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Post by kiernan on Feb 10, 2021 14:27:01 GMT -5
Hello, I am relatively new to chocolate making and new to this forum. Sorry if my question has already been answered (feel free to direct me to a thread).
I wanted to try different sugars to get a sense of the impact it makes on taste. I wanted to try date sugar. I used my typical 70% dark recipe (with 3% butter, no lecithin) in a small batch with one of the small melangers. Unlike when I add regular sugar, the date sugar really thickened up the mix (thickened is perhaps not the right word, but it started splattering a lot more). The mix started riding up the side walls of the melanger and splattering on the lid, rather than staying at the bottom and recirculating. As a result, it seems to be losing heat quicker and thus hardened near the top. Tried adding some heat, but it doesn't help much. I also tried adding a bit more cocoa butter, but also didn't change much.
Can someone explain what is happening here? and is there a reason date sugar does this (before I try another sugar like coconut sugar, etc)? I have also noticed this tendency to rise up the sides of the melanger on some of my milk chocolate recipes, but never to this extent.
Thanks in advance.
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Post by mark on Feb 12, 2021 1:01:03 GMT -5
One word: water. Many alternative sugars can contain a not insignificant amount of water and this will cause your chocolate to seize. If you want to use these sugars you'll have to dehydrate them first, e.g. in an over. If you search through the "Ask the Alchemist" posts you'll probably find some of John's posts on this.
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Post by Sebastian on Feb 12, 2021 7:12:53 GMT -5
Remember there's many kinds of sugars, and they all behave differently. Date's have a large percentage of their sugar as Fructose, which is a 'sticky' sugar (spill a can of soda made with HFCS and let it dry - you'll get a really good sense of what a sticky sugar means...) it's the fructose that's giving you issues. It may be water as mark suggests - but typically sugar in their granulated form have about a 5% moisture level - which is a 'normal' amount of water to have present. Yours may have more - i have no idea. It definitely has a lot of fructose in it, and that fructose is absolutely giving you problems. I'll never understand whats' behind people's desire to try to find the superfood of sugars. Your body just doesn't care where the sugar comes from, and trying to use all these esoteric sources is both very expensive and ushers in a huge amount of processing difficulties that just don't need to be there. And at the end of the day - physiologically - your body just doesn't care where the sugar comes from, be it from sugar cane, sugar beets, palm sugar, coconut sugar, date sugar, or whatever. And no - this isn't an invitation to debate the pseudoscience of carbohydrate metabolism to support the perspective that 'my sugar is better than your sugar' or whatever bizzare theory Dr. Oz is peddling these days Nothing but heartache lies down the path you're starting on my friend. If you like the flavor of dates, just mix in some dates as inclusions.
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Post by kiernan on Feb 12, 2021 13:54:47 GMT -5
Thank you to both. Very helpful. Quick follow up: If I dehydrate the sugar to make sure there is no/little water, how do you overcome the stickiness of this sugar? Is it through modification of my recipe (eg. adding cocoa butter, etc)? or or processing differently (eg. making sure my melanger stays warm enough throughout to keep things liquid, etc)? And Sebastian, the sugar substitution wasn't about finding a superfood (don't really care about that - chocolate is chocolate after all , but rather just learning its impact on taste. I am from Canada where maple syrup is popular and many have made bars with dehydrated maple sugar. Thought I'd try something similar to get a sense of taste. And I assume (and I could certainly be wrong) that adding the dates as a sugar rather than as an inclusion will affect taste, and presumably texture, very differently.
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Post by Sebastian on Feb 12, 2021 15:00:03 GMT -5
You were the unfair recipient of about 2.3 x 10 ^43 discussions i've had with people over the years trying to argue with me that their special (insert whatever here) is THE way, and I've simply run out of patience in having those discussions - sorry about that Short version is you don't overcome the stickiness of it in chocolate. It's a physical attribute that is inherent to the raw material. Fructose should not be used to make chocolate unless you are satisfied with the resultant texture and rheological properties. It's a little like asking how to overcome the wetness of water - it's just part of what it is, mate. Fructose can be a great ingredient in high moisture systems; it should be avoided in lipid systems.
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Post by mark on Feb 12, 2021 23:06:34 GMT -5
Thanks for the info on Fructose, Sebastian. That’s really interesting to learn. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us here.
So based on this, I guess it’s a firm NO to a bar using High Fructose Corn Syrup 😊. You know, to support the corn farmers.
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Post by Sebastian on Feb 14, 2021 9:54:33 GMT -5
Not unless you want to offend Big Cola (TM) ;-)
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