How to replace cocos fat in an chocolate-dessert?

December 30, 2007 9:49 AM

Chocolaterie-filter: Is it possible to replace cocos fat with some other household-fat in an emergency? What's the best replacement (≈ least damaging)?

I'm in a bind: I'm doing an chocolate-dessert for tonight and it contains cocos fat. I don't have any. Nothing's open, and the neighbours don't have any.

What't the least damaging replacement? Olive-oil, sunflower-oil or butter? What? Please advice me.

Details: It's a orange-peel-dessert with chocolate-cover. Rather tasty, if I might say so.

posted by Rabarberofficer to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

Can you tell me a little more about your recipe? I'm assuming the chocolate is supposed to coat the orange peel, is that correct?
posted by TryTheTilapia at 10:01 AM on December 30, 2007

Cocoa butter is probably used because it stays solid at room temperature, any liquid oil like olive oil will probably make your chocolate coating slide right off the dessert. The fats that come to mind that are also solid at room temperature are coconut oil and lard.
posted by TungstenChef at 10:11 AM on December 30, 2007

Best answer: I would just go for butter (unsalted). You can fake cocoa into chocolate using butter. (When you substitute cocoa for unsweetened chocolate, you generally use 3 tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon of butter, oil, or shortening to replace 1 ounce of chocolate.) so I don't see why this wouldn't also work, and it would probably be about the right texture at room temperature.
posted by anaelith at 10:17 AM on December 30, 2007

Response by poster: Hi, everybody - the butter/cocoa-trick would do the... ehh... trick, I think.

TryTheTilapia: The recipie is simply to peel a couple of oranges (avoid the white stuff). Let rinse in water a couple of days (to get rid of chemicals). Boil the peels in sugerwater, let it dry. Then coat in chocolate. Very nice to top vanilla icecream or any other dessert. Well, you can it it right of as pralines also. And yes - I know I should make sure I've got all the ingredients at home before starting.

anaelith: Have you tried to do that yourself? Thanks for the tip anyway!
posted by Rabarberofficer at 11:30 AM on December 30, 2007

It sounds like you're after a harder/stiffer texture but over at delicious:days they've made an olive oil chocolate mousse.
posted by birdie birdington at 11:40 AM on December 30, 2007

I've substituted cocoa+butter for chocolate, but only in baking recipes....using it straight as you're doing sounds more difficult. (Actually coating anything with chocolate is kind of a headache for me, it's so difficult to get it even.)
posted by anaelith at 2:56 PM on December 30, 2007

Response by poster: anaelith - It worked wonders. Butter+cocoa is my new secret kitchen-weapon. Thanks! Everything stayed on the orangepeel, nothing slid off.

birdie birdington - sounds delicious, will try the mousse later on.
posted by Rabarberofficer at 2:47 AM on January 6, 2008