Does Baking Chocolate Ever Spoil?
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While tasty baked goods may not last long in your house, the ingredients you use to whip them up certainly don't spoil easily. In fact, as impossible as this may sound, some will never go bad. For example, let's look at a few of the key players in baking the Food & Wine Mom's Classic Chocolate Cake recipe. According to Insider, sugar, salt, and pure vanilla extract won't ever spoil. But that leads us to the ingredient that makes this cake beloved by all chocoholics — baking chocolate.
While The Pioneer Woman notes that your average milk chocolate candy bar can stand the test of time for a year at most, baking chocolate and Hershey's chocolate treats are hardly comparable, as Southern Living reports, candy chocolate is generally thinner and filled with more sugar than its baking counterpart. And, as a frequent baker might expect, the two also have a different shelf life. However, is baking chocolate able to hold up forever in your cabinet?
Dark chocolate can spoil
While ingredients like salt and flour won't go bad (per Insider), the Pioneer Woman reports that baking chocolate does, unfortunately, have an expiration date. After all, unlike the baking essentials that can last for all cooking eternity (or until their eaten), your average baking chocolate like the Baker's 56% Cacao Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bar, has cocoa butter in it — a fat that, like all fats, will go bad.
However, while your favorite baking bar can't hang with salt and sugar, it can still last for a considerably long time. Because, although cocoa butter is a fat, it's a saturated fat (per Wild Mountain Chocolate), which means it doesn't spoil without a fight. And because cocoa butter is such a tough ingredient and these bars have virtually no dairy (via PureWow), the Pioneer Woman reports baking chocolate can help you make chocolaty pound cakes for up to two years. But it's also important to note, according to the same outlet, that baking chocolate with the highest cocoa count will last the longest. However, no matter how much cocoa your ingredient has, you still need to ensure you store your baking chocolate right if you want to keep it fresh for two years worth of cakes and pies.
How to properly store your baking chocolate
We know you're thinking about it, so we want to make it clear — do not store your chocolate in the fridge door. As the Pioneer Woman reports, putting your baking chocolate in your refrigerator can make your chocolate bloom – or in other words — grow an alien-like, whitish layer. Instead, you should put your baking chocolate in a dry, room-temperature area.
Once you've found a moisture and light-free space to keep your baking chocolate, you're going to want to make sure it's completely covered and sealed off. You can either keep your bar in the package it came in or put it in an air-tight container. Either way, this won't just save your baking chocolate from unwanted moisture. As Martha Stewart reports, keeping your chocolate sealed off will ensure its flavor isn't tainted by other odors in your pantry. So by wrapping your chocolate, you won't have to worry about biting into a garlic-flavored cake and you'll be able to keep your baking ingredient unspoiled for years to come.