How to Convert Cocoa to Sweet Chocolate for Cooking

When a brownie or chocolate cake recipe calls for unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate and your pantry holds only cocoa powder, you don't have to delay your chocolate craving with a trip to the market. Like all chocolate, any form of cocoa powder -- Dutch-processed or regular, unsweetened cocoa powder -- is made from roasted, ground cacao beans. Pressure is used to remove some of the cocoa butter and leave only the cocoa solids, which are ground into powder. Like regular cocoa powder, Dutch-processed cocoa powder goes through this same process except that the beans are soaked in a potassium solution to neutralize acidity before they're roasted. To substitute cocoa powder for chocolate, use only regular unsweetened cocoa powder as Dutch-processed requires adjustments to the leavening agent.