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Post by ripvanwinkle on Apr 4, 2008 17:57:41 GMT -5
brad - I am about to mix my milk powders too. I got some low fat from Bob's Red Mill and will use my old standby Nido for the whole milk portion.
You say that you use 9 to 10% milk powder. What percentage is each kind of the powders? Or, put another way, how do you determine the percentages on the fly?
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Post by sugaralchemy on Apr 4, 2008 23:09:07 GMT -5
I would assume the liquor (cacao mass) is around 52% fat. This is typical to slightly low for cacao, so tends to err on the accurate to slightly conservative side.
As for milkfat, DO THE MATH ON IT. The USDA puts whole milk powder at 27% milkfat - yours may vary, but will be similar. Getting a "swiss milk" chocolate texture REQUIRES you have plenty of milkfat present, like 15-20% of the total fat. Using 9 or 10% whole milk powder like Brad suggests will NOT yield a swiss milk consistency - it will be much harder/snappier and less creamy.
Vanillin is an inferior substitute in my opinion, but most people are accustomed to the intense, sharp, flat vanilla characteristic associated with the levels of vanillin used in most milk chocolate.
I would recommend against vanillin unless you're intent on perfectly cloning commercial milk chocolate. Instead, a generous dose of real vanilla "beans" may be used to achieve the vanilla intensity most people expect while also providing the richer, more complex taste profile found in real vanilla "beans."
I would suggest around 0.5% whole beans - experiment with different origins and such to find your favorite.
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Post by Brad on Apr 5, 2008 1:41:48 GMT -5
Sugaralchemy;
You seem to be an authority on Swiss Milk Chocolate.
Super!
Why don't you post an EXACT recipe of a Swiss Milk Chocolate?
It would also be nice to know what makes you qualified to form such a statement. Us neophites would like to know!
Also, what's wrong with a milk chocolate bar that tempers well and has a nice snap? The amount of milk fat, has nothing to do with how creamy the bar tastes - the amount of powdered milk in relation to the liquor does. All the fat does is give it a smoother feel in one's mouth. I've had bars from Switzerland with so much anhydrous milk fat in them that they couldn't even temper properly. I could actually bend the bar in my hands, right off the shelf, yet they weren't any more or less creamy than another premium milk chocolate.
With regard to using vanilla, while I agree that beans are the way to go, I wouldn't use more than about .3% for a creamy milk chocolate. Personally, I've tried, and found (in my opinion) that the vanilla flavour comes through too predominantly if more is used - especially when vanilla beans are used.
Respectfully, Brad.
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Post by sugaralchemy on Apr 5, 2008 3:47:10 GMT -5
I don't post an exact formula because the taste of proper chocolate depends on the raw ingredients. Some chocolates require more cacao, others require a lower amount. The ranges I provided will get you right in there. The level of cacao then affects the exact levels of other ingredients. You may also decide to derive your milkfat from whole milk powder and/or pure anhydrous milkfat, so the exact formula will vary based on that. I'd rather convey an understanding to the reader so he/she can experiment, rather than dump a bunch of stock formulations out that might or might yield the expected results with no real idea as to how to change them. I guess this is also my nature... I don't inherently see one "correct" formula. Do you want Lindt? Villars? Cadbury? Moreover, I see how it depends a lot on a lot on the cacao, vanilla, and other ingredients, so the formula that makes a fabulous swiss-style milk chocolate for one person might make a terrible one for another, due to ingredient variances. For certain tastes, I'd also want to spec out ingredients not readily available to the readers here - like milk crumb, malt powders, or specific grades/sources of milk powder, as well as commercial vanilla flavors and/or vanilla 'bean' origins. Ultimately, I am posting on my free time to enlighten people, not provide a free chocolate formulation service. Take my free advice for what you will One more tip - if your milk chocolate is coming out too sweet, try replacing some of the sugar with lactose. Lactose is an almost non-sweet sugar which adds a subtle creaminess. This is a very common practice in commercial milk chocolates. You can get lactose at specialty shops, including brewing shops. (It's a non-fermentable sugar used to make milk stout.) You can also use dried sweet whey, which is mostly lactose and also commonly used in swiss milk style chocolates. There's absolutely nothing "wrong" with a milk chocolate that's nice and snappy. However, it's not part of the "swiss milk" style that's the topic of this thread. You will need to temper more carefully with higher milkfat contents, and allow the product to set longer. I use the term "creamy" very loosely, as it has textural, gustatory and aesthetic components. The average eater perceives a higher milkfat chocolate to be much creamier than the same bar with a lower milkfat content, all other factors being identical. Milkfat adds a soft, silky texture, while nonfat milk solids add a milky, creamy taste and white appearance. The usage levels of vanilla / vanillin are up to you, but if you taste most "swiss milk" chocolate the levels of vanillin are very high, even overpowering. I suggested a very high level of vanilla because you need quite a bit of real vanilla to approach the vanilla intense sharp characteristics achieved by vanillin. This is a taste that has been cultivated by commercial chocolate makers, and while it's not necessarily correct (just like the milkfat), it tends to go with the 'swiss milk' style territory. There's a wide range of vanillin levels present in natural vanilla "beans," so usage levels in chocolate of 0.5% might be great for one vanilla, 0.2% for another. Top grade "beans" usually top out at 2-2.5% vanillin, and many are much lower than that - this means that vanilla "beans" lack the intense, sharp vanilla-vanillin taste unless used at very high levels. However, they make up for it in part with a richer, more complex vanilla profile, so low levels can still impart a desirable taste - just not that sharp vanilla intensity typically associated with 'swiss milk' flavors.
