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Post by jwalter on Dec 4, 2014 17:51:00 GMT -5
Im trying to make a 70/30-ish formula Im using Papua New Guinea beans I started the formula with the amount of cocoa liquor I ended up with after grinding which was 514.75 grams I based the amount of cocoa butter on another persons formula. I dont know how it is calculated. It said it was based off the beans offering 50% cocoa butter. Can someone explain how that is calculate & if my amount is correct?
Also, I was planning to add the butter & lecithin about 1hr before conching is complete.
Choco Mass 71.00% 514.75 g Sugar 29.00% 210.25 g Cocoa Butter 3.00% 21.75 g Lecithin 0.08% 0.58g
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Post by Sebastian on Dec 4, 2014 21:22:41 GMT -5
your formula is fine - it'll give you roughly 38% total fat (depending on the fat of your cocoa beans to start with). i might increase the lecithin to 0.5% if i were you.
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Post by Ben on Dec 5, 2014 8:53:56 GMT -5
To calculate this based on the amount of liqour or nibs that you have, you just need to find the total batch size and from that you can find the amounts of the other ingredients. So, in your example, you want a 70% cacao chocolate, so your liqour and cocoa butter need to be 70%. Since you're adding 3% cocoa butter, that means that the liqour will be 67%.
So, first figure the total batch size by dividing the liqour weight by 67% or .67: 514.75/.67 = 768.28g
From there, just multiply the total by the percentages desired of the remaining ingredients. Note that in your numbers above, that the total is over 100% and work out to about a 72% cacao chocolate, so I'm adjusting them somewhat to make a 70%. I'm using 67% liquor, 3% cocoa butter, 29.92% sugar, and .08% lecithin.
Cocoa Butter: 768.28 * .03 = 23.05g Sugar: 768.28 * .2992 = 229.87g Lecithin: 768.28 * .0008 = .61g
As a sanity check, you can add them all back up to make sure that they equal the total: 514.75 + 23.05 + 229.87 + .61 = 768.28
Hope this helps!
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Post by jwalter on Dec 5, 2014 19:59:10 GMT -5
Thanks Ben. That is very helpful. The first part of determining the total batch size is what I was missing. I couldnt figure out the formula and was trying to back into it. Ill use this method on the next batch. The batch finished up this afternoon and ended up being my best of 3 so far
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Post by mrbill on Feb 2, 2020 7:35:35 GMT -5
Awesome answer. Correct calculations for ingredients have been a mystery, to me, for years. I am not mathematically illiterate, merely mathematically challenged. I have been stumbling through random calculations until I reached a"more or less answer". This makes it easy. Thank you for the insight.
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Jim B.
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Post by Jim B. on Feb 23, 2020 7:22:27 GMT -5
Okay, I'm a newbie.... What is the reason to delay adding the butter and lecithin?
Thanks!
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Post by Chip on Feb 23, 2020 8:12:19 GMT -5
jim B., What do you mean delay? My typical batch goes like this: 1. Put powdered vanilla in melange (melange is NOT tightened down) 2. Put melted cocoa butter in, start melange 3. Slowly add cocoa liquor (or nibs if you want) 4. Once butter and liquor all set 5. Slowly add sugar 6. after a few hours tighten down the melange
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Jim B.
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Post by Jim B. on Feb 23, 2020 8:43:49 GMT -5
Chip The first post from jwalter on Dec 4 stated, "Also, I was planning to add the butter & lecithin about 1hr before conching is complete." I was wondering why not at the beginning?
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Post by Chip on Feb 23, 2020 9:22:32 GMT -5
Ahh, I didn't read that.
I don't know that one! LOL. Some people hold off adding the sugar because they feel that adding the sugar too soon will retain some of the "free radicals" that need to be milled off. But holding off the other ingredients I have no idea.
