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Post by karthikeyan on Jul 21, 2015 21:29:26 GMT -5
I have never used lecithin before, and am going to take a trial in the next couple of days. I would like to hear from others about the their experiences of when to add it in the melangeur? Looking up online, I have found conflicting information, where some add it at the end and others in the beginning.
I aim to make a 55% covertutre chocolate without any added cacao butter.
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Post by Thomas on Jul 21, 2015 22:16:11 GMT -5
I' personally don't think it makes a big difference on when lecithin is added. However, I put nibs directly into my melanger and I will add the lecithin an hour or so later. Once the nibs, sugar, and cocoa butter (if added) has turned into a nice liqueur. My opinion, based on some head scratching and nothing scientific, is that it should be added sooner than later since it helps reduce viscosity, I think it improves the refining process. I have added at different times and have not noticed any difference in my chocolate. Again, this is not based on any food science.
I believe it will be a challenge to make a good 55% covetutre with no cocoa butter. I'm assuming you are using 55% nibs and then 45% other ingredients. This amount of nibs will not produce a high enough fat content on their own. Are you adding other fats? I'm just curious.
Regards,
Thomas
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Jul 21, 2015 23:32:45 GMT -5
Like Thomas, nothing scientific to my reasoning, but I add my lecithin with about an hour to go. I don't think my grinder gets warm enough to evapourate any moisture from the chocolate, but my thinking is lecithin binds water, so maybe I should give the water every opportunity to evapourate before I add it. Like I said, it probably doesn't make a difference. Sometimes, if I'm taking the chocolate out at 6am when I wake up, I'll add the lecithin the night before (so I don't need to be up at 5am to add it) and it doesn't seem to affect anything.
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Post by karthikeyan on Jul 22, 2015 2:25:20 GMT -5
Thanks for your kind inputs...
Thomas - I am not adding any other fats in the chocolate. The only ingredients will be nibs, sugar, lecithin & vanilla extract. What will be the challenge do you think? I have made 70% chocolate successfully many times but have made only 1 batch of 55% till date.
Gap - the moisture is of course a valid point. Will make trials adding at different time and check.
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Post by Ben on Jul 22, 2015 7:45:08 GMT -5
This has been discussed on this forum and the Chocolate Life several times, and I believe the consensus is to add it pretty close to the end of the refining/conching process.
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Post by Thomas on Jul 22, 2015 8:44:05 GMT -5
If you are not adding any other fats to your chocolate, the 55% nibs will only yield about a 24% to 26% fat content in your final chocolate. This just seems very low for a couverture chocolate. I try to keep the fat content higher, so I thought this would cause you some issues. But if you've made it this way before, then it must not have been a problem.
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Post by karthikeyan on Jul 22, 2015 20:24:24 GMT -5
Thanks Ben & Nuggs...
I added the lecithin in my current batch with approx 24 hrs to go in the melangeur. Since it was a 55% chocolate without any added cacao butter, I could immediately see the viscosity change and it did help in making the stones rotate better in the spectra 11's.
I have made 1 batch before with 55% - no added butter. It turned out OK. Will need to keep experimenting now.
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