds.

Normal chocolate also has a higher sugar content than couverture, which is why it is cheaper, but also significantly sweeter than couverture when savoured. It is best to use chocolate for eating at home or for baking simple cakes.

Couverture | Couverture

The couverture has a lower sugar content and a higher proportion of cocoa mass and cocoa butter. As these two ingredients are more expensive to buy than sugar, the final price of the couverture is ultimately higher. However, you are rewarded with a more intense chocolate flavour and the flowing properties are ideal for making chocolate bars, pralines, hollow figures or other chocolate specialities. Couverture must be tempered before processing, otherwise it will turn grey and/or brittle.You can find out more about tempering here .

Couverture is available to buy in different units: as a whole block, couverture drops or shavings. We prefer couverture drops as they are the perfect size for further processing. As high-quality couverture is hard to find, we offer various couvertures from different manufacturers and countries of origin in different packaging units in our shop in Adliswil and in our online shop. We only use and sell couverture of exquisite quality.

Cake icing | fat icing | cake melts

Cake icing is a chocolate-like mixture that is not tempered but still shines. It is very easy to use: place the cake icing packet in lukewarm water until the contents have melted, pour over the finished cake and voilà, the cake icing sets, becomes firm and has a beautiful shine. Cocoa butter is completely omitted from the cake icing and replaced with another vegetable fat, usually coconut or palm fat. This saves you the time of tempering. It is also much cheaper, as the cocoa butter is what makes the couverture so expensive and palm and coconut fat are quite cheap in comparison. In terms of flavour, however, it does not come close to chocolate or couverture.

In confectionery, the cake glaze is used to coat cakes, cupcakes, cake pops or confectionery. However, it is never used for high-quality confectionery products such as pralines or chocolate bars.

Storage & shelf life

In general, chocolate, couverture and cake icing should always be stored in a dark, cool and dry place. In the case of cake icing, it is not quite as tragic as with the other two if it is not stored at 18 degrees, as it does not contain cocoa butter.

The shelf life varies depending on the variety. As a rule, white chocolate, couverture or icing has the shortest shelf life of 6 months, followed by milk for 1 to 1 1/2 years and dark chocolate for up to 2 years.

Posted in: Things to know, Chocolate

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