compound chocolate vs real chocolate

Question

I have recently bought a small coating pan which I am going to use to coat peanuts & raisins with chocolate, and then polish with capol. I am quite new to the whole chocolate thing. Especially establishing the quality of the chocolate. I have used only a basic chocolate bar bought from the store, tempered it accordingly and coated a few peanuts.

The chocolate bars is just so expensive. So I was thinking about getting compound chocolate and mixing it 50/50 with the milk chocolate bar bought from the store. I am just worried if this is such a good idea. So what is the differences between the two? And would it be a okay to mix the two?

Answer 1

The quality of the result you get depends on the quality of the ingredients you use, plain and simple. If you want really good chocolate coated peanuts you have to use good chocolate, and there's no way to get around that. There's no harm in using compound chocolate - it will work - you just won't get a result that is as tasty or has the same mouth feel as good chocolate.

My approach to this would not be to mix good chocolate and compound chocolate, you aren't going to get a better result that way. Mixing Godiva and Hersheys won't give you something better than the sum of the two, and you will lose the flavor properties of the better chocolate. You will not get the same tempering properties either. Plus the chocolate gods would frown on you for such a terrible sin.

I suggest you get real chocolate that you can afford. There's a lot of choice out there, and some brands are cheaper than others for the same quality product. Some store brands are very good for the price, you can also get some great deals if you buy in bulk.

Answer 2

The difference is that compound chocolate is a low-cost substitute of lower quality than real chocolate. Accidentally, I am not sure that your "basic chocolate bar" is real chocolate either, the standard brands like Milka in Europe or Hershey's in the USA use a lot of foreign fats too.

Is it a good idea? Only you can tell. If the compound chocolate is good enough for your taste, then it is a good idea (and don't let snobs tell you that your taste must be wrong). If you want the flavor and texture of pure chocolate, you'll have to use pure chocolate.

If you want something softer than pure chocolate, you can try making a ganache, which also lowers the cost. But you can't dilute too much for a product meant to be picked with your fingers.

You can generally mix different types of chocolate bars, including compound chocolate, without a problem. (I am talking of solid bars here, not ones like Bounty which have a nonchocolatey filling).