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Post by Sebastian on Feb 25, 2020 18:05:15 GMT -5
So the reason is viscosity. See, lecithin is what's known as an ampiphillic emulsifier - one side of it likes to stick to watery things, the other side of it likes to stick to fatty things. In order for it to work as best as it can, you need to put a lot of 'energy' into your chocolate mass to get your raw materials to homogeneously distribute - other wise you'll have pockets of fat, and pockets of moisture that you can't see. If you add all your cocoa butter and emulsifer too early, it will reduce the viscosity, but nowhere near as much as it could if you add it later in the process cycle - and since the whole reason for adding lecithin is to reduce cocoa butter for cost control and/or reduce viscosity for ease of handling - most folks want to get the most bang for the buck with it's use - which means adding it later.
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Jim B.
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Post by Jim B. on Feb 26, 2020 14:47:20 GMT -5
Sebastian Thanks for that explanation. I've been using it to grab any excess moisture (to avoid any chance of my chocolate seizing) and didn't think of it in terms of reducing viscosity. Being diabetic, I use allulose for my chocolate and have been using a higher cocoa butter ratio to compensate for that. I'll give that a try next go 'round!
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Jim B.
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Post by Jim B. on Feb 27, 2020 19:04:20 GMT -5
Sebastian, A similar question... I just saw a video from Manoa Chocolate's Craft Chocolate TV, where the host advocated waiting to add the sugar in the grinder in order to allow acetic acid to gas out of the nibs! I understand that sugar will retain moisture (and I think allulose even more so). Is this something that you would recommend? Thanks for your expertise!
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Post by Sebastian on Mar 5, 2020 18:18:51 GMT -5
Well, as with almost everything - the answer is - it depends.
Organic acids form during fermentation - acetic acid (vineger) is one type of organic acid that is volatile (meaning it'll evaporte), but others are non volatile (such as citric, malic, lactic, etc). How you dry your beans also has a pretty big impact on what happens with acid - but for most of you, both fermentation and drying are processes that are out of your control - you[re just recieving the beans that someone else has prepared.
Some folks want a high acid profile in their chocolate - but if not - AND if that acid you have in your beans is a volatile acid - then yeah, extended conching can provide both the time, heat, and agigation that will allow that to dissipate. There are ways to speed that up - but they become much more involved.
Personally, i'm not a fan at all of acetic flavor profiles - even a little bit - in my chocolate. I DO very much like some of the other acid flavors - so for me, i'd orient my fermentation and drying protocols to minimize the volatile generation, and get some non-volatile flavors forming - and then the purpose of my conching isn't to 'fix' the bad flavors in my beans, rather it's to help with texture (there's a whole series i used to teach on the textural changes of your ingredients during conching), possible flavor development (you can create new flavors in conching, as well as get rid of exissting ones), and viscosity development (or rather, minimizing viscosity).
If Manoa is conching to eliminate acetic acid - taht tells me that they're not in control of their supply chain and are getting poor quality beans that they're trying to 'fix' via processing.
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Jim B.
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Post by Jim B. on Mar 6, 2020 7:40:18 GMT -5
Sebastian, Thanks for a great answer. As in most things chocolate, it's more complex than I expected! But very helpful. I'm going to give it a try to see what happens - but I'll have to rely on my wife's evaluation since this is a sugar batch for her (mine are sucrose-free due to diabetes).
One more "newbie" question: I know it will come down to what I prefer, but as a starting point, is there a "typical" percentage of nibs to butter (or the whole batch)? That's probably too vague! Say we're making two batches; one a 70% dark, the other a milk (55% cocoa / 30% sugar / 15% milk)? I am just looking for a starting point and how the flavor changes as we increase or decrease the nibs. (I'm expecting a more or less intense chocolate flavor, but curious about how the overall flavor changes too. Also knowing I need to keep the cocoa butter high enough!)
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Post by Sebastian on Mar 6, 2020 16:14:56 GMT -5
Sometimes folks ask me what the best wine is - my answer is always the same - the one you like Let flavor be your guide. Legally, milk chocolate needs to at least 10% liquor (nibs), 12% milk, and 3.39% milk fat - so i'd see those as the bottom limit guardrails for milk chocolates. For semisweet, again - legally - you need at least 35% liquor (nibs) - and you can have as much cocoa butter as you want in both of them. Even though dark chocolate doesn't require it, i like to add some milk fat for a whole host of reasons - but that's entirely up to you!
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