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Post by Chip on Mar 29, 2018 9:55:25 GMT -5
Using a tilt Premier Chocolate Refiner Using liquor made from nibs ordered from Chocolate Alchemy, and recently from beans I ordered from CA and roasted myself. Keeping temp at 38C (102F) with the heat gun contraption I built Letting stay in melange for 48 hours Using silk tempering. Adding silk at 98F Letting batch cool to about 91 before pouring/dipping
My formula which I frequently double/triple and supposedly provides a 45.4% cocoa butter content.
680.0g Cocoa Nibs 100.0g Cocoa Butter 220.0g Sugar 1.0g Lecithin 0.0g Vanilla Total Weight: 1001.00 Grams, 1.00 Kilogram
I know that good chocolate is supposed to have a snap to it, but many times my chocolate downright hard. Not lollipop hard, but not snappish, then melt in your mouth hard either.
Is it my formula? The lecithin? Adding too much silk? Too much cocoa butter?
Thanks!!
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Post by cacaosublime on Mar 29, 2018 15:31:10 GMT -5
Hi Chip, I have the same problem. For me, it is not lecithin (I don't use it), not too much silk (first, what is too much? But John advises 1%, I am now mostly using 0.5% and still getting the same result), and not too much cocoa butter (I get consistent results with widely varying amounts of cocoa butter). I think it is related to cooling (after pouring), but haven't figured it out completely yet. There is a recent ATA on it that might shed some more light on it, but I am very interested to hear others about this ATA #242: chocolatealchemy.com/blog/2018/3/9/ask-the-alchemist-242If you are getting further with your experimentation I'd love to hear about it!
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Post by Chip on Mar 29, 2018 16:29:21 GMT -5
Hi Chip, I have the same problem. For me, it is not lecithin (I don't use it), not too much silk (first, what is too much? But John advises 1%, I am now mostly using 0.5% and still getting the same result), and not too much cocoa butter (I get consistent results with widely varying amounts of cocoa butter). I think it is related to cooling (after pouring), but haven't figured it out completely yet. There is a recent ATA on it that might shed some more light on it, but I am very interested to hear others about this ATA #242: chocolatealchemy.com/blog/2018/3/9/ask-the-alchemist-242If you are getting further with your experimentation I'd love to hear about it! Hi CS, I just ordered (last night) some clarified butter. I am going to try a 1% as per the ATA, and see from there. I also have some organic coconut oil on my shelf that I haven't opened yet, so that would be my second experiment. I will let you know how everything progresses!
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Post by Thomas on Mar 29, 2018 22:00:50 GMT -5
Yes, it’s your formula. The higher the cacao percentage, the harder the chocolate. However, that doesn’t mean anything is wrong with your chocolate. Your making a 78% chocolate and that will be on the harder end of the scale. The nibs to cocoa butter ratio can affect it along with the taste. Also, lecithin will not make your chocolate hard just less viscous. I think your expectation may be a little off. That is, you can only make a 78% bar so soft. Clarified butter or coconut oil will make it softer but will also affect the taste. It really depends on what you are trying to acomplish.
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Mar 30, 2018 2:38:37 GMT -5
As Thomas said, I would try adding some pure milk fat (ghee, clarified butter or anhydrous milk fat). About 2-3% to start will have a softening effect. I quite often do this - I prefer the mouthfeel and dont think it has any negative effects on flavour of the bar at all.
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Post by cacaosublime on Mar 30, 2018 5:10:11 GMT -5
For me it is not the cocoa percentage. I have made chocolate with cocoa percentages comparable to commercially available chocolate, and mine is way harder. But I get it over the board, with all my recipes (even low cocoa percentages), so that leads me more into the direction that my consistent process might be the reason. My current guess is that I have a case of overtempering, but haven't figured that out yet.
