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Post by Howard on Jun 4, 2006 23:56:24 GMT -5
Here's what I used:
21 oz Cocoa liquor (26.2%) 16 ounces Cocoa butter (five added during grinding, 11 added with mixing) (20%) 16 oz whole milk powder (20%) 26.5 oz sugar ( 33.2%) (powderized in a blender in 3 batches) 0.5 oz lecithin (0.6%)
I heated the cocoa butter gently (Tmax 120 deg F) and added the liquor and milk powder. I had placed the santha bowl in the oven at about 120 deg F to warm it. I added the cocoa mixture to the bowl and started the grinder, then added the powderized sugar. this was quite viscous but within 10 minutes or so had smoothed out quite a bit and the grinder did not seem to labor. I plan on conching/refining for 72 hours. I'm going to get a 75 watt bulb to heat the bowl as I still find my equilibration temps are lower than those others have reported.
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Post by Howard on Jun 5, 2006 23:28:11 GMT -5
Tasted after 24 hours of refining:
First of all, it's a gorgeous milk chocolaty shiny beautiful rich color. There's no demonstrable graininess at this point. The roasted flavor is still there but becoming tamed. Smooth rich chocolaty maybe a little coffee flavor. Not so much fruity as the Criollo was. What a fabulous long long aftertaste. Oooh baby this is great stuff. I'll start the light bulb/refining tomorrow.
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Post by ripvanwinkle on Dec 30, 2007 12:46:10 GMT -5
Howard - I see you are "powderizing" your sugar. I have been experimenting with my Oster blender and find it produces a nice powder. Problem is the batches have to be small, around the 8 oz that you are producing.
Do you know of any other machine that will mill down the sugar in larger batches?
I find that the WhisperMill is not to be used with sugar, so that is apparently out.
Any suggestions?
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Post by reelchemist on Jan 2, 2008 1:00:39 GMT -5
Howard, I used a similar formula for my first milk chocolate the other day and was dissappointed, not with the formula but with the flavour. I was dissappointed because I got no bean distinctiveness coming through, it just tasted like Cadbury stuff, really boring. I was using cacao butter that was not deodorised though and the flavour of the cocoa butter seems to dominate the flavour of the chocolate. Are you using deodorised cocoa butter?
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Post by Brad on Jan 2, 2008 1:39:07 GMT -5
ReelChemist:
I NEVER use anything other than deodorized cocoa butter. If you want to embrace the flavour of the bean, you MUST eliminate all variables that could mask the taste. Non-deodorized cocoa butter is a must.
Also, keep in mind that if you are using powdered milk, there are two types of powdered milk - rolled and sprayed. Rolled powdered milk imparts a very distinct caramel flavour into the chocolate, because when it's poured onto the roll dryer drums and the water boils away, some of the natural sugars in the milk carmelize. Spray dried powdered milk is truly creamy and imparts no caramel flavour into the chocolate.
P.S. I have used non-deodorized cocoa butter in fountain chocolate, and it's awesome, because the chocolate needs to be thinner to go through the auger, hence more "oil" is required. The added flavour in the cocoa butter makes for a chocolate very rich in flavour, and not washed out like some fountain chocolate I've tasted.
Brad
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Post by reelchemist on Jan 3, 2008 1:04:58 GMT -5
Thanks for the milk tip Brad, I will check as best I can on the drying of the stuff I have, this may also be leading to the loss in distinctiveness of my chocolate. I will be getting some deodorised cocoa butter asap. This is the first time I have used the cocoa butter in a formulation as I have just been investigating the bean flavour by making 70% bean 30% sugar mix, I like really dark chocolate. Incidently that is why my grinder holds onto a lot of chocolate, I don't use lecithin either, I found it much easier to scrape out the milk choc I'd made using the lecithin and extra cocoa butter.
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Post by ripvanwinkle on Jan 13, 2008 12:23:56 GMT -5
Howard, thanks for the formulation. And I have a LOT of nondeodorized cocoa butter. YIKES. I will survive through my many early-in-the-game mistakes. Or so I tell myself. What fun would it be if it were easy?
I wonder if the nondeo isn't better used when making white chocolate(?) That's what I have been using so far and the results seem to be acceptable to my friends' opinions. Comments?
You give ounces of cocoa then a percentage. Could you explain? I assume that the percentage is the butter content(?) When I grind my cocoa nibs how can I tell the percent of butter remaining in the cocoa?
As you can tell, I'm lost at this point - will appreciate your help.
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Post by ripvanwinkle on Jan 13, 2008 12:26:20 GMT -5
reelchemist - what are you drying? Knowing what havoc water plays with chocolate I need to know sources of it while making milk chocolate. Thanks
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Post by jamescary on Jan 14, 2008 0:33:44 GMT -5
I noticed when looking for milk solids that spray drying produces oxysterols (bad stuff TM). I could not find out to what extent the oxysterols are present -- anyone have more info on that?
I've also heard of freeze drying milk, which supposedly produces a more fruity flavor than the spray dried. Anyone try this?
I've read that deodorizing oils involves raising the temperature of the oil to the point where the flavor is essentially "burned off". But as part of raising the temperature of vegetable oils to this level causes some of that fats to be converted to trans fats. I've heard the amount is small compared to hydrogenating. Anyone know of the trans fat content of deodorized cocoa butter?
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Post by Sebastian on Jan 14, 2008 7:11:42 GMT -5
< 0.1%, and it only occurs ~10% of the time. very small.
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Post by mistacandy on Mar 6, 2008 18:48:24 GMT -5
I was wondering where you got the whole milk powder! Tell me on my Post in "general Chocolate Making at home" titled Where to Get Whole Milk Powder. I can't Find it anywhere! If you know a place locally or online PLEASE TELL ME!
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