Cocoa Powder Can Sabotage Texture In Your Bakes. Here's Why

Chocolate is clearly one of the greatest discoveries in human history. And while we adore chocolate in all of its forms, not all forms of chocolate will work in every recipe. Cocoa powder can be a great help to the home baker, but if you use it incorrectly, your whole recipe will be ruined.

The thing about cocoa powder is that it affects the moisture of your cake, not just the flavor. Tasting Table asked Alex George, the founder of Lily P Crumbs and author of the upcoming "In the Mood to Bake," why home bakers need to be careful about using cocoa powder. "Cocoa powder is considered one of the dry agents in baking," she says. "The starches in cocoa powder make it very drying, so it will draw moisture from your bake. Think of it like the cocoa's starch is competing with the other dry ingredients for available water in the recipe, effectively reducing moisture and potentially leading to dry baked goods if too much is added."

There are recipes where you can use cocoa powder, but George cautions against some specific ones. "I would not recommend adding cocoa powder to just any recipe, especially not to a cake, bread, or cookie, without totally reformulating it."

Even if cocoa powder can ruin the texture of some recipes, it's ideal for others. "There are plenty of no-bake recipes or even lower-stakes concoctions that have enough room for play and forgiveness, making them fun experiments for adding cocoa powder," George says. "If you're trying out a peanut butter Rice Krispies treat, why not? Add in a tablespoon of cocoa powder."

If a recipe calls for baker's chocolate and you only have cocoa powder, you can make a substitution like George says, but you have to reformulate it. One ounce of baker's chocolate can be replaced by three tablespoons of cocoa powder plus a tablespoon of fat. Butter would be ideal, but oil could suffice. This approach works best for basic chocolate cakes or simple cookies. However, if you're doing something like ganache or a mousse, the texture will not be ideal.

Make sure to let the cocoa powder bloom before using as it will produce a richer, more enjoyable chocolate flavor. It's similar to adding spices to hot oil in a pan to allow them to release their flavors to be that much more potent in your dish. Bloom your cocoa in hot water or in the fat you plan to use. This improves aroma, enhances flavor, and creates a smoother texture, too. To see how well cocoa powder can work in the right recipe, try this decadent death by chocolate cake recipe. The results speak for themselves.