Instructions: When you look for chocolate at the grocery, youll encounter four different varieties: unsweetened, dark with sugar added, milk and white.

Unsweetened is what the name says. It has no sugar; some will have to be added or your dish will be too bitter for most.

Dark chocolate comes in several forms:
Bittersweet has between 55 and 80 percent cocoa (the percent is marked on the label).

Semisweet can have as little as 35 percent.

Sweet dark can have as little as 15 percent cocoa.

Bittersweet is the style of chocolate preferred by most bakers because it is rich and full of chocolate flavor without being too bitter to eat. When a recipe calls for "chocolate," bittersweet is what should be used, unless the recipe specifies otherwise.

Milk chocolate is sweeter and milder than dark chocolate. The percentage of cocoa is much lower; it must contain at least 10 percent cocoa and 12 percent milk. Most candy bars are made with milk chocolate.

Too hot to handle

Pastry chef Cindy Mushet teaches at the California School of Culinary Arts.

She dabbles in chocolate like an artist in oils. "Every morning, I wake up and smell the chocolate," she says.

Cooking with chocolate, no matter the form, is all a matter of common sense, Mushet says. Because it melts at a lower temperature than many other solids, chocolate should get only warm, not hot. So tend it closely while its melting or it could burn in a split second. Thats not something you want to taste.

"Scorched chocolate is like a tannic wine; it draws all the moisture out of your mouth."

Chips vs. chunks

Milk chocolate and white chocolate are even more delicate than bittersweet chocolate and require much more attention. For this reason, its a good idea to break chocolate bars down in tiny pieces before melting, so that they melt more quickly and more evenly.

Chocolate chips are designed to hold up when baked into cookies, so they are not as practical as bars of chocolate when it comes to baking, says David Lebovitz of San Francisco, a former pastry cook at Berkeleys famed Chez Panisse.

Also, make sure when you are cooking with cocoa powder to check the label.

Dutch-processed cocoa is not the same as natural.

Dutch-processed cocoa is alkalized to remove the natural acidity of the cocoa, while natural cocoa is what the name implies. In baking, therefore, you would use baking powder with Dutch-processed cocoa and baking soda with natural cocoa.

Guilty pleasure

Chocolate long has been thought of as a forbidden pleasure. Something this good has to be bad, right? So we feel guilty about satisfying our cravings. But should we?

Since the fourth century, chocolate has been exploited for its therapeutic values, both as a stimulant and a source of comfort.

In its bittersweet form, chocolate has a good amount of iron, fiber and potassium, as well as traces of vitamins. It is also the fruit of the cacao tree, though its fat level would probably keep most nutritionists from recommending it as one of the five fruits and vegetables we should eat each day.

Todays scientific studies on the nature of cacao and its effects are going much further into how beneficial chocolate might be. Its mood enhancer, known as phenylethylamine, is said to mimic the feelings people have when they are in love.

Other studies show chocolate to be an antioxidant, like red wine or tea, suggesting that chocolate can raise good cholesterol, reduce bad cholesterol and prevent plaque formation near the heart.

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