How to make dark chocolate sweeter

Chocolate is an incredibly versatile ingredient, and especially dark chocolate has made quite an impact on the world recently.

Today, you’ll find many more dark chocolate recipes (for both savory and sweet dishes) than you did a few decades ago.

However, not everyone is a fan and sometimes you just want a deliciously sweet dish. But what if you don’t have sweeter chocolate on hand? Or, what if you need to use the whole dark chocolate but want it slightly sweeter?

Can you make dark chocolate sweeter? Luckily, there are two ways to sweeten dark chocolate. The first is to sweeten the melted chocolate by adding sugar, honey, condensed milk, or syrup. You can also make it by mixing the dark chocolate with sweet chocolate, like white. The other method is to combine specific ingredients with it to enhance the sweetness of the chocolate.

Today we will see in depth the different ways to sweeten dark chocolate. We will first look at the structure of dark chocolate to help you better understand what needs to be changed.

This will help you understand how certain additions work and why. Ready to dive in?

Chocolat

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans . Cocoa beans are cleaned and dried after being harvested. Several steps are then performed to produce the cacao nibs.

The nuggets are ground and blended to produce the chocolate liquor. This chocolate liquor is then processed into two parts: cocoa solids and cocoa butter.

Cocoa butter is a white solid mass that is used to make virtually all types of chocolate. It gives it its richness and exquisiteness.

Cocoa solids are what give chocolate its dark appearance and unique bitter taste (like dark chocolate has).

Dark chocolate

The ratio of cocoa butter to cocoa solids is what determines the type of chocolate you’re making. For dark chocolate, by universal law, it has to contain a minimum of 35% cocoa solids.

However, some countries have much stricter laws and only consider “dark chocolate” that has more than 70% cocoa solids.

So yeah, when you think about it, that means white and milk chocolate all fall into the “0-35%” category, while “35-100%” pretty much all gets assigned as “dark chocolate.”

Naturally, this forced chocolatiers to develop subcategories of dark chocolate. There are mainly three: semi-sweet dark chocolate, bittersweet dark chocolate, and bitter dark chocolate.

Semi-sweet dark chocolate contains between 35 and 65% cocoa solids. The less percentage the chocolate has, the sweeter it will be.

Remember that the cocoa solids are what add the bitter taste. Therefore, the fewer cocoa solids there are, the sweeter the chocolate will be.

Bittersweet dark chocolate should contain between 65-80% cocoa solids. And dark dark chocolate is between 80-100% cocoa solids.

Dark dark chocolate is naturally the most bitter. Most people want this category of dark chocolate to be sweeter.

How to make dark chocolate sweeter

Well, for this you can follow several different paths. The way you use the dark chocolate will go some way to determining the “type of arrangement” you should use.

The first option you can follow is to sweeten the chocolate itself, essentially altering its composition . This can be done by adding some type of sweetener or by mixing the dark chocolate with sweeter types.

The second way you can follow is to reduce its intensity.

We already know that this isn’t necessarily “sweetening” it, but it is in a sense because you’re reducing the bitter flavor profile and boosting the rest, which is usually sweet (depending on the percentage of course).

This can be done in two ways. The first, combining chocolate with specific ingredients. The second, adding certain ingredients to the recipe (if possible).

What to add to dark chocolate to make it sweeter

The easiest way to make dark chocolate sweeter is to add sweetener. Or mix the chocolate with another sweeter. In any case, this is the best way to continue using dark chocolate in recipes, rather than simply combining it with sweetening ingredients.

mix the chocolate

Let’s start with what might be the “hardest” of the sweetening methods. But to be honest, if you understand the concept, it’s pretty easy to understand how it’s done.

Let’s say you have 99% dark chocolate. This means that the chocolate only contains 1% cocoa butter (the part that dilutes the bitter cocoa solids). 

So by adding more cocoa butter, you will change the ratio of cocoa solids to cocoa butter in the chocolate, ultimately reducing the percentage.

You can add cocoa butter in two ways. The first is by adding real cocoa butter, but this can be expensive.

The second is by mixing the dark chocolate with white chocolate (which has a very high cocoa butter content). You can also mix semi-sweet dark chocolate with milk chocolate to increase the sweetness.

You can play around with this method to really customize your chocolate with a specific sweetness. And honestly, it’s so much fun!

Sweetener

Adding a sweetener is the most obvious way to make dark chocolate sweeter. But there are many options to choose from. However, they are all equally easy to incorporate.

To incorporate any of these sweeteners, you’ll first need to gently melt the dark chocolate. You can do it in a bain-marie, in the microwave or simply in the pot or pan itself.

You just have to make sure the chocolate is completely melted, with no lumps, and don’t get it too hot or it will seize up.

Next, add the sweetener of your choice and mix well. You can easily adjust the sweetness of the chocolate by starting with just a little more sweet each time.

