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Post by joethechocolatier on Aug 15, 2016 10:00:13 GMT -5
This is not far from the recent first-time musing thread, but I'll start my own thread with my own experience...
I made a couple of batches last year (2015) with mixed success. Having come back from Costa Rica with some raw cocoa beans, I used references from here to make chocolate, beginning with the roasting. I used a popcorn popper, somewhat burning my nibs. I picked out the most burnt pieces and followed through the rest of the process. The result was very well-formed good looking chocolate with a burnt taste. Fun start but over-all failure with non-edible chocolate.
My second batch followed soon after. I again roasted the beans myself and was able to avoid burning them. During the refining stage (poor-man version - more later), I decided to add vanilla. You know the result: chocolate that tasted better but that didn't hold form at all. Improvement with better tasting chocolate.
I didn't get around to trying again until just yesterday. I ordered the novice kit from here and also purchased the Champion Juicer. Without getting into weights or too deeply into details, my steps:
1. I ran the nibs through the juicer until very little came out the front. 2. I cleaned and thoroughly dried the juicer. 3. I ran my sugar through a blender to powder it. 4. I mixed the chocolate liquor with the sugar, cocoa butter and pectin. 5. I ran the mixed ingredients back through the juicer a few times. 6. My poor-man refining step: I then worked the mixed chocolate through a mortar and pestle that had been heated to 175 degrees in the oven. 7. I then tempered the chocolate on a marble slab without being too precise on temperatures. 8. Finally, I formed the chocolate into molds.
As I went on between tempering and forming to molds, I kind of lost patience and was less thorough in tempering. Notwithstanding, the result was well-formed chocolate with some amount of blooming, though not too bad all things considered. The chocolate tastes okay to me but definitely isn't anything close to fine chocolate that you'd get in the store. It's as if the chocolate has not fused with the sugar, if that makes any sense...? Naturally, it is quite gritty. My kids aren't too terribly fond of it.
My main questions are as follows:
1. While I purchased the juicer, I've not yet sprung for melanguer. I'm confused by the difference between the Spectra 11 and the Santha Wet Grinder. Do they do the same thing? I'm willing to spend some money on this fun new hobby, but I'd prefer to at least leg into my equipment and understand what each piece will give me. Generally, what is the next piece of equipment that I should consider?
2. Can you speak to more detail about what the refining process is doing? Clearly, my poor-man refining is probably wasted effort. In addition to changing the texture of the chocolate, I presume that it actually refines the taste. Is that right?
3. Do you have any other feedback generally on the steps that I've described?
A host of other questions could come up, but that seems like a good start.
Joe
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Aug 15, 2016 20:00:11 GMT -5
1. I don't know the exact models you're looking at, but I would guess the Spectra 11 is the same as the Santha Wet Grinder. Maybe slightly different models, but doing the same thing. You may also want to look at a Premier Wonder Grinder. Cheaper and, IMHO, a better machine. Alternatively, look up Indi Chocolate which sells what I think are re-conditioned Premier Wonder Grinders (they call them Chocolate Grinders) which are better again (USD 250 from memory from Indi Chocolate which is based in the US).
2. Essentially, refining in a grinder is basically breaking apart all the particles (cocoa and sugar) which makes them smaller sized particles. At 18-20 microns in size, most people can't feel the particles anymore and the chocolate becomes smooth. This may take 24+ hours in a grinder to achieve. There are other things happening as well, but I think this speaks to your texture question.
3. Yes - in step 4 you say you added pectin. I'm not sure why? Chocolate generally does not have pectin added as an ingredient.
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Post by Thomas on Aug 15, 2016 20:37:22 GMT -5
I agree with gap about the Premier. You can see it here: indichocolate.com/collections/chocolate-making-machines/products/chocolate-refiner. I have two of them and they work great. My largest batches are 3 Kg (about 6.5 lbs.) in one grinder. If you want to make a fine chocolate, you need a grinder. I personally do not use a champion juicer, but many people like too. I've read that one will lose about 6 oz of chocolate when using the juicer. I assume its because you can't clean out every bit. I roast my own beans and then crack and winnow into nibs. I put the nibs directly into the grinder, a little at a time, and then the same with the sugar after the nibs have been ground into liquor. I don't put my sugar into the blender and just let the grinder refine it. The 70% dark that I make is: 70% nibs and 30% sugar. That's it. With respect to tempering, I no longer use the tabling method. I learned a single bowl method from this forum and I think it is easier. Put the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl, heat over a pot of simmering water (i.e. double boiler), then cool in a sink of cold water (an inch or two of cold or ice water, not too cold), then back on the double boiler. Keep stirring all the time. Less mess and is easy to control the tempering temperature curve. On large pieces of equipment, I have: Bean cracker: Crankandstein Cocoa Mill for cracking nibs (you can use your champion juicer) Winnower: Wooden zig-zag winnower (free plans are here: www.realseeds.co.uk/seedcleaner.html)Grinder: Premier Chocolate Maker Grinder Hope this helps. Search this forum too. Lots of info and great help.
