Cocoa for Chocolate; Oil for Butter

Chocolate is composed of unsweetened cocoa, cocoa butter, and sometimes sugar. You can replace melted chocolate with cocoa powder in baked goods, and wind up with about one third of the fat. One ounce of chocolate has 140 to 145 calories and 15 fat grams; one ounce of cocoa has 90 to 120 calories and 3 to 4 fat grams. And you get all the deep flavor, which is found in the cocoa component of chocolate, anyway. Invest in a good brand of unsweetened cocoa powder; it makes all the difference in integrity of flavor. What you do lose is the luscious “mouthfeel” that fat adds; so you have to be sure, when baking with cocoa, to make up for it with enough moisture in the other ingredients.