How To Darken Chocolate Swiss Buttercream
Decorating By danaxsa Updated 30 Aug 2018 , 6:04pm by -K8memphis
Using Hersey's Special Dark Cocoa would make it pretty dark and you can always add a little black gel color.
Oh, you make SMBC with cocoa? I've been wondering about that - when do you add it? I do a double chocolate German buttercream (cocoa powder in the pastry cream and melted chocolate beaten in after the butter) but when I research using cocoa in SMBC, it seems like the cocoa stays pretty raw, so to speak. What I imagine is blooming it with boiling water or coffee, letting cool, and then adding it after the butter. Would that work?
I honestly do not know. I've made chocolate ABC many times, but never dark chocolate SMBC. I have made white chocolate SMBC and added the melted, cooled chocolate just as you said, after the sugar, eggs and butter were whipped into a nice fluffy frosting.
Hmm. The questions that keep us up at night! :-D
I make dark chocolate SMBC the same way, by adding melted, cooled dark chocolate at the end, after the basic SMBC is all whipped up.
I've seen recipes that use cocoa powder and I think it's typically added after the butter is incorporated but before you turn it up to high speed for the final whip. Then adding more at the end to taste. I'm not sure if the cocoa still tastes raw, though, as I've never done it this way. I would guess that you could make it with melted chocolate and then add cocoa as needed to darken it.
And as Sandra said, you could add a little gel food coloring. Since you're already starting with a brown base, you shouldn't need too much color to darken it.
Blooming the cocoa in water or coffee? My guess would be that this would add way too much liquid and would ruin the texture of the buttercream. Unless you just use a tiny bit of liquid so it's more like a paste? I don't know. Maybe time for an experiment!
add butter or oil to the cocoa to make chocolate -- like three tablespoons cocoa to one tablespoon of oil --
and full disclosure -- i've never done this -- added chocolate to icing like this so -- this is just a thought from me
which just to get technical the butter has water in it -- so you could do clarified butter or the oil --
then i'd figure add that at the end -- when you would usually add chocolate
i always shudder when someone uses the word bloom with chocolate -- it's what you don't ever want with chocolate! ha!
but i have definitely used the 3T cocoa and 1T buttah zillions of times for brownies or whenever i needed choco and only had cocoa on hand
Ha! True. Gotta think of it like a spice in this context.
Quote by @-K8memphis on 2 minutes ago
i always shudder when someone uses the word bloom with chocolate -- it's what you don't ever want with chocolate! ha!
Now that I think about it, regular old cocoa powder is used in chocolate ABC, right? It's been ages since I made it but that probably doesn't taste "raw." Hmm. Now I'm rethinking myself!
Yes, I use cocoa powder to make chocolate ABC all the time. Honestly, I much prefer cocoa to chocolate because the flavor seems to be so much more intense.
yes cocoa in abc has the friction of the powdered sugar to incorporate it -- i can see cocoa powder being too textural in a smoothy smooth slick icing like swiss or italian without being thinned -- not bloomed -- with fat of some kind -- just my thoughts on the subject -- blooming spices or gelatin has to do with heat -- doesn't it --
My original notion was blooming the cocoa in some hot water or coffee, so yes, heat. Now, I need to try it just to see what happens! Ha!
Quote by @-K8memphis on 15 hours ago
yes cocoa in abc has the friction of the powdered sugar to incorporate it -- i can see cocoa powder being too textural in a smoothy smooth slick icing like swiss or italian without being thinned -- not bloomed -- with fat of some kind -- just my thoughts on the subject -- blooming spices or gelatin has to do with heat -- doesn't it --
OP, I totally see where you're coming from though - I love the look of a shiny dark fudge frosting but I want the taste and texture of a GBC or a SMBC, and they both just naturally whip up lighter.
you can whip ganache too for a lovely lovely icing
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%