Post by jano on May 31, 2016 8:24:01 GMT -5
Hi there:
Successfully made my first batch of chocolate this weekend - not quite bean to bar, but close! (roasted nibs purchased from here)
This process involves so many steps. It is messy. Pretty fun. Long. Noisy.
Coming from a home coffee roasting background, I'm looking to explore and enjoy a number of chocolate origins in the various preparations. My closet is filled with a dozen different coffees continuously rotating, and I'll roast 3-6 individual batches at a time (1lb each). This provides me with variety, entertainment, and appreciation for a couple months before my next roasting session. I "pooch" a lot of roasts, but am successful in many as well.
This can't be repeated exactly with chocolate. Maybe a shift in paradigm is needed?
1. No interest in selling/business. 100% for me.
2. 477g of nibs using 60% formula here resulted in about a pound and half of chocolate in the premier wonder grinder.
3. Result was about 50% yield. 25% was consumed directly off the wheels/tub that was difficult to scrape out as it set. 25% washed down the drain as I couldn't get all of it out
4. It appears that yield will be increased by making greater quantity of chocolate at once, as it'll be easier to get the chocolate out.
5. Molding directly from the melanger would probably be easier with a second person.
6. To produce more chocolate at once means more needs to be roasted for single origin.
7. It takes roughly 2 hours to roast 3-6 pounds (my roaster handles 1lb coffee batches at once), which is my "patience" limit
8. Single origins will have to be spaced out over a period of time, I won't be able to produce several varieties at once
9. If I can improve my yield to 75%.. what on earth am I going to do with several pounds of chocolate?!
10. If I want to do various preps of the same S.O., e.g. 50%, 70%, milk, I'll have to roast at least a dozen pounds, and then either space out the refining, or, purchase multiple melangers. The latter seems like overkill for one person?
Two things brought to mind:
First, I really need to get the routine down to minimize waste. That bugs me a lot. How do you deal with chocolate setting? I'm tempering in the melanger, as presented here. But if the chocolate sets, I have to reheat, won't that break the temper?
Next, in order to taste multiple varieties of single origin, does the solution lay with chocolate's ability to "keep"? Where, unlike coffee, it won't go bad? i.e. I could make a batch one weekend, then a few weeks later make a new batch, etc? With 3-4 pounds of chocolate done at a time, that should be plenty to keep for a several months and taste them? Am I to settle in on a single recipe? I don't really want to be making chocolate every day of the week, or take a week off work, etc.
Chocolate making is something I've wanted to do for years
Thanks for reading and any feedback.
Successfully made my first batch of chocolate this weekend - not quite bean to bar, but close! (roasted nibs purchased from here)
This process involves so many steps. It is messy. Pretty fun. Long. Noisy.
Coming from a home coffee roasting background, I'm looking to explore and enjoy a number of chocolate origins in the various preparations. My closet is filled with a dozen different coffees continuously rotating, and I'll roast 3-6 individual batches at a time (1lb each). This provides me with variety, entertainment, and appreciation for a couple months before my next roasting session. I "pooch" a lot of roasts, but am successful in many as well.
This can't be repeated exactly with chocolate. Maybe a shift in paradigm is needed?
1. No interest in selling/business. 100% for me.
2. 477g of nibs using 60% formula here resulted in about a pound and half of chocolate in the premier wonder grinder.
3. Result was about 50% yield. 25% was consumed directly off the wheels/tub that was difficult to scrape out as it set. 25% washed down the drain as I couldn't get all of it out
4. It appears that yield will be increased by making greater quantity of chocolate at once, as it'll be easier to get the chocolate out.
5. Molding directly from the melanger would probably be easier with a second person.
6. To produce more chocolate at once means more needs to be roasted for single origin.
7. It takes roughly 2 hours to roast 3-6 pounds (my roaster handles 1lb coffee batches at once), which is my "patience" limit
8. Single origins will have to be spaced out over a period of time, I won't be able to produce several varieties at once
9. If I can improve my yield to 75%.. what on earth am I going to do with several pounds of chocolate?!
10. If I want to do various preps of the same S.O., e.g. 50%, 70%, milk, I'll have to roast at least a dozen pounds, and then either space out the refining, or, purchase multiple melangers. The latter seems like overkill for one person?
Two things brought to mind:
First, I really need to get the routine down to minimize waste. That bugs me a lot. How do you deal with chocolate setting? I'm tempering in the melanger, as presented here. But if the chocolate sets, I have to reheat, won't that break the temper?
Next, in order to taste multiple varieties of single origin, does the solution lay with chocolate's ability to "keep"? Where, unlike coffee, it won't go bad? i.e. I could make a batch one weekend, then a few weeks later make a new batch, etc? With 3-4 pounds of chocolate done at a time, that should be plenty to keep for a several months and taste them? Am I to settle in on a single recipe? I don't really want to be making chocolate every day of the week, or take a week off work, etc.
Chocolate making is something I've wanted to do for years
Thanks for reading and any feedback.