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Post by castitr on Mar 9, 2014 14:25:55 GMT -5
Hello there! My name is Trisha Castillo and I am a student from Wellington High School NZ. I am doing a project this year about edible souvenirs. I decided to focus on making chocolate bars. Since I will be using this project as an application for scholarship next year for university, I thought of doing something different and unique. So I will be developing a kiwi fruit filled chocolate bar sweetened with stevia. I will dearly appreciate it if you could answer some of my questions below.
1. When I make the chocolates, the sugar does not dissolve so the mixture is a bit grainy. What do I do?
2. I’ve tempered my chocolate and it did harden. But once I touch it, it would melt straight away into a grainy mixture. What should I do?
3.Is there any difference between organic cacao butter and normal cocoa butter? I use organic cacao butter and it has a distinct earthy taste. Is there any way to minimise it?
4.Which is better to use, dutch cocoa powder or normal cocoa powder?
Thanks in advance.
Yours truly, Trisha Castillo
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Post by kevin on Mar 9, 2014 17:23:51 GMT -5
1. What exactly do you mean by "the sugar does not dissolve"? Are you working bean-to-bar yourself or do you work from couverture. If you are working from couverture, is it pre-sweetened or un-sweetened? Or the inference I get from reading your question #4, are you trying to do this with cocoa powder?
2. How much time elapsed between the moment it hardened and the moment you touched it?
3. The general difference between organic cocoa butter and non-organic would be the methods it was grown on the farm. From your description of the taste it sounds like you are using not only an organic cocoa butter but a butter that has not been deodorized or neutralized.
4. That depends entirely on your preferences. Dutched cocoa powder has alkalis added to it which make it less bitter in taste and darker in color. If you are using a really good high quality cocoa powder made with cocoa that has been properly fermented and dried, then you may not need or want the dutch process.
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Post by castitr on Mar 10, 2014 1:24:16 GMT -5
Hello Thank you for your response! 1. Well, whenever I make the chocolate mixture (melted cacao butter, cocoa powder sugar etc), the sugar does not melt and stays grainy. 2. I'm kind of making a bean to bar chocolate but without all the bean processing. Yes, I use unsweetened cocoa powder. 3. Maybe around a minute or so. And when I tempered it, it didn't harden properly since it is too grainy. 4. Do you know a way of minimising that distinct earthy taste of organic cacao butter?
Again, thank you so much!
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Post by kevin on Mar 10, 2014 10:48:36 GMT -5
What you are trying to do is like reverse physics. It is possible but not easy.
Now that you have told us your ingredients, please tell us what kind of equipment you are using to mix them together. I suspect the reason the sugar does not dissolve and stays grainy is because you are not using a machine with adequate power.
If and when you use a machine that can technically speaking "suspend" the sugar in the cocoa, you will want to wait longer than a minute after tempering to allow the chocolate to set.
When you say "earthy taste" of cocoa butter I am assuming that it has not been treated or deodorized. I think you can add some sodium or potassium carbonate to neutralize the taste or you can purchase cocoa butter that has already been deodorized. Before doing any of that you might want to see how the cocoa butter you now have tastes when it is mixed together with your cocoa powder and sugar. You might like it.
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Post by Ben on Mar 10, 2014 13:08:38 GMT -5
Sugar doesn't dissolve in cocoa butter, so to make it smooth, you'll need to refine it. You may be able to get a little better texture using a food processor, but you may burn out the motor... You really need to a melanger for this. See this post for more info on why: chocolatetalk.proboards.com/thread/1373/28-all-equipment
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Post by castitr on Mar 11, 2014 3:56:32 GMT -5
Thank you all for your lovely answers! One more thing, whenever i make the chocolate mixture, I see bubbles forming and the end result (hard chocolate) has a little bit of fizz to it. Is it something to do with the stevia reacting with the other ingredients? (I used dutch cocoa by the way.) And what is the shelf life of a homemade chocolate?
^^
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Post by kevin on Mar 11, 2014 11:45:29 GMT -5
To get the bubbles out you can just shake the chocolate before it sets. You can do this either manually or with a vibrating table.
The shelf life of chocolate depends on whether you are making milk chocolate or dark chocolate and whether any other inclusions are added like nuts. Generally speaking dark chocolate lasts 2 years and milk chocolate no more than 1 year but I prefer something like 6 months or less for milk chocolate.
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Post by castitr on Mar 12, 2014 17:33:20 GMT -5
Thank you so much for all your help~!
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Post by writersblock15 on Apr 25, 2014 20:03:53 GMT -5
If you use the cocoa powder and cocoa butter method to make a chocolate bar than you need to use an inverted sugar. Either a sugar syrup, maple syrup, or honey will work.
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Post by Sebastian on Apr 26, 2014 6:02:18 GMT -5
ooh i'm afraid that's just not good advice at all. Writersblock, what makes you suggest that, and have you tried it?
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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.
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