chocolatesubstitutions
I made chocolate pudding from scratch and substituted 1 cup of Stevia for the cup of sugar and the pudding is bitter tasting. Any way I can salvage the pudding and make it sweeter?
The recipe was as follows:
1 cup white sugar, or to taste
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 teaspoon butter (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
I just used Walmart brand Stevia.
I would halve the amount of icing sugar and substitute in cocoa powder. As long as you sift the cocoa powder well you should still have a smooth icing at the end. Provided your chocolate isn't milk chocolate you should still have a 'proper' chocolate flavour as well.
When making chocolate the cocoa beans are fermented, roasted, and crushed/ground. They are then sent through huge presses that separate the cocoa butter from the cocoa powder.
Chocolate is cocoa butter that has been emulsified with varying quantities of powder and usually a ton of sugar and sometimes milk. The rolling of the chocolate with the butter to enhance the texture is called conching.
Cocoa powder will dissolve in liquid if you mix it into enough sugar beforehand- this is how chocolate drink mixes are made.
Additionally chocolate is smooth and creamy because of the unique properties of cocoa butter. It can be tempered to form crystals that are solid at room temperature but melt at body temperature. This makes them smooth and melt in your mouth.
Another reason, besides unwholesome quantities of sugar, why cocoa powder is more harsh tasting than chocolate, is that chocolate has often been dutch processed where cocoa powder often hasn't.
Cocoa is naturally acidic and harsh tasting. Adding some alkalinity to balance its pH makes it much softer tasting- and darker in color.
You can buy dutch processed cocoa powder. Remember that some recipes need to be altered to use it- for example if the recipe called for baking soda you would have to use baking powder instead to maintain the correct pH.
Best Answer
Just a little bit of expectation management: stevia has a naturally bitter aftertaste, and depending on the amount and type of extract, it can be very bitter. You might also be over using stevia if you're just substituting it without balancing your recipe.
When using sweeteners to replace sugar: