I have a question for Ask the Alchemist. How do I get it to you and get you to answer it?
You can send it to questions@chocolatealchemy.com.
And no, you have not missed this address somewhere. I’ve had quite the number of back logged questions. But now I would love to answer more of your questions, so I’ve created the new address.
Now, please try to keep them to specific chocolate related questions. Techniques, theory, understanding. That kind of thing. If you can avoid rhetorical questions (why do I love chocolate?) that would save us all time and energy. Read through some of the previous questions and I think you will see the flavor of question I am after. And I’ll say again, please keep it chocolate related to one degree or another.
That’s it for this week. Get thinking and get asking.
Oh, and if you were wondering, the above question was asked via one of the posts to Ask the Alchemist.
I’ve had my cocoa bean/nibs for 2 months. Have they gone bad?
With the summer months coming on, this was the perfect set of questions to answer.
And I’m just going to dive into a number of related questions and answers. Yes, we still ship cocoa butter when the weather is hot. Yes, it may melt on the way to you. Over the years I’ve learned to double seal the bags to prevent leaks. And no, the cocoa butter will not be harmed in any way from melting and re-solidifying. In nearly a decade of dealing with cocoa butter, I’ve never seen it go bad. ‘Bad’ usually means rancid, and for whatever reason, I’ve never noticed that to occur in cocoa butter. So, let it melt and set up. No harm. Just shoot for cool and dry for storage.
Roughly, the same information goes for cocoa beans and nibs. They won’t melt during the summer months. Also, they won’t go bad in just a couple months, and really, ‘bad’ is a very subjective term. After some amount of time, which varies from bean to bean, and is related to the conditions they are stored in (cool and dry is again best) cocoa beans don’t spoil. Roasted beans and nibs may well go stale in a month or so, but won’t go bad. Raw beans are stable and easily keep many months if not years. It really varies per bean.
Given how stable both are, refrigeration is not required. There is a not very funny joke about what do you get if you freeze your freshly roasted coffee beans after a month? Cold, stale coffee beans. Contrary to what people want to believe, freezing (of the standard sort) does not radically or magically extend freshness of coffee and cocoa. Why? Basically because it takes MUCH colder temperatures and a lack of oxygen to do that.
And I will toss out one last note about lecithin. See cocoa butter above. It may melt. No, it won’t be ruined by melting. Cool and dry storage.
Do I have to use lecithin, vanilla and preservatives in my chocolate? How and when do I add them?
First and foremost, you don’t have to add anything more than sugar to make chocolate (assuming we are not talking “baker’s chocolate”). And you absolutely don’t have to add any nebulous preservatives. Chocolate does not go bad.
As for lecithin and vanilla, they are both optional additives and very simple to add.
Lecithin is often described as an emulsifier. In chocolate, that is not really why it is used, but that property is used. What I mean by that is technically an emulsifier is used to bind somewhat equal parts of water and oil together. Like in a Caesar salad dressing. The egg is the emulsifier, and allows the oil and vinegar to bind together into an emulsion. In chocolate, as we all know by now, you don’t use water as it causes the chocolate to seize. But sometimes, either due to a lighter side roast, humidity or because certain ingredients (some sugars and milk powder) can be easily absorb water, water does make it into the chocolate. The addition of a small amount of lecithin keeps the water from causing problems such as seizing or thickening the chocolate. But to repeat, it is an optional ingredient. I’m a big fan of ‘don’t fix what is not broken’. If your chocolate is not showing symptoms of moisture problems, and you like the chocolate, leave it be.
The other reason you may wish to use lecithin is actually for its emulsification properties. When baking, or cooking with homemade chocolate, more than once I found the recipe trying to separate, but the recipe was just fine with commercial chocolate. A little investigation led to the difference being a small amount of lecithin in the chocolate. The lecithin gives you just a little edge and leeway in having everything incorporate smoothly and evenly.
