Cacoa instead of carob?

[ab_raw]

I want to make a recipe that calls for both carob powder and cacao powder. Can I just use all cacao (thats what I have on hand)? Is there that much of a difference between them that one would need to use both in a recipe? I'm a little confused about it.
Thanks!
Anita

[jacsam]

Cacao and carob taste very different. If you bite into something made from carob thinking it's going to taste like chocolate or cacao, you'll be disappointed....I actually prefer carob over cacao. As far as your recipe goes, I'm sure you can use all cacao or all carob in it. Sometimes I mix the two even when it doesn't call for it because it makes the cacao not as intense. Good luck.

[Revvell]

If you bite into something made from carob thinking it's going to taste like chocolate or cacao, you'll be disappointed....

Not necessarily true. I've been using raw carob from Whole Foods and when I've served desserts to non-raw folk, they can't tell the difference. Now I've got carob from another source and I dislike it muchly. It's grainy and it tastes like um.... I guess, carob.

[Diana Cda]

The taste between the two is very different. I find that if I start eating cacao too much, which I did when I first found it earlier this year, I had to stop using it completely when I started using carob again. But once your taste buds get used to carob, it's tough eating cacao because of its bitterness. Yes, it's real chocolate while carob is just an approximation of chocolate but I don't feel any after-effects with carob and when I'm using it over cacao, somehow prefer it much more profoundly and on a visceral level. I can't explain it. Perhaps it not just that bitter quality but the caffeine it contains whereas carob supposedly has no caffeine.

I think that I personally will always prefer to use carob over cacao except where a real deep chocolate flavour is needed. For example, when I made chocolate pudding with avocado and carob it was actually pretty disgusting for me yet the same recipe with cacao was absolutely amazing. AvoChoco Pudding, as I call it, is probably one of those recipes that will almost always require cacao but everything else so far I use carob with just fine and even prefer it since the cacao doesn't feel like good to me to eat with any sort of frequency.

So perhaps with this recipe, you may consider trying it either as is or modifying it to use just carob, or what have you. It may be the best way to see what has the best flavour. Perhaps the combination is a means of mitigating the bad effects of the cacao while still adding enough chocolate flavour so it tastes good (?). Good luck, at any rate.

hth :)

[RawKnitster]

I would go with all cacao. It shouldn't make any difference to the recipe, other than to improve the flavor. ;)

[revdrcyn]

I almost always go for all cacao - if caffeine is a concern, add a little maca!

[ab_raw]

OK, so it sounds like this may be a case of personal preference. I think for this recipe, being that its a chocolate cake, I'll use all cacao since that is what I have in my cupboard.
Thanks for your help everyone.......
Anita

[joyce09]

Revvell, Which department of Whole Foods did you find raw carobs? I checked with my local WF at their bulk department and they only had non-raw carob chips (mixed with milk powders etc.).