fred
Novice
Posts: 144
|
Post by fred on Feb 14, 2020 18:35:30 GMT -5
I was trying to tease apart the recipe for Lake Champlain Milk Chocolate:
I think the ratios may be (approx.): 40% Sugar 22% Milk 30% Cocoa Butter 8% Cacao nibs
This is based off of their advertised 38% cocoa (nibs + butter) and 13g added sugar in the nutrition info.
Is that really the amount of cacao in commercial milk chocolate or do I have this wrong?
My current recipe has 1/2 that sugar and 6x the cacao LOL!
EDIT: I was trying to understand why John called his 25% recipe a dark milk chocolate, but I think I get it now!
|
|
|
Post by Sebastian on Feb 14, 2020 20:13:32 GMT -5
They purchase their chocolate from a bulk manufacturer. I know the recipe - but obviously i'm not going to disclose it I will say that, by law, milk chocolate needs to have a minimum of 10% liquor - since liquor is just ground up nibs - you're close in terms of your cocoa solids content, but a little low.
|
|
|
Post by Chip on Feb 14, 2020 20:39:33 GMT -5
Sebastian, Are you saying that they buy their chocolate from a bulk manufacturer and then just repackage it or they buy couverture and make their own? Also, cocoa butter is not considered cocoa solids? Just liquor or nibs? But aren't nibs approximately 55% cocoa butter? LOL. Sorry, so many question such little time.
|
|
fred
Novice
Posts: 144
|
Post by fred on Feb 15, 2020 0:25:22 GMT -5
Chip and Sebastian, Okay, here's another stab at it. The variable that is throwing me off is how much fat is in the milk powder Lake Champlain uses. The number I just got from Google is 27% and I was using 16% before which I think is way too low. Assuming cacao is 55% fat and that the amounts reported on the label (for total cocoa and added sugar) are accurate, I get this: 40.6% Sugar (using "added sugar" on label) 21.4% Milk (using %cocoa and "added sugar" on label) 13.7% cacao 24.3% cocoa butter Those last two numbers would be correct if the milk powder were 27% fat. But the wikipedia page on milk powder suggests a range of 26%-40%, so if the milk powder were 40% fat than those last two numbers would change a lot: 20.1% cacao 17.9% cocoa butter Interestingly, if they used skim milk the cacao would have to be 0% because they specify 38% cocoa on the label and the bar itself is 38% fat!!! I don't know exactly what the %fat is for the whole milk I'm using now, but Hoosier Farms brand is about 29% which is close to 27% so maybe that lower range (26%-30%) is right. Sebastian, I realize you can't confirm or deny these numbers, but the tip about a minimum of 10% really does help a lot! Also, really I was just interested to know how my recipes differ from commercial chocolate. I think if I ever try a commercial style milk chocolate, I'd do this: 40% Sugar 20% Milk 25% Cocoa Butter 15% Cacao Which would be a "40% cocoa" bar and would have that incredibly sweet commercial taste. The problem is I don't like putting that much sugar in my chocolate... I would eat way to much of it if I did! =P
|
|
|
Post by Sebastian on Feb 15, 2020 6:45:28 GMT -5
Chip - it's pretty common for larger (or even smaller) candy manufacturers to buy bulk chocolate that's produced by a large industrial manufacturer. Sometimes they'll have a custom recipe (if they're large enough), sometimes they'll modify it after the receive it, but mostly they just use it as is. It by far more the norm than the exception - obviously folks who visit this forum and others like it have a bent towards DIY. Fred - you're getting warmer Use 26.5% as the fat level for your WMP if you wanted to be just a touch more precise, which is the standardized norm for spray dried whole milks in North America.
|
|
|
Post by Chip on Feb 15, 2020 9:27:16 GMT -5
SebastianWow, I never knew! I thought that each chocolate would be their own creation. But heck, I know that with almost anything nowadays there are 2-3 manufacturers that rebrand for 100's of others: car batteries, compressors, snow blowers, lawn tractors...and on and on. Food too in the grocery store. So why not chocolate? However, for me, it's mine from bean to bar. fred, You are definitely turning into an alchemist!
|
|
fred
Novice
Posts: 144
|
Post by fred on Feb 15, 2020 14:51:54 GMT -5
Chip, I think chocolate making brings out the engineer in me LOL! I can't help but want to understand the process, ratios, etc.
Sebastian and Chip, wow you guys got me searching google images of Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory to see if I can spot a giant chocolate melanger. Without seeing actual stone wheels it's hard for me to tell, but you guys might spot one:
Still, I guess I shouldn't be surprised if they start from something other than liquor, butter, sugar and milk.