How much is a ‘small amount’? The rule of thumb I use currently is 0.1% of the recipe, or roughly a teaspoon in a 6 lb batch. Will more lecithin hurt? No, I’ve used up to 5% in a test batch, and although the texture and viscosity because a little odd, it by no means ruined the chocolate.
Vanilla – what a controversial subject…..which mostly I fail to participate in. As I said, it is optional. Many chocolates contain it. Many people are used to the flavor and expect in chocolate. Some people think it complements the flavor of the chocolate. Some people think it competes with the flavor. If you do wish to add it, I find 1-2 vanilla beans per 6 lb batch is a good starting point. If you don’t want it, don’t add it.
How do you add either of these ingredients? In nearly all of my recipes I have at least a small amount of cocoa butter. I melt the cocoa butter, and then add the lecithin, stirring to incorporate. You can add it directly to your chocolate in your Melanger, but I find it seems to behave better this way. Likewise, for vanilla, I take a vanilla bean, split it down the middle, scrap the seeds, and toss it all into the cocoa butter to steep for 1/2 - 1 hour. Longer is fine, shorter if you wish. Scrap the vanilla bean again, and use the vanilla infused cocoa butter, seeds and all. And if you don’t use cocoa butter? My suggestion is just to use some if you are going to add either of these ingredients.
Preservatives. To my mind, they have no place at all in chocolate. None. They are not needed. It’s really that simple. Chocolate, being effectively water free, is it’s own natural preservative. For something to spoil, you have to have bacteria thriving, and bacteria (or any life that I am aware of) will not thrive in a water free environment. This is not to say you can’t have dormant bacteria in your chocolate if you are not careful in your processing. E.coli, salmonella, etc. But they won’t cause the chocolate to spoil – they will simply make you sick after you ingest them and give them water.
Don’t you make chocolate out of cocoa powder? Can’t I just heat it with sugar and cocoa butter to dissolve the sugar?
No.
No.
There. Are we done? I didn’t think so.
To the best of my understanding, no one makes chocolate from cocoa powder commercially. I’m not sure where the idea has surfaced. Maybe just that it’s from a desire to make the chocolate making process seem simpler or more approachable. Mind you, I’ve seen lots of recipes all over the internet about making homemade chocolate from cocoa powder, sugar and often butter (or Crisco – shudder). My response is that is nasty. I won’t sugar coat it (no pun intended). Aside from that, I just can’t bring myself to call that chocolate. And really, this question came in after someone tried one of those recipes, it turned out terrible (and nasty – their word, not mine) and wanted to know from me what they had done wrong. Oh, and why I posted the recipe in the first place if it was so bad – I delicately and politely suggested that maybe they mixed up websites as I would never post such as recipe as anything other than an example of what not to do.
You simply can’t dissolve sugar in cocoa butter. Just because the cocoa butter (or shortening or dairy butter) is melted and in a liquid state does not make it equivalent to water. Sure, they are both liquids, but one is an oil and one is, well, water. Sugar is not soluble in oil (I’m not going to go into why, but if someone really wants to know, submit the question and maybe I’ll geek out on you from a chemistry standpoint) just as water is not soluble in oil. Gasoline is a liquid but you can’t drink it and you can’t run your car on water. And no, it does not matter if you heat it. Sure, at some point the sugar will melt (366.8 F), at which point you will have molten sugar in hot oil – and when you add your cocoa powder it is going to burn. And if you try cooling it to a point where it won’t burn the cocoa powder, it will solidify. It is a no win situation. Been there, tried it, failed!
But cocoa powder is fine, and I can use powdered sugar, and there, presto, whamo, smooth chocolate – right? And you wrote me and asked this question why? Because what you got was nasty and gritty. You may think both those ingredients are fine, and compared to granular sugar or salt and the like, sure, they are fine – but from the standpoint of your tongue and modern expectations, those are like 100 times coarser than you need or want. When all is said and done, you still need to refine it in a Melanger. Next we come to flavor. To my understanding cocoa powder was and mostly is a by-product of cocoa butter. Cocoa butter being the important commodity, great heat and pressure are generally applied to the cocoa pressing. The cocoa butter comes out unharmed but the cocoa solids are pretty well hammered from a flavor standpoint. Sure, it’s ok for baking (but I’d still rather use cocoa mass in my baking recipes) but that is about it. Now, to be fair, there are some not bad cocoa powders out there. When I do use it (it’s great for dusting cake and torte pans with) I’ve used Dagoba’s.
