|
Post by mistacandy on Mar 18, 2008 15:36:40 GMT -5
Does Anyone Have a good swiss milk chocolate recipe?
|
|
|
Post by reelchemist on Mar 18, 2008 18:27:43 GMT -5
Apparently the secret is malt powder, I am actually going to experiment with some malt powder in my next dark milk batch. This tip came from Sugaralchemy originally - usage levels he tells me are 2-5% weight for weight.
Once you know what to look for you can taste the malt really quite strongly in European chocolate. We have a local company that the original chocolatier trained at Lindt (taught one of the bosses sons how to speak English in exchange for being taught chocolate making). Anyway their chocolate is distinctly European - very heavy handed with malt.
So I would say a good first step is to use a standard milk choc recipe that you like and chuck some malt in it according to the above amount and then adjusting for your taste.
I think there are other ingredients like milk crumb and so forth that will help with that flavour but Sugar is the man to elaborate here, I am just giving you a good starting point, as I am about to do exactly the same.
|
|
|
Post by Brad on Mar 19, 2008 5:08:05 GMT -5
I heard something completely different.
Swiss milk chocolate in fact DOES NOT have a malt/caramel flavor, and it's because of how the powdered milk is dried.
{{{ open mouth. insert foot. close mouth. }}} See my post below.
In Swiss chocolate, they use air dried powdered milk, whereas other areas of the world (such as the US, and other areas of Europe) they use roll dried powdered milk. In roll drying milk, it's sprayed on to a hot drum where the water is boiled out of the milk. During this process, some of the sugars carmelize in the milk, giving it a caramel flavour, and also changing the color somewhat. I actually have some in my cupboard.
Personally I use a product here in Canada by Parmalat, which is spray dried and engineered specifically for making milk chocolate. It's awesome, and makes a VERY creamy milk chocolate, just like that made by the Swiss.
Having said that, here is a very creamy milk chocolate you can try. It will be quite thick (I use it for dipping truffles, so I don't have to double dip), but you can thin it out with a bit of cocoa butter:
18% Liquor/nibs 38% Sugar 9% Whole Milk Powder 10% Skim Milk Powder 25% Cocoa Butter 0.4% Vanilla Bean 0.4% Liquid Lecithin
This will give you a very nice eating chocolate with about a 36% fat content - which is about right for a premium eating chocolate.
Let this go in the Santha for at least 30 hours.
Brad.
|
|
|
Post by Alan on Mar 19, 2008 6:13:08 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Sebastian on Mar 19, 2008 8:24:49 GMT -5
most of north america uses spray dried milk powders - there's only 1 commercial roll dryer in the US, and he does sell some product for chocolate production, but the lions share ofwhat's used is spray dried. you're absolutely correct brad in that roll drying can lead to a much nicer flavor proflie, and there's other advantages to using it too (free milk fat). parmalot has developed a very nice, carmalized spray dried milk powder that has upwards of 90% free milk fat and a very nice flavor ,reminiscent of roller dried milks. of course there's a third variable of crumb milk as well.
it's hard to generalize a chocolate by it's country of origin - some swiss chocolates do have added flavors such as malt, some don't. the single largest contributing difference will likely be, however, the source of the milk used. swiss cows eat a different diet than do new zealand cows, for example, and that influences the flavor of the resultant mlik to a very, very great extent. personally, i love a hint of malt in a nice milk chocolate - keep in mind allergen issues however - this is the main reason you don' tsee much malted milk chocolate in north america...
|
|
|
Post by Brad on Mar 19, 2008 17:39:11 GMT -5
I stand partially corrected.
I'm sure learning a lot in here, and it seems that there is so much divergent information. When I first started down this road of making chocolate, I was told that I would most likely be able to get my hands on roll dried milk powder easier, because it was cheaper to produce, and that spray dried milk powder would be more difficult to source.
Now I'm learning something different. In fact, looking back in retrospect, all of the powdered milk I've got my hands on to date has been spray dried.
|
|
gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
|
Post by gap on Mar 19, 2008 17:56:03 GMT -5
To take the cow's diet one step further. When living in Switzerland, I spoke with the locals about their famous Swiss Chocolate. I was told (and I haven't had this independently verified) that the cows in Switzerland go up in the mountains during summer to eat the grasses there. At that time of year, there are some different "herb-type" plants that grow within the grass that the cows ingest. This gives Swiss milk a distinct flavour.
