Equal Exchange Cocoa Testing

The folks at Equal Exchange sent us a tin of their dutched baking cocoa and since we have an upcoming fun food holiday involving the invention of the process that creates this type of cocoa, your Chocolate Priestess thought it was a perfect time to try out some of the recipes you can find on their website.  Ready to try Equal Exchange Fair Trade Organic Baking Cocoa with me, Sisters and Brothers?  Great!

I used this in two recipes -- one of mini donuts and one for a wafer cake.   I won't share those recipes here because I didn't change them enough to call them my own and the point of this is how well the cocoa did and what it is like.

The cocoa itself is very bitter as it should be so you will need to use sugar with it though how much depends on your taste.  In the mini donuts I went a bit too little sugar and in the wafer cake just a touch too much but again it all depends on your mouth not mine.

It is dutched so you need to use baking powder not baking soda though you can use both just make sure that you use enough baking powder.  Both of the recipes I chose used either just baking powder (mini donuts) or both (the cake).

I used a fair amount of the cocoa in these two massive recipes but I still had half a can left over so you can make a lot of things again depending on what you make and your preferences.  Now if you check out our links to the product you might think it is a bit expensive but if you check baking cocoa prices and you look at the higher quality brands, this is right in line especially considering how the company treats the cocoa farmers it trades with.  Personally if I can go with a better product or a product of the same quality and only pay a dollar or so more to help the farmers and thus product future cocoa crops then I'm also ensuring higher quality food for my mouth now and chocolate for years to come.

There you have it, Sisters and Brothers.  Cocoa from Equal Exchange.  For the quality versus price, for the fair trade practices of the company, and for the ease of use this product earns Sacrament status! If you've used this cocoa let us know in a comment below or tell us what baking or candy making you do that uses cocoa below.