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Post by Freddo on Apr 16, 2015 17:28:04 GMT -5
Hi
Can anyone give me a rough range of fat content to work with in beans. I have been assuming around 50%.
How far does this deviate between well fermented and poorly fermented beans?
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gap
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Post by gap on Apr 16, 2015 18:11:19 GMT -5
I don't have my notes (and even then wouldn't be sure they are 100% accurate). But from memory, I think it can range from 48% - 56%. I usually work on 53% as an average.
Worth thinking about: can geographic location and time of year can also impact the % of ccb in a bean? (ie., Estate XXX in country YYY may have different ccb % in crops from different years and at different times of the same year)?
Anyway, take that with a grain of salt, I did some quick searches and can't find any references.
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Post by Sebastian on Apr 18, 2015 9:50:14 GMT -5
That's a good approximation. The less fermented they are and the more immature they were at harvest, the less fat they will have. If i don't know the answer I tend to estimate a bit lower than gap does for average fat, more around 51% - but there's no 'right' answer by definition of estimate
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Post by Freddo on Apr 20, 2015 5:08:54 GMT -5
Thanks for the input. I've posted before about having thick chocolate which is leading to tempering problems (getting it to run in my tempering machine).
Is there a "good" total fat content to work towards?, considering i'm not using any emulsifier.
My latest choccy I have been aiming for 40% by adding a little cocoa butter but i have seen some chocolate, bean to bar, made in a melange, no added butter and a claim of 33% total fat.
I'm wondering how the hell they can do that? Considering its a 70% dark chocolate I would expect there to be at least 35% fat. Thats going make a pretty thick chocolate wouldn't you think?
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gap
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Post by gap on Apr 20, 2015 16:30:06 GMT -5
I tend to aim for at least 37-38% fat content to keep everything running nicely in my machine. The more industrial your machine, the lower your fat content can be. At 40% fat content, your chocolate shouldn't be particularly thick I would have thought. What about adding a little lecithin? Adding 0.5% by weight can do wonders for making your chocolate more fluid.
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Post by lilypa on Apr 22, 2015 16:46:07 GMT -5
Maybe we should all aim for 52% as average CB content, since Gap uses 53% and Sebastian prefers 51%. Average of their averages. Plus, using Gaps typical range of 48% - 56%...52% would be dead middle. I'm pretty much just posting this for my own amusement (and not at the expense of Gap or Sebastian) with a touch of seriousness. Now more seriousness, thanks for posting Gap and Sebastian. It's nice to have a handle on CB% to work with as Gap mentioned (37-38%) to keep the chocolate flowing well. Does anyone happen to know what the cocoa butter percentage is for the 2014 harvests of Camino Verde beans from Ecuador? Seems like it's definitely on the lower side...maybe 48%...or could it be lower?
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Post by Freddo on Apr 23, 2015 3:55:27 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies. Its good to know what other people consider "norms".
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Post by Freddo on Apr 23, 2015 17:31:59 GMT -5
Another question. Take two chocolates, same beans, same grinding and conching, one is 75% and the other 65%. Both recipes have added butter to bring their fat content to 40%.
Will the 65% recipe be "drier" because of the extra sugar, even though the respective fat content is the same?
Just wondering if i should be adding a little extra butter to my chocolate with higher sugar content.
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Post by Sebastian on Apr 23, 2015 18:52:23 GMT -5
Insufficient information. pls provide entire formula.
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gap
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Post by gap on Apr 23, 2015 22:30:19 GMT -5
I'm a little flat out at the moment, but I think Freddo is saying this (I am assuming 50% ccb in nibs to make my life easier on the calcs):
75% chocolate = 70% nibs & 5% ccb & 25% sugar (total fat = 40% assuming ccb in nibs = 50%) 65% chocolate = 50% nibs & 15% ccb & 35% sugar (total fat = 40% assuming ccb in nibs is 50%)
So to keep the total fat content at 40%, you must add more cocoa butter to the 65% than the 75%.
In both recipes your fat = 40% so your non-fat = 60%. Ie., you have 40% fat covering 60% "solids" in both recipes. For the 75% chocolate, there are more "cocoa solids" than "sugar solids" vis-a-vis the 65% but your ratio of fat to solids is the same in both (I think).
Hopefully I'm not misunderstanding the question.
Something I don't know and maybe is linked to your question: Do cocoa solids and sugar grind down to the same fineness and with the same size distribution? If not, then will the mouthfeel be different between the 65% and 75% chocolate bars, despite both having a 40% total fat?
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MM
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Post by MM on Apr 24, 2015 12:12:15 GMT -5
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Post by Freddo on Apr 24, 2015 17:34:31 GMT -5
Yes as Gap has said.
Do cocoa solids and sugar grind down to the same fineness and with the same size distribution? If not, then will the mouthfeel be different between the 65% and 75% chocolate bars, despite both having a 40% total fat?
Or... does the fat get used the same whether it is covering cocoa solids or sugar.
this poses another question: How is the fat contained in the structure of the bean? Currently I grind just the beans by themselves until i get a thin liquid and i cannot detect any graininess on the tongue, then i add the sugar. My thinking is that I want to release as much cocoa butter as I possibly can before adding the sugar. Is there a point where I can over grind the cocoa beans?
rgds
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Post by Sebastian on Apr 25, 2015 6:23:41 GMT -5
They'll grind with different distributions. I suspect the differences you're seeing are the result of differences in the degree of temper, or possibly moisture content. Is it the same lot of beans or liquor used in both batches?
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Post by Freddo on Apr 25, 2015 23:34:21 GMT -5
in the example above is was talking about using the same beans at different amounts. But I have noticed differing viscosity when changing origins, and different hassles trying to temper.
I've heard that over-grinding can lead to having a very thick chocolate as the butter is insufficient to coat all the small particles. I think I have done this on a couple of occasions.
Is it possible to do this just by grinding the beans, to over grind the liquor?
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Post by Sebastian on Apr 26, 2015 5:06:29 GMT -5
possible, but very, very unlikely in your scenario.
do you use a temper meter? you can create a very wide range of textures with the same chocolate simply by hitting different levels of temper - a temper meter is a great way to 'normalize' that. i'd suspect what you're seeing is different levels of temper.
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