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Couverture Chocolate is chocolate that is used to form a thin covering of chocolate on food items.

It can be used for coating, dipping, or garnishing. Items may be coated either by dipping them in the chocolate, or by pouring the chocolate over them, or by swirling the chocolate to coat the insides of a mould before the food item is placed in the mould.

It is made of chocolate liquor (up to more than 70 %), and cocoa butter (32 to 39%, sometimes up to 44%.) The high percentage of cocoa butter gives the chocolate a pronounced sheen, and causes it to snap more when bitten into or broken into.

It flows well when melted. Other forms of chocolate, such as chocolate chips, which have a lower amount of cocoa butter, tend to hold their shape more when melted and not flow as well.

The chocolate may be semisweet, bittersweet, white or milk chocolate. Commercially, it is sold to manufacturers in chips, chunks, liquid or wafer form.

Couverture Chocolate needs to be tempered before using.

Don't use it an ingredient in something when another cooking chocolate is called for: it won't do the same job, because of the increased cocoa butter in it. Plus, it's too expensive anyway to use just as an ingredient.

Language Notes
"Couverture" means "covering" in French.

See Also:

Temper

Other entries for: Cooking Chocolate

Baking Chocolate, Chocolate Chips, Compound Chocolate, Couverture Chocolate, Mexican Chocolate, Unsweetened Baking Chocolate

Other entries for:

Chocolate
Bitter Chocolate, Bittersweet Chocolate, Carob, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Seed Chocolate, Semisweet Chocolate, Sweet Chocolate, White Chocolate

Other entries for:

Spices
Ajowan Seed, Allspice, Anardana, Anise, Annatto, Asafoetida, Caraway, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cream of Tartar, Cumin, Dried Lily Buds, Garlic Powder, Ginger, Juniper Berries, Kokum, Mustard, Nigella, Nutmeg, Paprika, Peppers, Pepper, Saffron, Salt, Sumac, Turmeric, Zedoary