|
Post by lyndon on Apr 26, 2014 8:52:49 GMT -5
Judging by the ingredients, all the vegan food/health websites out there dishing out chocolate bar recipes Sebastian I expect Most of them (naturally) require you to refrigerate your chocolate to keep it solid.
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Apr 19, 2014 17:05:03 GMT -5
Thanks for all the information/experience with caramelising sugar, and you are probably right, perhaps it's not the taste I am going for. Caramelising the milk sugar unfortunately isn't an option because the recipe I am working on is vegan, containing various combinations of soy/hemp/oats rather than milk.
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Apr 16, 2014 16:36:48 GMT -5
Thanks, those photos are great. I'm going to order the parts I need for my own next month,although I am sure mine won't look quite so good.
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Apr 16, 2014 16:35:49 GMT -5
Thanks Tim, I tried dry caramelising, it always burns, but have been making my own toffee with milk/sugar just fine. No doubt I can calculate the time required for the water to evaporate leaving me with my 99% sugar I guess.
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Apr 12, 2014 4:03:02 GMT -5
That looks fantastic, and so affordable too. I may do something similar myself. Do you have a photo of the hatch element of your cage? And is it all simply attached to the original forks?
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Apr 12, 2014 3:36:50 GMT -5
I agree, the pulp of a mature cocoa pod is a beautiful thing. The beans, not so much. If you get the opportunity to ferment the pulp into an alcoholic beverage (or just consume one that someone else has done for you), it's equally as good Now this is interesting, would you brew it like a cider or a spirit? I've done a little home brewing myself although lost the kit in an accident a few years ago and not replaced it yet. But with spring here now, I am tempted to buy a new one what does it taste similar too?
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Apr 11, 2014 16:41:51 GMT -5
Does anyone know if you can buy pre-caramelised sugar? I've looked but not had any luck finding it.
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Sept 18, 2013 6:48:47 GMT -5
Max, I melt the butter and add it at the same time as the nibs, else the grinder struggles. Also handy to keep a hair dryer around if you have not preheated your granite.
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Sept 13, 2013 4:29:33 GMT -5
Are you sure? The only documents I can find for the EU lists only those 5. But either way, they give me a good start for experimenting, I've ordered palm/shea and mango (although the internet tells me this is never used in food products) since they were easy to find, going to give them a go this weekend, probably not mixing them together, just 5% of each in different batches.
I also read palm oil helps with tempering and reducing bloom?
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Sept 12, 2013 4:48:03 GMT -5
Here in the UK, "Vegetable Fat" has been a stable ingredient in main stream chocolate for decades, giving it that sticky softer mouth feel I guess. We anger our European neighbours with our heathen ways, and chocolate snobs turn their noses up at the very thought; but on the whole the British public like what it does for their chocolate. Legally there are 5 choices of oil you can add here, Illip, Sol, Palm, Shea and Mango. I've not heard of the first 2 and can't really find any details about them, let alone find them for sale.
But my question is, has anyone experimented with any of these before?
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Sept 8, 2013 7:42:15 GMT -5
Well, if I can actually find a pump that does at least 30 litres per hour, I will post here about how well I get on. So far I can only find 3 litres per hour tops, just a little too slow
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Sept 4, 2013 16:30:18 GMT -5
These peristaltic pumps seem like they might do the trick, and some cheap options on eBay, I guess the problem there is going to be temperature control if the flow is fairly slow, wouldn't want it to cool too much before it comes out the other end. I will see what I can find available anyway, I would love to do away with the syringe.
Presumably if you can swap out the tubing with a "food safe" option, that's all you really need?
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Sept 2, 2013 11:33:58 GMT -5
Are there any sort of pumping devices that can be purchased? Like, pour your tempered chocolate into them and it will pump chocolate out when you press a button on a hose or anything like that? I had planned to make something, but couldn't find any suitable hardware. I just finished making 24 bars (should have been 30) but I just wasn't maximising the syringe system, I ended up with a lot left over in my heating pan that I just couldn't suck up, and who knows what happened to the rest of the missing 600g!
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Aug 26, 2013 3:17:52 GMT -5
Nothing went wrong on your end, the recipe you followed is just plain wrong for making chocolate.
Follow the top recipe on that page for cocoa beans instead, but replace "cocoa beans" with 50% cocoa powder and 50% cocoa butter (or coconut oil maybe?).
|
|
|
Post by lyndon on Aug 21, 2013 7:50:11 GMT -5
In terms of temperature control and avoiding extreme bursts of heat it might work best with a slow cooker rather than a hotplate?
|
|