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Post by littleblue on Jun 2, 2013 15:26:06 GMT -5
Ok - until now we've been making chocolate using cacao butter and cacao powder (both Criollo) to make raw chocolate, and have been working on roughly 5 parts cacao to 2 parts butter, melted. Today I got my small Santha wired up and running, and did the usual - forget everything I'd read and just dumped it all in (a kilo powder, 200g butter) and surprise surprise it wouldn't turn. Remove it all, start again. I then melted 200g of cacao butter and poured that in, which allowed me to get some more of the butter/powder mix in the grinder, then melted another 400g butter and added the rest of the powder. All *seems* to be going ok. Yeah, I know, there's a question in here somewhere - does anyone have *any* tips for using the machine with cacao powder instead of nibs? The chocolate we've been making so far with the 5:2 ratio was delicious, but 5:4, I know, isn't going to be as nice, it will be very dull on the palette. We're going to try nibs, that's the next stage, but for now it would be nice to know if we can get that 5:2 ratio with powder. Oh, there's no sugar, because we use agave, and you said not to put that in the drum, so I didn't. Thank you in advance, and yeah, you can call me stupid.
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Post by Brad on Jun 2, 2013 22:28:58 GMT -5
You're not stupid. You're trying something new.
Doing it twice is stupid. Haha!
Do some math, and get your fat content to around 50% (equivalent to straight nibs). Note that your cocoa powder will also contain fat (anywhere from 8-12%) by weight. This should make your mixture fluid enough for the machine to handle it. It will still be very thick though.
Cheers. Brad
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Post by littleblue on Jun 3, 2013 10:28:12 GMT -5
Haha, thanks for that, Brad - It's currently at 5:4 ratio, so just below the 50/50, thick, glossy, beautifully heated and (aphasia, can't remember the word) Refined! That's the word, tastes great, but still that powdery dryness in the mouth. No sugar, as I said, so just butter and powder in there right now, been going since 8pm last night, 20 hours now, and still powdery. I'm going to try another 200g butter (to bring it up to the 50/50 you suggest) and see how it goes. Meanwhile I have nibs ready for the next batch. I think the raw will continue to be made in the microwave, we have that at a really good ratio, and it doesn't need tempering, so that should be ok. Time to get a new chocolate recipe for the smoother stuff, though!
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