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Making Candy ... Bark vs Coverture

post #1 of 9
12/1/07 at 7:27pm
Thread Starter 
Getting ready to make my own candies for the holiday and confussed about what chocolate to use. In the general store, they have chocolate bark very cheap. Also, in a recipe I want to use it calls for chocolate coverture. Coverture is expensive. So, my question, what is the difference between BARK and COVERTURE? :talk:
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post #2 of 9
12/1/07 at 11:10pm
Don't really know what "bark" is.. Couveture is the French name for "Covering", a high quality chocolate used to enrobe and dip chocolates in. I really cringe at the word "candy", for me it means coloured boiled sugar with artificial flavourings.

Chocolate, as with most things in life, s you pay for what you you get. There's some pretty cheap stuff out there, and it has the requisite colour of brown, and is cheap but it tastes nasty. Cheap chocolate is gritty, bland or burnt tasting, overly sweet (sugar is cheaper than chocolate, hence the high additions of it in the cheap stuff...) and much of the natural cocoa butter has been substituted with another (usually hydrogenated) vegetable fat, which leaves a thick greasy feeling on your tongue.

Cheap chocolate is just that, cheap. It's flavour and sweetness will affect anything you make with it.
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post #3 of 9
12/2/07 at 12:48pm
I cannot agree more. If your whole goal is to make chocolates in other words you are going to reshape the raw product. You better make sure the raw product tastes good. (Wax is something else they add to cheap chocolate) But from what I understand Chocolate bark is the finished product. Chocolate Bark that I know is couveture that has been melted mixed with flavorings or garnishes and then cooled very thin, and eaten like that. The price of the "bark" will depend on the quality of chocolate they used.

If this doesn't sound like the product you mention maybe you could post a website or something.

If cost is an issue you can always check with a local bakery or small restaurant and see if they can't order it for you. I think an 11# is about 60 dollars but I could be off.

One thing with couveture is that it will need to be tempered. If you already know how to do this, swell, if not it can be tricky to master. There might be a few other compromises out there.
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post #4 of 9
12/2/07 at 1:53pm
From what I understood in school, there are two types of chocolate: coating chocolate, and couverture. Coating choc is doesn't need to be tempered, but it doesn't have the same, nice flavour as couverture, which does need to be tempered.

Bark will usually have something else mixed into it, be it candy cane chunks, nuts, fruits, whatever. You might be able to use that in some recipes, but if you just add your own 'extras' (the candy cane, nuts, etc) you'll be able to control the quality and flavours a lot better. (And you'll also know exactly what's in it, in case there are allergies)

Honestly, if you're just using a bit of choc in a recipe where it doesn't play a huge role, you can go for coating choc (I think we used it for modelling chocolate, choc. shavings, etc.) But if you're going to be investing some time in this recipe (which it sounds like you will be if it's candy,) spring for the quality stuff and go for couverture, because it really does make it that much better.

Andrea
(just hope you're not like me and get hooked on the Callebaut Couverture; now no other choc. can compare...)
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post #5 of 9
12/2/07 at 2:03pm
i've seen coating chocolate be called "bark". i have never used it.
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post #6 of 9
12/2/07 at 6:33pm
Coating chocolate, "summer chocolate", "baker's chocolate" etc, ad nauseum. Most European countires those items can't even have the word "chocolate" in any way connected to the name, the Swiss call it "Fett glasure" or glazing fat. All the cocoa butter has been replaced with a different fat. Weird taste, greasy mouthfeel, no snap or structure to it. It's not that much different than the brown crud that comes in #10 cans that they use at the local Dairy Queen to dip icecream in...

Please don't go that route, Spend the money and get some decent honest ingredients, you won't be sorry. With cheap ingredients on the other hand.....i
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post #7 of 9
12/2/07 at 8:21pm
i love dipped cones every once in a while. mmmm brown crud!!! :roll:
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post #8 of 9
12/4/07 at 2:13pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for your response. I found a website which has dark coverture and just received package. The coverture for a 5LB. bar was very cheap and has a great taste to it. I will make candy this week and give a followup if interested. Also made fondant for the first time and was easy to make.
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post #9 of 9
1/16/08 at 8:27pm
I just went to their website. :) I think I'm in love. I couldn't find any ordering information, though. How can I order some?
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