May be an old wives tale but . . .
|
|
|
Post by Sebastian on Mar 20, 2008 15:39:38 GMT -5
Truth to that. Toss in the fact that 'summer milk' is going to be different than 'winter milk', the variations in natural feed (what happens if they hit a big ol' patch of onion weed...it happens..) and the potential for lots of variation exists.
There's a producer in minnesota called Quality Ingredients - while they don't currently do any roller dried milk, they've got the capabilities of doing it and are under capacity. If any of you are migrating from small (home) to business scale, it may be worthwhile pinging them to see what their minimum's are and how interested they are. They're in Burnsville. What's interesting with them is they can roll dry with adjuncts - ie add a touch of fructose to the milk, just a touch, and roll dry off all the moisture....very interesting...
|
|
|
Post by Brad on Mar 20, 2008 16:38:22 GMT -5
Sebastian
Have you done anything with Parmalat here in Canada? They seem very willing to work with me, and have sent a sample which I really liked. This was spray dried, and engineered specifically for making chocolate. It had about 28% fat.
I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Brad
|
|
|
Post by Sebastian on Mar 21, 2008 11:24:10 GMT -5
Parmalot's a good company. Now that they're over their 'italian crisis' of last year, there should be more stability. 28.5% milk fat is the north american standard for milk powders (rest of world has bout 26%..). I wouldn't hesitate to consider them a supplier, but as with all suppliers, evaluate alternate options because if you get locked into a sole supplier arrangement, or if they perceive that you are, you'll likely pay more than you should...
|
|
|
Post by sugaralchemy on Mar 26, 2008 0:26:22 GMT -5
To add to the milk debate, I taste annual differences in even fluid milk that's sold locally. I agree that the seasonality, processing, and everything affects the milk. The source of the milk is a point of endless debate, almost as good as the source of the cacao However, more important than the source of the milk is getting the ratios of the ingredients right. Here are my suggestions: -10-14% chocolate liquor (cacao) -15-25% nonfat dry milk -Generous dose of vanilla (typically quite a bit of vanillin or other intense vanilla flavorĀ in even "better" brands, actually - to match their level of vanilla taste, you need a lot of whole bean!) -15-20% of the total fat is from milkfat Put those ingredients together in those levels, adding enough cocoa butter to get the fat content up to at least 35%. Refine the chocolate down to a very fine particle size - 20 microns or so. Don't skimp on the dry milk, vanilla, and milkfat, and make sure the particle size is fine enough. Aim for 35-40% total fat, but not too much or it will taste waxy. You may also be tempted to overdo the cacao - resist that urge, because adding too much causes the Swiss characteristic to be lost - a lot of people on here are crazy about cacao, but control yourself!
|
|
|
Post by Brad on Mar 26, 2008 15:10:18 GMT -5
There's an exact recipe I've posted a bit above this one in the same thread, which works very well, gets you in the range with regard to fat content. I use a whole milk/skim milk mix, because I find the extra fat makes the chocolate creamier.
If you use too much whole milk powder, you run the risk of having trouble tempering your chocolate.
Brad.
|
|
|
Post by sugaralchemy on Mar 26, 2008 15:45:21 GMT -5
The key is to work our your milkfat sources to an absolute percentage of milkfat, then work out how much of your total fat is from milkfat. Going over 20% makes the chocolate very soft and hard to temper, but you will find traditional "swiss" type milk often pushes pretty close to this point.
|
|
|
Post by Brad on Mar 27, 2008 0:00:15 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip!
I try to keep my milk percentage around 9 or 10%, and the result is a nice milk chocolate with a good snap to it.
|
|
|
Post by ripvanwinkle on Apr 4, 2008 17:52:49 GMT -5
sugaralchemy, the recipe above looks good. Two questions: Can you help me find the vanillin? I found some of the powder in Amazon but I am concerned about the brand.
Second: You rightfully advise on fat content and adjust by varying the milk powder used, nonfat and whole, and the addition of cocoa butter. How do you determine the fat content of the cocoa liquor? I can imagine that it depends on the bean used but how can the fat content be figured?
FWIW - the last time I milled cocoa beans in the Champion I kept putting the cocoa that came out of the shout back in for regrind until almost none came out of the snout. I dont know if that is the way to do it but it seemed a shame to toss any of the cocoa liquor. My scottish nature I guess. Advise welcome on this grinding question too.
|
|