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Post by Thomas on Mar 30, 2018 13:03:30 GMT -5
For me it is not the cocoa percentage. I have made chocolate with cocoa percentages comparable to commercially available chocolate, and mine is way harder. But I get it over the board, with all my recipes (even low cocoa percentages), so that leads me more into the direction that my consistent process might be the reason. My current guess is that I have a case of overtempering, but haven't figured that out yet. Are you sure it’s not the cocoa percentage? Not all percentages are created equally. For example: Assuming a three ingredient bar (i.e. nibs, cocoa butter, and sugar), a 70% bar with a higher percentage of cocoa butter will be different than one with a lower percentage of cocoa butter. I would expect the more cocoa butter, in this case, would produce a harder bar. I’m not picking on your words, just pointing out a difference.
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Post by Chip on Mar 30, 2018 14:36:12 GMT -5
For me it is not the cocoa percentage. I have made chocolate with cocoa percentages comparable to commercially available chocolate, and mine is way harder. But I get it over the board, with all my recipes (even low cocoa percentages), so that leads me more into the direction that my consistent process might be the reason. My current guess is that I have a case of overtempering, but haven't figured that out yet. Are you sure it’s not the cocoa percentage? Not all percentages are created equally. For example: Assuming a three ingredient bar (i.e. nibs, cocoa butter, and sugar), a 70% bar with a higher percentage of cocoa butter will be different than one with a lower percentage of cocoa butter. I would expect the more cocoa butter, in this case, would produce a harder bar. I’m not picking on your words, just pointing out a difference. So if I understand this right, if I make a 70% bar with 70% nibs and 30% sugar, it would have a different consistency than a 70% bar with nibs, cocoa butter and sugar? Interesting! . And it makes total sense.
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Post by cacaosublime on Mar 31, 2018 2:22:01 GMT -5
@ Thomas: No problem, I'm on this forum to learn, so am very glad you took the time to give a response I just wanted to point out that for me, this doesn't seem to be the cause. But I think it can be said, and I assume this is your point as well, that in general, the higher the cacao butter percentage, the harder your bar. I just find that all my bars are on the hard side, and can't find any correlation in my population of different recipes I tried. Although that population is not very large, but so far no insights from that perspective. So a bit lost here, and now focusing on playing around with my process to see if that makes a difference. One obvious thing I am just thinking about is that the thickness of the bar might also be a factor, so will play around with that as well. @ Chip: Depends on your definition of consistency. As it has a higher cocoa butter percentage, it will be less viscous, and produce a harder bar (in general).
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Post by Brad on Mar 31, 2018 14:43:04 GMT -5
I'd like to weigh in here, and hopefully bring some clarification.
First of all, the higher percentage of cocoa butter in a dark chocolate bar does not necessarily make it harder. If you've ever tried eating just straight cocoa butter, you will find it to be firm, but chewable, and as it warms on your palate, it will soften quickly.
What makes dark chocolate "hard" is the higher percentage of solid particulate that the cocoa butter bonds to. Cocoa nibs, sugar crystals, and vanilla are all solid particulate, which helps make the chocolate more structurally sound (think of how gravel or sand works in cement)
A 70% bar that is just beans and sugar, will be bloody hard - especially if it's a thick bar. It also won't melt well, because there's only 35% fat in the bar. Some people may like it, but in my experience it's recipes like this that people have had to "learn to like", and as far as I'm concerned nobody should have to "learn to like" their candy.
In my opinion, if you get your fat content closer to 40%, the bar will still be structurally sound, but it won't be a fight to break, nor will it be unpleasant to eat.
Brad.
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Post by Thomas on Mar 31, 2018 16:21:59 GMT -5
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Post by cacaosublime on Apr 2, 2018 5:38:16 GMT -5
Thanks Brad and Thomas, that helps
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Post by LLY on Apr 24, 2018 11:16:19 GMT -5
Toataly agree with Brad. However, one crucial factor that hasn't been mentioned here -- cacao beans origin. In short, the liquid cacao butter at room temperature (independent on tempering) can vary substantially. One example I do remember is 20% versus 40% [Beckett - the science of chocolate].
Bottom line, look on your beans origin.
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