unsweetened chocolate
Also known as: baking chocolate, Hershey's unsweetened chocolate
Pure chocolate liquor (ground cacao nibs) molded into bars or squares with no added sugar, sold specifically for baking and candy-making rather than eating out of hand -- on its own it tastes intensely bitter. Recipes built around it, like brownies and old-fashioned candy coatings, add their own sugar to balance it.
Buying guidance
Sold in individually wrapped 1-ounce squares (Baker's and Hershey's are common brands) -- a recipe calling for "squares" of chocolate means this size. Check that it says "unsweetened," not "semi-sweet" or "bittersweet," which already contain sugar and behave differently in a recipe balanced around a fully unsweetened base.
Substitutions
- Unsweetened cocoa powder plus a neutral fat -- roughly 3 tablespoons cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon oil or melted shortening per 1-ounce square, a common pantry substitute.
- A different brand's unsweetened baking chocolate -- freely interchangeable by weight.
- Semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, with a recipe's added sugar reduced -- workable but changes the balance a recipe built around unsweetened chocolate was written for, so needs some adjustment by taste.
Tips & common mistakes
Tasting a piece raw expecting it to taste like a candy bar is the classic surprise -- it's genuinely bitter and unpalatable on its own, which sometimes leads to a mistaken assumption the chocolate has gone bad rather than that it simply hasn't been sweetened yet.
Storage
Keeps for a year or more in a cool, dry, dark place, tightly wrapped -- like other chocolate, it can develop a pale, dusty-looking "bloom" from temperature swings, which is cosmetic (fat or sugar rising to the surface) and doesn't affect safety or, once melted, appearance.