Don't Start Baking With Any Kind Of Chocolate Until Taking This One Necessary Step

There's a practically limitless number of delicious chocolates around, which means there are just as many ways you can incorporate chocolate into your baking. Sure, there's standard baking chocolate, which stands apart from other types of the cocoa-laden delicacy, but that's not the only chocolate you can use in your baked goods (nor is it the only one worthy of real consideration). However, if you're planning on baking with chocolate, no matter what kind you use, the taste always comes first. According to one expert's advice, that's something you should always remember when choosing chocolate for your next project.

As a pastry chef for the Chicago Athletic Association (the organization behind Cindy's), Yami Mercado is well-versed in all things chocolate. She stresses the importance of tasting your chocolate beforehand, not only to make sure that it's tasty in and of itself, but also so you can know how it might balance with other ingredients. "It's important to taste to make sure the flavor and sweetness levels will work for your recipe," she says. "You'll need to make sure the chocolate will match the flavor profiles of the recipe." So, remember to give your chocolate a taste to see if it really is a proper match for your next culinary masterpiece.

Reading the label can tell you a lot about a chocolate's quality, but it might not give you a good enough impression of what you actually taste. For this, naturally, heed Yami Mercado's advice and actually taste it yourself. But, besides the obvious cocoa taste, what else should you be keeping an eye out for when taste testing your chocolate? Mercado tells you to "take in the scent, flavor, and texture of the chocolate," letting it engulf your senses. "This will help decide if the chocolate will add bitterness, sweetness, or semisweetness. Knowing that will be really helpful in determining if this is the right chocolate," she says. This is the true reason to taste your chocolate in advance, though no one's objecting to stealing a sample just for the sake of it either.

With all that said, Mercado is in the camp of choosing the right chocolate over altering a recipe to compensate for a chocolate that may not fit the bill. While it's possible to adjust sugar levels, for example, to make up for an over- or under-sweet chocolate, Mercado states that "it's easier to choose the right chocolate type for the recipe than trying to adjust a recipe." Make sure you have the right chocolate for a bakery-worthy chocolate cake, for instance; if you don't have it, it's an uphill battle to get the dessert of your dreams. But all that fuss can be avoided with a quick and mindful taste test.