You can then use the melted sweetened chocolate as is within a recipe, or readjust it. Resetting it could pose some problems, since you have changed the molecular structure of the chocolate.

You may want to put the chocolate in the fridge or re-temper it.

granulated sugar

This is the easiest sweetener to add; however, it has some drawbacks. Granulated sugar, even if you choose fine granulated sugar, changes the structure of the melted chocolate. Therefore, think about when you are going to use this addition.

For example, if you’re baking brownies and you’re using melted chocolate in the recipe, the texture changes won’t matter. But, if you’re making a sauce, the sauce may come out a bit grainy.

The silver lining is that everyone (at least most cookery aficionados) has sugar on hand at home. Also, it is a very affordable sweetener, possibly the most affordable.

Honey

Honey is a naturally sweet ingredient that can be easily mixed into chocolate. The biggest drawback to using honey is that it could drastically change the taste of the chocolate due to its strong unique flavor.

It will also make the melted chocolate a bit thicker, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing and won’t affect most recipes.

Sugar syrup

It’s an easy way to use granulated sugar in liquid form so it doesn’t affect the texture of the chocolate. It is extremely sweet, as it is a concentrated form of sugar.

You can make several types of sugar syrups, from the lightest to the strongest. A medium simple syrup (made with equal parts sugar and water) will work best with the melted dark chocolate.

Other sweeteners

Other types of sweetening ingredients that you can add are condensed milk, stevia, powdered sugar, or liquid glucose.

These ingredients are less likely to be on hand, and they are likely to be more expensive. But they work great and won’t change the texture of the chocolate.

How to combine dark chocolate to make it sweeter

As we have mentioned before, by reducing the bitterness of dark chocolate you are simultaneously enhancing the sweeter flavors it contains.

In the case of semi-sweet dark chocolate, this can be achieved by pairing the chocolate with sea salt flakes or fruit. You can use these ingredients as a guide.

For example, combining dark chocolate with marshmallows will also help neutralize its bitterness and add sweetness (as fruit does).

Then, for more bitter dark chocolates (like bittersweet chocolate), ingredients like chilli, wine, and cheese will work best.

Finally, for the more bitter type of dark chocolate, you’ll need to adjust the chocolate itself, which we’ll talk more about in more depth.

sea salt flakes

First of all, you have to use high-quality sea salt flakes, such as Maldon salt. Regular fine salt will work, but not as well.

Sea salt flakes are a flavor enhancer, especially the sweeter flavors. And for dark chocolate, it naturally balances it, essentially neutralizing it.

You can sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt over your chocolate bar before eating it, or sprinkle some into your chocolate recipe. Salt melts, so it can also be added to melted chocolate and incorporated into the recipe that way.

Sweet fruits

This pairing is as old as time. Especially if we take into account that 3,000 years ago only bitter dark chocolate existed. This method works best for dishes.

You can serve the chocolate on the side or cover the sweet fruits with melted chocolate. It helps balance out the bitterness and also adds some sweetness along with the chocolate.

The fruits that work best are those that are extremely sweet. This includes berries, oranges, bananas, and some stone fruits, such as peaches.

chili

Chili is a fantastic ingredient to add to dark chocolate recipes. Now, we get it, it sounds crazy! But it works! It has been a flavor pairing in Asian cuisine especially for centuries!

The chili, interestingly, is also a type of flavor enhancer and helps to dilute the bitterness of the dark chocolate.

You can use this pairing in both savory and sweet recipes. For example, make chocolate chili muffins, or a chocolate chili meat marinade.

Wine

Wine has always been a well-known pairing with chocolate and can be served alongside or incorporated into a recipe.

But the trick to pairing wine with dark chocolate, especially, is to match the intensity. The more bitter the chocolate, the heavier the wine should be. Although this may seem counterproductive, they help cancel each other out.

So, for sweeter dark chocolates, choose a light-bodied red wine, like a Gamay or Pinot Noir.

The more you increase the intensity, say to the low end of bittersweet dark chocolate, you can look for lighter, medium-bodied red wines. It can be a Garnacha, a Cabernet Franc or a Mencía.

Moving to the higher end of bittersweet chocolates, you can pair them with a Merlot, a Zinfandel, Bordeaux blends, and even a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Bitter dark chocolates work best with bold wines like Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Pinotage, Petit Verdot, and possibly the heaviest, Tannat.

Cheese

Can you think of a better way to combine chocolate and wine than with cheese? Some cheeses have a ton of natural sweetness, even though they don’t taste very sweet on their own.

For dark chocolate, cured cheeses pair excellently. This includes aged cheeses, goat cheeses, and even moldy cheeses (like gorgonzola).

Cheese also works best with dark chocolate, not necessarily in a recipe that contains it. It would be very difficult, and often impossible, to seamlessly incorporate both into one recipe.

Not to mention, the flavor and texture of the cheese change when heat is applied.