Post by ez on Sept 10, 2006 19:55:21 GMT -5
Hi Folks,
Just wanted to preface this post by first saying thanks to John and all you folks who are sharing there thoughts and techniques. I read thru some of the posts and skimmed the rest to look for fatal mistakes or things NOT to do.
I didn't start chocolate making with the Alchemist web-site, however he did have the technique with the Champion and Santha that I was looking for, so I scraped my plans to fabricate the equipment and saved a lot by adopting the small equipment method.
I also buy beans from John, though only a couple of times.
My first bean was Caranero Superior,
Roasting them at 300 for about 20 minutes in a convection oven, letting them cool, cracking/crushing in a large mortar/pestle.
Hair dryer winnowing in a large mixing bowl
Champion style grinding to get the liquefied oozing liquor, with melted coco-butter to clean out (after running the "waste" thru 3 times.
Then measuring the sugar first into the Santha, grinding for about 20-30 minutes to powderized, then adding the liquor, about an half inch of Tahitian vanilla bean(my personal fav.) and a pinch of lecithin.
I believe I was making 3 lbs of Caranero beans. Since I haven't purchased a scale yet, I just estimated for a 70% total coco 30% sugar with the ratio of coco butter being about 20% of the bean quantity after winnowing. (Yes and losses in the Champion....)
I refined the mess for 24 hours, after I noticed it was like smooth buttery cream, I used the marble slab method to temper. I got my molds at a local candy making supply. Needless to say that first batch was the best as everyone who tried it, still asks me for more, I thought it was by far the best I have ever tasted and I have tried a lot of different ones.
I then did a batch of Jamaican, since I wrote everything down, but later lost the paper, all I can say is that, since I can’t describe the flavor, it was very unusual chocolate that got mixed reactions. Some people loved it and some said it was ok.
I recently bought some Ocumares (Venezuelan Criollo) . After experimenting, being careful as it seems that everybody including a couple of chocolate books indicate that one should not over-roast I came up with 300 degrees for 13 minutes in a convection oven.
This time I eyeballed the ratio and it’s roughly a 60-70%. No vanilla, no lecithin, no coco-butter. Refining time was about 14 hours.
I like the deep “lost in the woods” flavor that seems to just stay for hours after I eat a small piece.
My wife says its great but the texture aftertaste is like too-soft.
I combined it with some left over Jamaican, in a ratio of 3 parts Ocumare to 1 part Jamaican. Its got that deep woods flavor with an aftertaste of the Jamaican.
I like to make chocolate at the 60-70% scale.
(Sometime I would like take a class in chocolate taste description terminology, as I hardly understand half the terms you guys are using!!)
Well I apologize for my crude documentation and terrible grammatical syntax, run on sentences and the like, however I will try to document my next go round and study up on some better descriptive words for my (and my family and friends) experiences (or endurances) with my at home chocolate making.
Anyways, this stuff works, it gets easier (except for tempering, lots of stirring as it seems to separate/bloom easy) as you go. You'll never get rich making chocolate, as you have to be rich to get into the business, ( I gave it a go, no dough, no investers) so Im content with making a batch here and there and sharing it, putting big smiles on peoples faces!!! ;D
EZ<><
Just wanted to preface this post by first saying thanks to John and all you folks who are sharing there thoughts and techniques. I read thru some of the posts and skimmed the rest to look for fatal mistakes or things NOT to do.
I didn't start chocolate making with the Alchemist web-site, however he did have the technique with the Champion and Santha that I was looking for, so I scraped my plans to fabricate the equipment and saved a lot by adopting the small equipment method.
I also buy beans from John, though only a couple of times.
My first bean was Caranero Superior,
Roasting them at 300 for about 20 minutes in a convection oven, letting them cool, cracking/crushing in a large mortar/pestle.
Hair dryer winnowing in a large mixing bowl
Champion style grinding to get the liquefied oozing liquor, with melted coco-butter to clean out (after running the "waste" thru 3 times.
Then measuring the sugar first into the Santha, grinding for about 20-30 minutes to powderized, then adding the liquor, about an half inch of Tahitian vanilla bean(my personal fav.) and a pinch of lecithin.
I believe I was making 3 lbs of Caranero beans. Since I haven't purchased a scale yet, I just estimated for a 70% total coco 30% sugar with the ratio of coco butter being about 20% of the bean quantity after winnowing. (Yes and losses in the Champion....)
I refined the mess for 24 hours, after I noticed it was like smooth buttery cream, I used the marble slab method to temper. I got my molds at a local candy making supply. Needless to say that first batch was the best as everyone who tried it, still asks me for more, I thought it was by far the best I have ever tasted and I have tried a lot of different ones.
I then did a batch of Jamaican, since I wrote everything down, but later lost the paper, all I can say is that, since I can’t describe the flavor, it was very unusual chocolate that got mixed reactions. Some people loved it and some said it was ok.
I recently bought some Ocumares (Venezuelan Criollo) . After experimenting, being careful as it seems that everybody including a couple of chocolate books indicate that one should not over-roast I came up with 300 degrees for 13 minutes in a convection oven.
This time I eyeballed the ratio and it’s roughly a 60-70%. No vanilla, no lecithin, no coco-butter. Refining time was about 14 hours.
I like the deep “lost in the woods” flavor that seems to just stay for hours after I eat a small piece.
My wife says its great but the texture aftertaste is like too-soft.
I combined it with some left over Jamaican, in a ratio of 3 parts Ocumare to 1 part Jamaican. Its got that deep woods flavor with an aftertaste of the Jamaican.
I like to make chocolate at the 60-70% scale.
(Sometime I would like take a class in chocolate taste description terminology, as I hardly understand half the terms you guys are using!!)
Well I apologize for my crude documentation and terrible grammatical syntax, run on sentences and the like, however I will try to document my next go round and study up on some better descriptive words for my (and my family and friends) experiences (or endurances) with my at home chocolate making.
Anyways, this stuff works, it gets easier (except for tempering, lots of stirring as it seems to separate/bloom easy) as you go. You'll never get rich making chocolate, as you have to be rich to get into the business, ( I gave it a go, no dough, no investers) so Im content with making a batch here and there and sharing it, putting big smiles on peoples faces!!! ;D
EZ<><