The One Exception For Blooming Cocoa Powder Is Important To Know

It is said that hot chocolate was worth more than gold to the Aztecs. We presume that they knew all the secrets it had to offer from their rich experience with cocoa powder. Perhaps one of those secrets lies within the reason you should bloom cocoa powder – after all, this is the key to unlocking its nuanced flavors that are so good they'd make an Aztec emperor store reserves of cocoa beans instead of silver. But if you want your cocoa powder to bloom as effectively, here's one exception to consider.

If your recipe is lacking in liquid ingredients, you're going to have a bad time blooming. Therefore, you should provide enough liquid ingredients to immerse the cocoa powder fully. Generally, the volume of liquid ingredients should be in proportion to that of cocoa powder, though you can get away with slightly less liquid as long as it's enough to soak all the powder. That means mixing 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder with roughly 1 tablespoon of hot water, milk, coffee, oil, melted butter, or whichever liquid the recipe calls for, with some exceptions like buttermilk.

In the case that the liquid called for is much less than the cocoa powder, it's better to skip the blooming process altogether. The same applies if your recipe calls for cold, soft, or room-temperature butter. We suggest skipping the blooming process in this case, too, as melting the butter may tamper with the final texture of your baked product.

Once you've determined that you have enough liquid to submerge the cocoa powder fully, proceed to heat it up to a simmer. Next, pour the hot liquid into a bowl and then add the cocoa powder. Heating introduces more energy to the liquid molecules, enabling them to act more effectively on the cocoa powder and causing it to disperse quicker than it would in cold liquid. Furthermore, cocoa powder and water don't mix easily due to cocoa powder containing fat, but introducing a hot medium melts the fat particles and causes the cocoa powder to separate and mix more effectively with the liquid.

The interaction of hot water and cocoa powder is where all the blooming magic happens as the cocoa flavor accentuates to provide you with a richer chocolate experience. Skipping this process is one of the biggest mistakes you're making when cooking with chocolate — so don't overlook it! Once in contact, grab a whisk and mix until the cocoa powder has dissolved completely and you have a smooth mixture. Then, leave the mixture to cool as using it hot may precook the other ingredients such as eggs. Finally, add the cocoa mixture to the other ingredients and proceed with the rest of the recipe to experience perhaps a full-blown death by chocolate cake with flavors rich enough to make you pass up gold or silver.