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Post by mistacandy on Apr 5, 2008 18:06:43 GMT -5
Where can i get Parmalat milk powder???
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Post by Brad on Apr 6, 2008 13:32:02 GMT -5
I know of nowhere that Parmalat sells whole milk powder in a retail environment. I purchased some for my company, but did so through a commercial food broker. The minimum order quantity I could convince the supplier to send was 500kg. That order alone cost me $10,000!
For "Santha size" quantities, I see you having only two options: 1. Use Skim Milk powder available in almost every grocery store, and augment the fat content with clarified butter (also called ghee, or as science nerds put it: anhydrous milk fat). Remember to do this by weight, and not volume! 2. Purchase the cardboardy tasting, crappy whole milk powder that most organic food stores sell. Just remember, that this often contains up to 33% milkfat, so you will have to adjust the amount with a small bit of skim milk powder.
....Unless somebody out there knows where else to get whole milk powder.
Unfortunately, I can't sell you any at this time.
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Post by ripvanwinkle on Apr 30, 2008 15:49:16 GMT -5
reelchemist, have you put malt in your chocolate yet? Any results? Malt sounds like a natural additive for chocolate. I am thinking of making a batch of white chocolate with it unless it is not a good idea. I liked the malt balls we ate as kids and can imagine the rich taste added to chocolate.
Question: Do you use diastatic or non-diastatic malt powder?
Over the years I have eaten a *lot* of Hebert's white chocolate and always thought that I could taste sweetened evaporated milk in it. Maybe the process used to dry the milk causes that taste? I wonder.
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Post by mistacandy on May 13, 2008 21:02:17 GMT -5
I've recently used malt, but i am trying to keep to the FDA standards because i sell it in local arts and craft shows. Although it tastes AWESOME with the malt i just decided to take the safest route.
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Post by reelchemist on May 14, 2008 0:21:04 GMT -5
No, I haven't gotten around to making the dark milk choc with malt. I had an issue with my Spectra, the belt gave up the ghost and it took me a while to track down a local replacement. Then I got excited about the Dominican beans I got in and made some awesome dark choc.
I have my beans roasted and am going to do that malted choc at least partially over the weekend.
I did make some hot chocolates adding just a small amount of malt and it did taste pretty good - it shows potential at least.
As for the type of malt powder I will have to check the packaging - it is just one I picked up at the brew shop.
I will keep you posted.
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Post by Sebastian on May 14, 2008 5:53:57 GMT -5
mistacandy - you're absolutely allowed to use malt in chocolate under the standard of identity - the only real issue you need to grapple with is how to address a wheat allergen being present. personally, i love a good caramalized milk chocolate with malt in it - however lots of folks are sensitive to wheat, so it might affect your customer base.
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Post by sugaralchemy on May 27, 2008 15:38:56 GMT -5
I will second that... malt is totally allowable under the FDA standard of identity. Moreover, if you are only selling to local arts and crafts shows, you are likely partially or wholly FDA-exempt. Remember, fundamentally, the federal government is here to police just interstate commerce, so this is why the FDA can ban raw milk, yet some raw dairies can legally operate in some states. I have seen several businesses thrive with specialty products by staying small, in-state and being FDA exempt. This is not legal advice, merely anecdotes, but perhaps it will get you pointed in the right direction.
Non-diastatic malt is what you want. It is frequently used in brewing - check a brewing supply store for it. Diastatic is used in dough as a conditioning agent because it has particular enzymatic activity.
Keeping an eye on the allergen situation is important when you work with malt due to the potential wheat/gluten content. People can get really sick if they don't know an allergen is in something and they eat it. Note, gluten-free malt type products do exist, but I have not evaluated them for use in chocolate.
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zen
Neophyte
Posts: 15
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Post by zen on Jul 13, 2009 22:01:56 GMT -5
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