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jano
Neophyte
Posts: 34
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Post by jano on Aug 16, 2016 11:02:59 GMT -5
I'm amateur, non-commercial, just for fun, learning how to make chocolate. I skip the pre-grind step of the juicer, and just go directly into the grinder. I've read here that some will use a food processor to do the pre-grinding. Additionally, I have read somewhere (maybe here?), that using granulated sugar will actually help break down just a little faster than using the powdered sugar you are doing from blitzing in the blender. Either way, this step is really not needed, and helps you save time from both doing this and cleaning the blender For winnowing, I used the build specs here for the aether winnower and made a slight variation using 2" abs pipe instead of 3" for about $30 in parts, plus $50 for a cyclone dust thingy, and a free bucket from the bakery department at a local grocery store. Works fine. Unlike Thomas, I add some cacao butter mostly because I am still following the recipes offered here, and second my chocolate does run very thick and is hard to work with, probably because of the humidity (I'm three blocks from the ocean).
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Post by joethechocolatier on Aug 16, 2016 15:45:49 GMT -5
The reference to Santha and Spectra comes from, among others, this page: chocolatealchemy.com/conching-and-refining. A little bit of additional research on my part reveals that Santa appears to sell Spectra (http://www.santhausa.com). Perhaps the wet grinder mentioned in the conching-and-refining page is a less expensive alternative... I'll definitely check out the Premier! In any case, a good grinder/melanguer is definitely a must-have. Indeed, maybe I could have skipped the juicer...? [Perhaps I could actually, you know, juice with it...] I love the double boiler suggestion as an alternative to tabling. I'll experiment with refining straight from granulated sugar too. The more messes to avoid, the better! I think that my next iterations will continue to use pre-roasted, cracked and winnowed nibs until I get the hang of the refining process. Thank you for all of the helpful feedback! Oh, and I meant to write lecithin instead of pectin...
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Aug 16, 2016 16:38:25 GMT -5
If you move onto roasting beans yourself, you can do it in an oven at home (fan-forced oven is best with perforated baking trays. Try to keep the beans 1-2 deep on the tray). Your Champion juicer is great for cracking the beans after roasting - it's what I use. And you can winnow easily by putting the cracked beans into a wide shallow bowl and (from a distance) using a hairdryer to gently blow away the shell. It takes about 10 minutes to do 1kg, but the upside is it's very cheap (just do it outside - it's very messy as well) :-)
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Post by joethechocolatier on Aug 17, 2016 12:44:28 GMT -5
"When" not "if"... If possible, I'll always try the tools at my disposal first which means roasting will be in the oven or potentially given another try with the popcorn popper. I have a West Bend Stir Crazy popper (http://westbend.com/popcorn/stir-crazy/6-qt-stir-crazy-corn-popper.html) which seemed potentially ideal. As said, I got mixed results. Has anyone else tried to use a popper of some kind? Chances are that my oven will be best. What about a convection oven? Also, does the Champion make a mess when cracking the beans?
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jano
Neophyte
Posts: 34
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Post by jano on Aug 17, 2016 15:18:27 GMT -5
The popper is going to be too small to make a reasonable amount of chocolate. I'm a bit of a clutz, when I first tried the champion juicer, I ended up with nibs everywhere. I did it in my spare bedroom, turned the unit on, and dropped a handful of beans into the chute. The roasted beans are very light, so half shot straight back up, the other half down into my bowl with so much force they all shot up and out of it. I panicked with all the debris flying everywhere, and instead of shutting it off (the switch is in a very awkward place), I grabbed more beans while searching desperately for the tamper, and more nibs got everywhere. This happened a few more times, because I found the tamper and managed to actually cover the shut then turn the unit off. Silver lining: the spare bedroom smelled fantastic for a couple weeks. System is now in place, I do it with minimal mess
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