|
Post by hedwik on Jul 18, 2020 12:51:39 GMT -5
Hello, I would have a question about homemade chocolate chocolate without using special equipment. I have been making homemade chocolate for over a year. For roasting I use a home oven, instead of a melanger I have a coffee grinder, for tempering I use a water bath (I also tried sous vide) and granite stone, for cooling I have a car refrigerator (temperature 13 oC).
My chocolate is not completely fine, that is clear. It is beautifully shiny, but after removing it from the refrigerator (after one hour), the chocolate immediately crunches, but after a few minutes it stops crunching.
Is it possible to make chocolate at home in this way? What am I constantly doing wrong, tempering, cooling down?
|
|
|
Post by Ben on Jul 18, 2020 15:34:56 GMT -5
It will never be smooth, but you can definitely make chocolate this way. My guess is that your issue is that the chocolate is not tempered correctly. Can you give us more details on your tempering process?
|
|
|
Post by hedwik on Aug 5, 2020 2:50:47 GMT -5
Thank you Ben. As soon as I start to temper, I prepare two water baths for induction cookers. I heat in one water bath, put non-tempered chocolate in the bath and try to reach a temperature of 48.9 oC (120 F), I check the temperature with an infrared thermometer. Once the temperature is around 48.9 oC (exactly cannot be reached and maintained), I tempre at this temperature for 5-10 minutes. Then I put a bowl of chocolate in the second bath, where I cool to a temperature of 26.7 oC (80 F), where I temper for 3-5 minutes. Then heat to 32.2 oC (90 F), temper for 5 minutes. Then pour into the mold and cool for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I can't keep the exact temperatures on the induction cooker and they fluctuate from 0.2 - 0.8 oC. I tried to temper even on granite stone, so far I do small amounts and the stove immediately cools this small amount for me and I also have big losses here. I will be happy for any advice, thank you.
|
|
|
Post by Ben on Aug 5, 2020 10:14:56 GMT -5
This all sounds ok. I would note that you don't need to hold the chocolate at your high temperature or your low temperature for any period of time, but doing so shouldn't cause any problems. Also fluctuations of 0.2 - 0.8 C aren't an issue either.
Can you describe the problem you're having in more detail? What do you mean when you say the bar stops crunching? Does it bloom?
|
|
|
Post by hedwik on Aug 6, 2020 4:01:16 GMT -5
Thank you. As soon as I remove the chocolate from the refrigerator, it is beautiful, pretty crunchy, unfortunately in a while it stops crunching and blooms a bit. I think that I do not temper it well, the cooling temperature is bad (around 13 oC, cooling time: I will try different lengths, from 30 minutes to 3 hours).
|
|
|
Post by Ben on Aug 6, 2020 13:07:54 GMT -5
Yep, if it's blooming, it's probably a tempering issue. Can you post a picture of a bloomed bar? Also, are you stirring throughout the tempering process? If you haven't, check out the video from Brad linked in this post, which details a great process for tempering using two bowls: chocolatetalk.proboards.com/thread/1866/temper-chocolate-easy13C (55.4F) is a good cooling temperature. If the chocolate is tempered correctly, it should set in 20-30 minutes at 13C.
|
|