Cocoa + Hot Water = Flavor
Reader Ellen asks why both the chocolate cake layer recipes on the blog call for combining the cocoa with boiling water as a first step. Ellen, this is some of the most important secret learning on the site, so I can’t repeat it often enough: when you combine cocoa powder with hot water you get twice the chocolate flavor you’d get if you simply combined it with cold water or milk. This priceless information was told to me by none other than cake uber-expert Rose Levy Beranbaum, who I once had the pleasure of interviewing. Beranbaum told me she learned it from an in-house food scientist when she consulted to Duncan Hines. The curious thing was that, at least at the time, none of Duncan Hines’ chocolate cake mixes called for boiling water. When Beranbaum asked him why he said “I dunno, nobody here ever asks me anything.”
Alton Brown explained it as cocoa beans are similar to coffee beans; you introduce hot water to bring out the flavor. It sure made sense to me and was a simple enough explanation that I’ve actually remembered it and I use the technique even in chocolate recipes that don’t call for it when I can.
Now I need some chocolate and coffee.
What about warm water? Does it make a difference if it’s actually boiling hot?
Is there a way to tell if the company selling the powder has already done this? I would assume that they did since it’s a natural way to stretch their output, but you never know.
Thanks!
I have an old, old recipe from my grandmother that calls for just this. It’s a delicious cake and we’ve enjoyed it for years. I always wondered why it was so much more chocolatey than other chocolate cakes and now I know why.
So… does baking things (which generally gets them over boiling temp eventually) result in this reaction anyway (without having to do it to the batter), or does everything-that-is-not-water get in the way of the cocoa-and-hot-water reaction in a real-life batter situation?
Hi KC!
Good question. I’m sure to some extent the water in a batter would help extract flavor. It’s not so much a reaction going on as it is essential oils and other flavor-giving compounds being leeched out of the solids and dissolved. As with coffee, hot water alone seems to do the job better than just about anything else!
Sorry not to offer a more enlightening answer! Cheerio,
– Joe
Recently made hot cocoa for the guys. Combined the cocoa, sugar and a little bit of milk and brought the slurry to a delicious chocolatey simmer. You could smell the chocolate getting…well, more chocolately as it cooked. Then added the rest of the milk, and heated until warm. Best cocoa ever accordingly to the guys.
Sounds good to me, Lisa! Give me a heads up next time and I’ll run right over!
– Joe
I like to change the hot water to hot coffee to jack up the chocolate flavor even more .
Ooh — FABULOUS tip, Linda! Thanks so much for writing in with it!
– Joe
Delurking to add a tip regarding the boiling water + cocoa discussion. If you only boil half of the required liquid and use that to dissolve the cocoa, you can then use the other half of the (cold or room temp) liquid to cool down the whole mass more quickly. Beats waiting 20 minutes for the stuff to be cool enough to be safely added to eggs and creamed butter.
Thanks for turning off the cloaking device, Ruth! Nice to meet you. Great tip!
– Joe