My dark chocolate loving colleagues at work are very into two companies, but both companies very clearly state that their chocolate is single origin and that they obtain beans directly from the growers ( Goodnow Farms and French Broad). Even though the prices are sky high, I like to support these companies since I think what their doing is really cool and lines up with what I want to do.
Chip - I also prefer my own chocolate - mainly because I like milk chocolate but the commercial product is waaaay too sweet. My current batch is about half the sugar (20% vs 40%). The funny thing is that the calories per a gram for mine is actually higher (well, more fat I guess), but I tend to eat less because I don't get that sugar spike that drives me to eat mass quantities. Maybe this is fundamental to capitalism, what company wouldn't sell a product you can't easily avoid consuming mass quantities of?
I have another question you guys might be able to answer about commercial chocolate, but I'll ask on another thread just to avoid overloading this one...
|
|
|
Post by Chip on Feb 15, 2020 19:05:46 GMT -5
I guess they DO make their own! LOL. That is big time. Yowza.
|
|
|
Post by Sebastian on Feb 16, 2020 6:53:10 GMT -5
That's what is called a moulding line - they make their own chocolates (bars, moulded products), but not their own chocolate. The big white tanks you see in the background are their liquid chocolate holding tanks that they receive in bulk. Everything else is how the liquid chocolate moves around the plant. Image 3 *may* be a melting station for solid block products.
|
|
fred
Novice
Posts: 144
|
Post by fred on Feb 16, 2020 11:54:48 GMT -5
Sebastian - I was kind of suspecting that... I was looking for one of these (a Premier on steroids LOL). I can see why a company would make a big deal out of it if the did create their own chocolate starting from beans. On the other hand, Lake Champlain make a lot of solid chocolates - maybe they just have to keep the price down...
|
|
|
Post by Chip on Feb 16, 2020 13:29:55 GMT -5
Sebastian, Somehow, and I don't know how or why, I'm a bit disappointed that some of these larger companies "farm out" the actual making of the chocolate. Maybe it's just me being finicky? I don't know, but I would prefer knowing they "made" their own chocolate. Oh well.
|
|
|
Post by Chip on Feb 16, 2020 13:32:18 GMT -5
fred, I just got a Premier on steroids! I just yesterday took delivery of their DCM20 melange, and WHAT A BEAST!! As I type this I am now seasoning the bowl and stones. Oh my goodness it's unbelievable and it is going to save me lots of hours. . I have two smaller tilting melange from them that I will now use one for milk chocolate (doesn't move as fast as the dark) and the other for spare parts? The DCM is direct drive so NO MORE BELTS!! Yippee!!!!!!
|
|
fred
Novice
Posts: 144
|
Post by fred on Feb 16, 2020 14:43:55 GMT -5
Chip - that is awesome! I love that idea in general! I am still working on getting consistent chocolate results. Some folks (i.e. at work) have offered to pitch money into my hobby, but I really can't accept money for something I don't feel is perfect LOL! My milk chocolate is just about to the point where I would charge money for it, but my dark chocolate has a long way to go... I think one mistake is that I've been angling towards low or no added butter in my dark chocolate. That either makes it really strong (say 80% which a rare few people like) or it makes it less smooth and maybe even crumbly (when I go down to say 70%). I think I have to start adding cocoa butter (5%-10%) and a bit more sugar (at least 25%) for a real crowd pleaser. The nibs make a big difference too - some are pretty strong I think (and I'm sure the roasting factors in...).
|
|
|
Post by Sebastian on Feb 17, 2020 6:32:50 GMT -5
Sebastian, Somehow, and I don't know how or why, I'm a bit disappointed that some of these larger companies "farm out" the actual making of the chocolate. Maybe it's just me being finicky? I don't know, but I would prefer knowing they "made" their own chocolate. Oh well. Yeah, there's a certain romance around chocolate - for sure. However, and i don't need to tell all of you this - chocolate making is hard. Really hard. Sourcing the raw materials often involved politically unstable 3rd world countries that can be flat out just dangerous to be in. Moving raw materials from point a to point b can be very expensive (at any given time there's up to $1 billion USD of capitol tied up in raw materials on the water), and the equipment necessary to make large amounts of product is pretty expensive. That doesn't mean that the 'big guys' don't do a great job - they do - but it most folks like to think about it more in terms of artisinal small batch - which increases costs. Wineries are the same way - at least in the US - you can walk into any wine store in the US and leave with the impression that there are thousands of small wineries all doing their thing - and that true to a small extent - but there are a couple of VERY large parent companies who own most of them and simply put different labels on the bottle.
|
|
|
Post by Chip on Feb 17, 2020 8:19:14 GMT -5
Sebastian, Kind of the way farms are going, and vineyards, and automakers.......and on and on. There are a few of us left that fill EXTREMLEY small niches of chocolate. Like itsy bitsy teeny tiny grain of sand on the beach small.
|
|