Just like ‘real’ chocolate, compound chocolate’s main ingredient comes from the cacao bean. However, the crucial difference is the level of cocoa butter. Compound chocolate uses vegetable fats, such as coconut oil, soy, or palm kernel oil, in place of cocoa butter.

Many manufacturers choose to replace cocoa butter with vegetable fats to reduce costs, as ingredients like coconut oil are cheaper to source than authentic cocoa butter. Compound chocolate can also be less complex to produce, as it doesn’t require careful heating and cooling (tempering) to give it a glossy finish.

fresh coconut next to a jar of coconut and coconut oil
This is because cocoa butter is formed of complex crystals that need to be tempered. This takes a little more time and attention, but perfectly tempered chocolate is shiny, breaks with a satisfying snap, and melts delicately on the tongue. The tempering process also prevents ‘fat bloom’, which is where cocoa butter rises to the surface, causing a matte, cloudy appearance.

As with real chocolate, compound chocolate can still come in an array of cacao percentages. Dark and milk compound chocolates contain some cacao solids, though often this is a cocoa powder rather than chocolate liquor. White compound chocolate is essentially a combination of sugar, vegetable fats, milk, and emulsifiers. Though it can be enhanced by flavorings, it contains none of the textures, tastes, and aromas you get with true chocolate.

What is it used for?
The cheaper ingredients in compound chocolate make it more affordable to buy. That means many commercial confectionery brands use these cacao options over higher-quality chocolate to mass-produce cheap chocolate goods for consumers.

As well as being cheaper to create, compound chocolate can give producers more flexibility. The amount of oil or fat that you add can change the properties of the chocolate. This versatility makes it a popular choice for cooking and baking. Chocolate coatings used for decorating cakes, for example, tend to be made from compound chocolate color as it will harden to form a shell around the soft baked goods.

Some confectioners like to use it for molded designs. That’s because it can be melted and poured straight in without tempering.

It’s also often used for filling and coating candy bars and biscuits. Having said that, we believe that chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa butter can create a more luxurious topping that works just as well. That’s why we enrobe our Biscuits of the Gods Shortbreads with a generous layer of milk chocolate containing a minimum of 50% cacao solids. A heavenly balance of melt and crunch.

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