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Post by kauai cacao on Oct 21, 2008 15:01:38 GMT -5
I am wondering if anyone has information or experience on adding just cocoa butter to their chocolate formulation without added lecithin. I am making a 75% Hawaiian criollo bar, but I added some extra cocoa butter as it was overly thick and was unable to obtain liquid lecithin, not to mention, having my doubts about using such a product. Iʻm unsure how lecithin actually works with the chocolate. I know it is an emulsifier, a thinning agent (or thickening, depending on how much one uses). My question is when you add cocoa butter, does one always have to add lecithin?
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Post by Sebastian on Oct 21, 2008 15:58:43 GMT -5
No.
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Chad
Neophyte
Posts: 11
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Post by Chad on Oct 21, 2008 18:46:31 GMT -5
I agree with Sebastian, you do not need to add lecithin.
I make my dark (71% without any added cocoa butter), milk, and white and do not use lecithin. The very first batch I made had lecithin in it, and since then I have skipped it. Part of my reason was that all of my other ingredients were organic, and the lecithin was not (even though it was from a store that sells primarily organic products). I also like a very short ingredient list. My chocolate turns out great without the lecithin.
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Post by chocolatedr on Aug 4, 2009 12:50:34 GMT -5
I have used both with lecithin and without. I can't tell a noticeable difference between the two.
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Post by Alchemist on Aug 4, 2009 21:37:11 GMT -5
Agreed - lecithin is optional. Generally speaking, it is a cheaper viscosity modifier than cocoa butter and often why it is used. I also don't generally use it. When I do, it is with a high solids chocolate and then usually at a rate of 0.2% of the added cocoa butter.
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Post by garth on Aug 12, 2009 15:40:17 GMT -5
Lecithin is good for shelf life. Chemically sugar and chocolate don't get along very well so adding the lecithin will surround the sugar and give it a charge the chocolate likes otherwise it will opt to go with the moisture in the air and be more prone to bloom.
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Post by patsyswine on May 16, 2010 9:37:34 GMT -5
Forgive the ignorance here guys, but I only just discovered the product through chatting with a man who has a fudge shop in my city. He suggested I buy lecithin, particularly when working with white chocolate. Where would I look for it? Also, my milk chocolate truffles never seem to work. Any tips?
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Post by Brad on May 17, 2010 1:30:53 GMT -5
First of all, why would you need lecithin when working with white chocolate?
Second, there are several hundred reasons why your milk chocolate truffles don't work. If you provided some detail (the more the better) I'm sure someone would be able to help you out.
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Post by Sebastian on May 17, 2010 5:22:43 GMT -5
White chocolate has a tendancy to absorb ambient moisture more readily than it's darker cousins as it's stored. Most people don't store it correctly and/or try storing it too long, resulting in high moisture levels . When it does that, it's viscosity increases, making it hard to work with. Lecithin, being ampiphilic (one end loves water, one end loves fat), will help bind some of that excess water, restoring the white chocolate to some of it's former low viscosity glory. The problem is worse if you're buying wafers/discs/pistoles (something small with lots of surface area)
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Post by Brad on May 17, 2010 11:16:55 GMT -5
Sebastian;
Thanks again! That makes total sense.
You know... The more I learn about chocolate, the more I realize that the semi-arid climate we are in here in Calgary is GREAT for a chocolate business. It seems that many of the headaches associated with chocolate and humidity don't exist.
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Post by mephisto on May 17, 2010 23:44:24 GMT -5
Most Interesting.
My own experience with Lecithin has been mixed. I found it aided in speeding up the grinding process, but in the end abandoned it as i felt it altered the texture/mouthfeel in an unpleasant way. Almost a kind of waxiness, very slight, but perceptible.
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Post by patsyswine on May 30, 2010 9:10:26 GMT -5
I have never used Lecithin and can only obtain it in one place. What are the quantities needed and how does it work?
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Post by Sebastian on May 30, 2010 13:13:24 GMT -5
get the fluid lecithin. You'll only use 0.5% max. I think John sells it here. It works because it's an ampiphillic molecule - meaning one end binds to hydrophillic (water loving) ingredients, and one end binds to liphophillic (fat loving) ingredients. This essentially 'lubricates' your ingredients so that they flow smoothly together, resulting in a lower viscosity chocolate so you can pour it, dip things in it, mould it, get air bubbles out of it, etc.
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Post by mephisto on May 31, 2010 14:43:07 GMT -5
I only see the granulated form on John's site. In fact, that is all I have used in the past. Will fluid lecithin work much differently or effectively?
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Post by Sebastian on Jun 1, 2010 13:28:18 GMT -5
Yes, it's much more suited to the task than granulated.
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