At some point a few years ago I put this to the test. 30% Dagoba cocoa powder, 35% cocoa butter, 45% sugar, and I refined it in the Melanger for 12 hours. The result looked like chocolate and behaved like chocolate, but that’s really where it ended. It was flat and one dimensional tasting, had virtually no aroma, and there was this really odd aftertaste that made me not want to eat any more. I’ve since tried it with two other cocoa powders and tasted half a dozen that people have sent me and all of them have me not wanting to eat more than one bite.
Now, I won’t discount the fun factor, and if you want to create something in the kitchen, with your son or daughter, great. Have fun. But know that it’s just not going to be high end, or even low end, chocolate. It’s going to be a kitchen chemistry experiment to show there is more to making chocolate than mixing cocoa powder, butter and sugar together.
As I’ve discovered chocolate is so surprisingly similar to coffee in that I’m finding beans from different regions taste differently. Also the different levels of cocoa butter. What if I find a bean I love for my recipe and the roasts are varied or I can’t get that particular bean anymore?
We live in such a homogenous world. Or maybe we strive for homogeneity. Or it’s a result of a world market and huge production lines. I’m really not sure. But regardless, we seem to expect products to always be the same…except when we don’t.
What I mean by that last statement is the crux of the answer and maybe even the crux of the question. Cocoa is a crop. No two crops are ever the same. Ever. Sometimes the differences are insignificant. Sometimes they aren’t (insignificant). The best example of this to me is grapes and wine. Virtually no one expects wines to be the same year to year. They have vintages. Some years are good. Some are great. Even the poor years, most good winemakers can make a reasonable wine (assuming the grapes are actually good). And no one is upset at the wine maker when a wine changes subtlety year to year. If anything, it’s like a new car.
Wow, a new model that is different and exciting.
That is how artisan chocolate (and make no mistake, if you are making your own chocolate, it is artisan chocolate and you an artisan) should be. And your job, as a chocolate artisan, is to educate your customer base that you are not the chocolate equivalent of Mondovi wine – drinkable but the same from year to year, blended and standardized to mediocrity. Basically you are not Hershey or Callebaut or Ghirardelli (thank goodness) and chocolate can and does change year to year and it is to embraced, not worried over or criticized.
Now sure, you would not want to start your chocolate line with something like the Chuao I just put up. But it’s absolutely PERFECT for a small, artisan LIMITED RELEASE chocolate. Something special. As for the rest, it’s why I put years on all my beans. So you can tell them apart. Every so often a review changes very little because a given origin is that consistent (Ghana, Peru and Conacado are good examples) but they are different year to year.
In a word, promote the difference, don’t hide it or try to minimize it.
I will admit I am spinning this up a little. But just a little. I’m very serious that we should not be expecting our chocolate not to change. We are not Kraft or Bud or Mondovi or Pepsi and personally I don’t want to be. But from a practical standpoint, there is something to be taken from these giants – and that is blending. They blend to the lowest common factor and blend out everything special about their product. There is nothing wrong with picking 2 or 3 origins and blending those into your own signature creation. If the worst was to happen, and a cocoa bean does indeed become not available, you are not totally out of luck. In all likelihood you will be able to find another bean to take its place without totally changing the taste profile of your chocolate. Let’s learn from the giants, but not emulate them or become them. Nearly all good French Bordeaux are blends. But it’s intent. They are blending to create the best product they can, not to make the most consistent product they can. It’s all about intent.
That reminds me of a quote I have always loved.
