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Post by liberty on Jul 26, 2011 11:34:04 GMT -5
Hi..I am new to this forum, in hopes that someone might help me with my chocolate making. I am using cacao butter, cacao powder and honey. I melt the cacao butter and the honey together first, then add the cacao powder. I am tempering it. After melting I lower the temp to 80, then raise it to 88. I then pour the chocolate into the silicone molds that I am using. Here's what's happening: usually there is a white film on the outside, sometimes there are tiny dots on it (with no color, different shade of brown), and sometimes the chocolate "caves in" in the middle. Any advice would be most helpful!
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Post by Brad on Jul 26, 2011 13:50:52 GMT -5
Liberty;
If you are trying to make chocolate, you can't do it with honey. THE golden rule of chocolate making is that at no time can a water based ingredient be introduced to the recipe.
Chocolate is a suspension of solid particles in a fat which crystalizes. Introducing water to that equation causes the chocolate to "sieze", or in the case of smaller quantities, prevents the appropriate crystals from forming and bonding - hence resulting in the problem you are encountering.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but you will never be able to make a temperable chocolate with honey.
Maybe you can explain with more clarity what you wish your end result to be, and we can provide you with some alternatives... There are some pretty astute people here.
Cheers.
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Post by liberty on Jul 26, 2011 18:08:15 GMT -5
Ugh...really? I had a chocolate company last year, and used honey and it worked fine. Difference was I used a combo of cacao butter and coconut oil. So honey is water based? I thought it was a syrup. So am I right in assuming that you can only do crystal sugars then? Thank you for your help...
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Post by Brad on Jul 27, 2011 1:46:03 GMT -5
Again, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish with your creation. If you're trying to create something that might dissolve in water or hot milk, such as a "drinking chocolate puck", then you don't need to worry about texture or tempering, as it all dissolves in the liquid anyway.
Honey on average contains about 20% water - low enough to not promote pathogen growth, but high enough to prevent it from being used to make a temperable eating chocolate bar.
Crystal sugars will never dissolve either if you're trying to make chocolate with them. They need to be ground down, just like cocoa beans are.
Again, what exactly is it that you are using your creation for? Chocolate bars? truffles? What?
If you can explain in detail what you intend to accomplish, we can help.
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josh
Novice
Posts: 56
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Post by josh on Aug 16, 2011 18:06:43 GMT -5
They say chocolate can't hold humidity or in this case honey, not true. Chocolate is not as rigid as people on this forum think it is. Water and humidity will ruin a chocolate and even cause it to turn to a solid in seconds but, thats a lot of water, in industrial machines.
Here I think you should try using some cacao solids in the formula (cacao beans or liquor or dark chocolate) and reading on how to properly temper. If you are amped to add honey make sure it is not more than 3-5% and fold it in at the end when you are tempering. It still may not work well and discolor the chocolate as its not going to be well mixed- good luck. The pro's use powder.
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