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Post by rosabel on Oct 1, 2012 10:41:29 GMT -5
Hi, I recently purchased the venezuelan beans from here and conched them for 16hrs... The texture seems alright, slightly gritty but whilst I was tempering the chocolate, it just wouldn't melt. I'm not sure if there's hardly any cocoa butter in it, I just added cocoa butter until it melted nicely. But I just wanted to ask if there was anything I possibly did for it to result in not melting or is it just the type of cacao? Just to note, it was a very very low quantity, (1/4 of 1lb) as I am just sampling these...I roasted them less time and lower temp to what chocolate alchemy suggests since it's a much smaller weight. Thanks
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Post by tocoti on Oct 1, 2012 22:11:28 GMT -5
Could you explain more of your process? Sugar, added cocoa butter...weights of each? How did you grind it?
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Post by rosabel on Oct 2, 2012 11:23:29 GMT -5
To be honest, I'm not sure how much cocoa butter I added as I just kept adding until it became liquidy.. As for the sugar, I added 50g to 75g cacao to make 60% chocolate. I just ground it in a food processor - I know the champion juicer is recommended but I can't get that atm. I then continued to grind it down with the premium wet grinder, which chocolate alchemy has recommended... After I ground it in the processor, it was liquid. I didn't add the sugar at that point. I then let it conch in the wet grinder for 2hrs then I added the sugar and half a vanilla pod. Initially, it was ok but then later on I noticed it was too dry. I left it running overnight and it never became liquid. I conched for 16hrs in total. So when I came to temper it, it just wasn't melting, so I decided to add cocoa butter. I made sure no water was in contact with the chocolate as well. I have tempered chocolate in a past quite a bit and it's been fine so I'm not entirely sure what is happening here...
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Post by ramya on Oct 5, 2012 8:22:37 GMT -5
As you added 60 % cocoa there will be enough cocoa butter more than 30% , so i think the problem may be with your roasting, if the beans are under roasted there may be water content with the nib and the water caused the problem. It is a guess.
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pcm
Novice
Posts: 75
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Post by pcm on Oct 8, 2012 20:36:08 GMT -5
could water have gotten into the mix?
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