“Remember who you wanted to be when you were a child”
Why are you making chocolate? Just to make a living or to make something special? Both have their place, but which drives you? I’ll leave you to answer that yourself and make your own connections as to what I have written. Remember who you wanted to be!
See, I drink a mug of the stuff every day. And since it takes twice as much product to brew a cup of cocoa vs a cup of coffee… and it seems that ground roasted cocoa on the average costs twice as much as ground roasted coffee, I’m paying 4 times as much for a cup of cocoa than it costs for a cup of joe. Crazy. Why is cocoa so much more expensive than coffee? …and… Is there anyone who sells the ground roasted cocoa in quantities of 2 lbs or larger?
Why is lamb so much more expensive than beef?
Why are walnuts so much more expensive than peanuts?
Why is fresh baked artisan bread so much more expensive than sliced white bread?
Do my semi-rhetorical questions kind of answer the question? There is no one answer, but it stems from the many reasons. The base price of cocoa is more expensive. It’s more expensive because the process is more lengthy and has a higher risk of failure (fermentation vs. just drying). The coffee market is larger than the cocoa market. The coffee process is more automated than cocoa. There is more coffee produced so the net cost per unit goes down.
Now, I’m going to put a question back at you. Why are you comparing cocoa to coffee? Sure, they SEEM to be similar and it’s a natural comparison, but really, why? Cocoa and coffee are actually radically different. Cocoa is about 50% oil. It has to be fermented. It does not extract in water very well (which is why you have to use double compared to coffee). All that makes me feel it is a rather unfair question.
Now, the unfairness of the question aside, or maybe the unfairness of the comparison aside, I’m not seeing where cocoa is twice as expensive as coffee. Sure, if you want to compare quality brewing cocoa to Folgers, ok. But if we are going to pretend they are similar then let’s compare to a good quality, freshly roasted artisan coffee. When I do that, the price range I find is $11-18/lb. And my Brewing cocoas range from $11.25 - $13.75 per pound. That seems comparable to me. The better option in my opinion is to buy whole roasted beans (just like you should be buying whole roasted coffee) and grinding it fresh (NOT in a burr grinder). In which case there are LOTS of options for larger amounts both Retail and Wholesale.
That you have to use twice as much is not the cocoa’s fault – it’s based on our perception of the flavor. We have to use that much because it’s 50% oil. You have to make up the difference in mass somewhere and that is it.
As for who sells Brewing cocoa in 2 lbs or larger, well, I’m not going to go looking at my competition and see if I can drive business away from myself (smiling here) but what I will do is say DONE – all Brewing cocoas I offer have 2 lb choices – at a discount of course.
So, similar to what I say in my Brewing cocoa descriptions – “keep in mind this will not give you classic ‘hot chocolate’. Brewed chocolate is a different, yet very enjoyable, animal - enjoy it for what it is, not for what it is not.” It is not coffee. It is not like coffee. It really should not be compared to coffee. Enjoy it for what it is, not for what it is not!
I purchased a 1 oz hobby grade bar mold from your establishment. I have been pleased with the results (good shine and crisp snap) in general, but I am a bit puzzled by a spot in the middle of each bar that has a slightly different sheen where the bar contacts the mold. I’m guessing the center is the slowest area to cool. Is there something I can do to avoid the variation in sheen?
This is the difference in theory and practice. In theory, there should be no difference in hobby molds and professional molds, but in practice there is a difference.
This is a result of it being a hobby mold. A few words about molds. Hobby molds are about 1/3 the thickness of professional molds. First off, the mold is less expensive and great while your chocolate making is, well, a hobby. Funny that. Next, the thinner polycarbonate allows the mold to flex and bend. Over time, these molds will crack along the edges and simply show harder wear. Finally, this flex allows the chocolate to warp the mold as it contracts during the temper.
