No Cocoa? No Problem. How to Substitute Sephra Chocolate Chips for Cocoa
Out of cocoa powder, but have a delicious chocolate recipe that calls for it?
Sephra chocolate is not only the best chocolate for fountains, it’s also the best baking chocolate! I mean – it is absolutely delicious!
Pros and Cons of Cocoa
Cocoa powder gives a recipe an intense chocolate flavor, and it also significantly darkens the final product. Cocoa also dries out and stiffens baked goods, so recipes using cocoa usually require extra fat.
Natural and Dutch-processed cocoa are both unsweetened, but Dutch-processed is less bitter than natural powder because it has added alkali. Most recipes use natural, and these recipes often also call for baking soda which reacts with the acidic natural cocoa.
If you’re out of cocoa, you can use Sephra Dark Chocolate chips instead. We actually recommend it. The enhanced flavor and moistness is a real plus in all your chocolate recipes.
How to Substitute Chocolate Chips
Here’s how:
For every 6 tablespoons of cocoa your recipe calls for, use 6 ounces of semi-sweet Sephra chocolate chips. In other words, one tablespoon of cocoa equals one ounce of melted Sephra chocolate chips.
The math:
- ¼ cup cocoa = 2 ounces or 4 tablespoons
- ½ cup cocoa = 4 ounces or 8 tablespoons
- 2/3 cup cocoa = 5 1/3 ounces (give or take) about 11 tablespoons
- ¾ cup cocoa = 6 ounces or 12 tablespoons
- 1 cup cocoa = 8 ounces or 16 tablespoons
Katherine Harder of LeafTV, suggests you reduce the sugar in the recipe by 7 tablespoons for every 6 ounces of chocolate chips. Since Sephra chocolate chips are sweeter, your recipe will require less sugar.
Also, because Sephra Chocolate chips already contain fat, you won’t need as much butter or oil. The article says to reduce the fat by ¼ cup for every 6 ounces of Sephra chocolate chips used.
if you are substituting for Dutch processed cocoa in your recipe, add 1/8 teaspoon baking soda for every ounce of Sephra chocolate chips.
Lastly, microwave the Sephra chocolate chips at 50% power in 10-15 second increments. After each “blast” of microwave heat, check the chips for softness and stir. Once the chocolate is liquefied, it’s ready to use in your recipe.
National Chocolate Day
Today is National Chocolate Day, so it’s a good time to start baking with Sephra Dark Chocolate Chips and celebrate the day with some chocolatey goodness…rich, chewy and delicious. Here’s a recipe to get you started.
This is one of the best chocolate cookie recipes – ever. My family insisted we turn this into a Christmas Cookie tradition, but make it all year round, too. It is super easy and yum, yum, yummy!
Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 can Eagle Brand Condensed Milk
- 12 oz Sephra Dark Chocolate Chips
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup flour
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Melt chocolate chips on half power in microwave. (I ususally do 45 second bursts; check; repeat)
- Stir in Eagle Brand Milk
- Add 1 cup flour to chocolate mixture.
- Add extra chocolate chips if desired – we added white chocolate to this batch. A handful of dark chocolate chips is amazing, too!
- Drop by Tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake 9-10 minutes.
- Do not overbake.
- These cookies look a little undersdone at first, but are meant to be chocolately and chewy.
- Cool on rack. You can sprinkle with powdered sugar when cool. They are delicious either way!
