Dutch process cocoa will give you more intensely rich, chocolaty brownies. American or "natural" will give you a more complex flavor. Didn't you like the brownies you made? If they were too chocolatey tasting, try the Natural next time. If they tasted wonderful, you might not like the results if you use natural next time, because it's a more bitter flavor. That's the whole point. :) "Natural" in referring to natural cocoa powder is a designation that way predates the current standards in food verbiage. It doesn't mean anything about the way it's grown. It just means it hasn't had the surface acid neutralized. The Ghirardelli process uses heat and melts off the fats and gets more out, whereas the Dutch process is pressed, so Dutch process is moister (fatter) and American is powderier. When you make your recipes there are all kinds of chemistry things going on between acids and alkalies. Dutch processed cocoa just has one of those processes happening before you buy it. It's not bad, just different. Baking soda (potassium bicarbonate) is an alkali. They use potassium carbonate to neutralize the acid in the Dutch process. Baking soda has less potassium and is a much gentler alkali than potassium carbonate, but in terms of what's touching your food, by the time the traces that might possibly be left on the cocoa get to you, it's just a little potassium and carbon. :) Summation American: bitter, complex, possibly fruity or roasty tasting, interacts with baking soda for leavening. Makes for red cakes if it hasn't had the color adjusted. Dutch: chocolaty, rich, good for things you want to be fudgy. Requires baking powder for leavening, or an acid like lemon juice and baking soda.

countrygal, I've also used Hershey's almost exclusively because that's the only kind available here in my small independent grocery. Then I went to Grand Rapids and found Rodelle dutch processed. Oh my, it's my favorite now, it's so much better than Hershey's. I don't use cocoa all that much, I have a couple of cake recipes and frosting recipes that use it, my favorite brownie recipe calls for it, a couple of cookie recipes use it. I've not had any trouble subbing yet and I haven't used it to make hot chocolate, but I'm betting it's gonna be good! It's more expensive than Hershey's but if you can find some, try it, it's very good. Annie

Caramel Cheetos® - Linda C 2 cups light brown sugar 1 cup margarine - yes, for this one you must use margarine 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 - 21 oz. pkg. Cheetos® - crunchy kind Mix sugar, margarine and corn syrup in pan. Bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes no longer, stirring often. Remove from heat and add soda. Stir until light in color and foamy. Spray a roasting pan (deep 10 x 14) with Pam. Put Cheetos® in pan. Pour the mixture over Cheetos® and stir, coating each piece. Place in oven at 250 degrees. Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. Immediately, pour onto wax paper, or cookie sheets, sprayed with Pam. (This is the hard part.) VERY QUICKLY spread out as thin as possible. If not quick and spread out as thin as possible, you will get a big hard glob. After about 5 minutes, pull/break these apart even more and loosen them from the wax paper. If you don't, you'll have wax paper stuck to them when you go to eat them. You will regret it if you don't double the batch as guests are going to demand MORE! You can bake batches together and add an extra 20 minutes to bake time. I do them separately because of having to work so quickly to keep them apart at the end. The one batch can almost get too hard while working with the other batch.

Gosh, I thought I was sharing something yummy with everyone. I have used Droste's cocoa for our family birthday cake (everyone likes the same recipe) for over 30 years, and the recipe uses baking soda. Once I made the cake with Hershey's, and what a disappointment -- it was paler in color and no where near as chocolatey in taste. I wasn't trying to give anyone a bum recommendation, honest. I thought I was being nice in sharing something we love at our house. Heck, I even baked and mailed the cake to my kids when they were away at college and to the youngest, who lives in NYC, as recently as this week. I can only recommend Droste's and no other cocoa.