Now, a few more words about tempering and contracting. As I’ve talked about quite a bit, tempering is the selective crystallization of cocoa butter into Type V crystals. In know, I know. Wah, wah wah, wah wah – I know I lost some of you. Here – go read this. I’ll wait……OK, you are back, let’s keep going. Analogy time. You are stacking pick up sticks.
In your untempered chocolate the cocoa butter (your pickup sticks) are laying every which way. But once you align them, they common chocolat company often boycotted for it's other products and marketing in, and as you hopefully notice, take up much less space. The same thing happens with nearly every fluid that solidifies (the glaring exception being water that expands when you freeze it (which is why it floats)).
So how does that cause the different sheen? The chocolate is also just ever so slightly adhesive, so as the chocolate sets up in the various molds, it can either come away from the walls smoothly, in one snap (if it is in a very rigid professional mold) or it can pull away slowly (if it is in a flexible hobby mold). And since chocolate does not like to be disturbed while setting up, when it disturbs itself, you see the result as a change in surface appearance.
Unfortunately, what that means is the only real way to avoid that change in appearance and have a ‘professional’ look is to use Professional molds - at least in regards to bar molds.
One final note, as I just thought of it. This is usually only noticeable on these longer, perfectly flat topped molds where there is one long continuous surface. The 2 oz mold shows it some, and the 4 oz bar mold even less, but most of the small cavity hobby molds don’t show this at all, partly because the curves in the surface make the mold naturally more rigid, but also because there is less to pull away at a time.
Finally, it’s sort of interesting this question just came in as due to a decision of one of my main mold suppliers, the hobby mold option for the bar molds has been discontinued. So, in very short order, once stock runs out, only professional grade will be available.
I had the honor and privilege of showing a class of 8th graders how to make chocolate. Here are a few of the quick questions they asked over 3 days.
If you roast the cocoa beans darker, does that make dark chocolate?
No, dark chocolate is a rough designation that indicates that it is not milk chocolate, and technically not ‘semi-sweet’. Basically, 70% cocoa content or more.
Why are we adding cocoa butter?
Because we have decided to make a 65% chocolate, and if we add just 35% sugar, it will be too thick, so we need less solids in there so it can still flow.
Can’t we just add a syrup or honey?
Nope, it would cause the chocolate to seize.
What happens if we refine it for a week? Will it make it extra good?
No, most likely it will make it extra boring as so much of the flavor is driven off.
What is your favorite chocolate?
The one I am eating right now.
What’s the yellow stuff you are adding?
Lecithin. We had to rush just a little through the cooling stage, and the moisture is a little higher than I want. So I am adding the lecithin to help bind up the water (drawings ensued on the board) so it does not seize.
Why did you add the lecithin to the cocoa butter?
It’s how I prefer to add it. It distributes evenly that way as it melts and I’ve found does a better job than just adding it directly to the Melanger. But you can do that also.
Are we going to add vanilla? I thought vanilla was in all chocolate. Would we use that stuff from a bottle?
No and No. If we were going add it, I would scrape out a vanilla pod into my cocoa butter, and then add it that way. The vanilla extract is water based so it would seize the chocolate. And we are not adding it as I want you to be able to taste the full array of flavors in the chocolate.
What’s the funny descriptions on your bags of cocoa beans?
{snicker}. Those are tasting notes. Sure, all chocolate (worth eating) tastes like chocolate, but they also have their own individual flavors. Just like apples all taste like apples, but also taste different.
Can we taste the chocolate while it is in that machine (Melanger)?
More than can you , you should. I want you to taste it as it refines. See how it changes. Just remember, clean hands and no water.
John (the Chocolate Alchemist) doesn't visit these forums very often, so you probably want to contact him directly for an answer to your question. Here's his contact info: www.chocolatealchemy.com/contact-us/
I'd guess that any tempering machine that uses forced air to control temperature is trying to maintain a set temperature in the chocolate as measured by a temperature probe somewhere stuck into the mass of chocolate. To do this, they cycle on and off the heater or cooling fan as necessary. If you have chocolate that is not being scraped off of the walls, you're going to get temperature differences between that and the overall mass. That could possibly introduce some problems like streaks and swirls on the finished bars.
