I made chocolate the other day.
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:15 pmThere's a phenomenal website out there called chocolate alchemy, I've got to find the url, anyway the guy who runs it is crazy about making chocolate and getting other people to do it too.
I bought a little kit from him that had some roasted Ghana Forestero Cacao bean nibs. I processed them in a huge juicer (Champion 2000) until 1 lb of nibs gave me about 10 1/2 ounces of chocolate liquour. This was very chocolatey but thin and had a great bitterness to it that I loved. I let this cool for a couple of days (it hardened overnight). Then I melted it and mixed it with 5 ounces sugar that I beat the heck out of in a blender. See, you have to powderize your sugar and if you use store bought powdered sugar you get additives like cornstarch that can ruin your chocolate. So I mixed the sugar with 1/2 ounce cocoa butter that John also supplied and ran it throught the juicer again. This was my first batch so there was no conching and no tempering. Just squirted the liquid gold into some little molds that were also supplied.
The stuff hardened overnight into the best tasting dark chocolate I've ever eaten. My kids loved it! Because it was not tempered, it "bloomed" which is a cosmetic thing. There was, much to my surprise, considerable snap to the chocolate even without tempering. There was much less grit than I expected given no refining/conching. My next batch will require me to roast the nibs that John provided, then I plan to make a small batch of Mexican chocolate with almonds and cinnamon.
All in all a very satisfying new hobby. Like I have time.
Howard
I bought a little kit from him that had some roasted Ghana Forestero Cacao bean nibs. I processed them in a huge juicer (Champion 2000) until 1 lb of nibs gave me about 10 1/2 ounces of chocolate liquour. This was very chocolatey but thin and had a great bitterness to it that I loved. I let this cool for a couple of days (it hardened overnight). Then I melted it and mixed it with 5 ounces sugar that I beat the heck out of in a blender. See, you have to powderize your sugar and if you use store bought powdered sugar you get additives like cornstarch that can ruin your chocolate. So I mixed the sugar with 1/2 ounce cocoa butter that John also supplied and ran it throught the juicer again. This was my first batch so there was no conching and no tempering. Just squirted the liquid gold into some little molds that were also supplied.
The stuff hardened overnight into the best tasting dark chocolate I've ever eaten. My kids loved it! Because it was not tempered, it "bloomed" which is a cosmetic thing. There was, much to my surprise, considerable snap to the chocolate even without tempering. There was much less grit than I expected given no refining/conching. My next batch will require me to roast the nibs that John provided, then I plan to make a small batch of Mexican chocolate with almonds and cinnamon.
All in all a very satisfying new hobby. Like I have time.
Howard