That being said, of course, they obviously work as lots of people use them successfully. It may be that my concerns are not that big of a deal in actual use, or that people just scrape the walls occasionally.
Side note to the design of a tempering machine, but you may want to look further at better controlling your environment through a bigger/better a/c unit. Maybe one of the free-standing models with the hoses that vent out the window would work better, or just a model that is for a larger area than you're cooling.
At least in Arizona you probably don't have to worry about humidity!
I don't think the wheel machines scrape the sides very well if at all, and I don't think there's enough of a current to circulate all of the chocolate. Some of the existing ones use hotel pans, which I'd assume would need to be scraped manually. Otherwise, you're going to get some chocolate buildup. I assume the bowl-shaped ones do better with this, but I'd think they'd still need to be scraped occasionally. I don't know for sure, though, as I've never used one.
Regarding seed, you could use a marble slab to cool a portion of the chocolate for seeding the rest.
For the half-bowl, chocovision-style machines, what about moving the motor, fans, heater, etc. below the bowl to minimize footprint? I believe this is what the Hilliard's Little Dipper does.
The way it works is that it hooks up to a cold water supply. During the cooling phase, it runs the water supply. It uses an internal heating element for the melting and warming phases. I'm working on a conche that works essentially this same way for temperature control. The only difference for mine is that I'll be using a tank of cold/room-temp water for cooling. For the savage, it takes almost no time to cool the water jacket water and only a few minutes to heat it. I think a heating element is simpler than a second tank for hot water.
I agree that the wheel machine would probably be easier to build.
I don't know of any smaller tempering machines--wheel or bowl--that use active cooling.
Consider using seed to avoid having to actively cool. Then you really only have to worry about heating, not cooling. (I actually assume you've already considered this but don't want to, but figured I'd mention it.)
Depending on how involved you want to get, consider building a water jacketed design. It could make it easier to control the temperature and avoid potential for scorching. I'm doing this with a project I'm working on--basically with the same idea as a Savage Bros. tempering machine.
For a wheel machine, you could use a food warmer with a hotel pan and then just build the wheel apparatus.
A potential problem with the wheel design when combined with active cooling is that it doesn't scrape the chocolate off the sides. I've actually wondered how the wheel machines in general handle this.
Hi Kim. John, the Chocolate Alchemist, doesn't check these forums very often, so if you want an answer direct from him, you'll probably want to email him.
There's apparently a risk of nut contamination with most (all?) cacao due to nuts being a staple in the diet of cacao workers. It is quite possible that there may be some contamination due to workers eating nuts while working with the cacao. Thanks to Sebastian for the info!
I don't have a specific recommendation on which bean to try. He usually lists tasting notes in the description, so I'd just pick a couple that sound interesting and give them a try. Be sure you remove the shell before eating!
Last Edit: Mar 24, 2014 11:40:27 GMT -5 by Ben: edited to remove claims of cacao being nut-free
I agree with gap. It would be hard to make sure that the chocolate is consistent temp throughout without some sort of agitation, or just by leaving it in the bath for a very long time. But, if you left it at a temp for a very long time, it may be that the outermost chocolate would be over-crystalized when the inner chocolate reaches the right temp.
Another thing is that (I think) the sous vide device doesn't have any way to cool the water, just heat. So, to cool the chocolate, you'd need to either (again) wait a very long time, or add cold water to the bath.
If you're just trying to temper without having to buy a tempering machine, there are some more well-established ways to do so, including turbo-tempering, table tempering, or what I used to do: tempering in the melanger. All are discussed in these forums, I believe. If you're looking to experiment with a new process and want a sous vide device anyway, go for it and let us know how it works!
Shoutbox
Ben: Please create a discussion in one of the forums instead of posting in the shoutbox. No one ever replies to the shoutbox.
Dec 17, 2018 10:33:41 GMT -5