Post by newbiechris on Feb 24, 2008 17:52:29 GMT -5
The market around the corner sells cocoa beans from Fiji, and, since my husband and I have always been curious about making chocolate, we bought some.
We researched roasting on the internet and we roasted the beans in the oven for 10 minutes at 350, then we turned the oven down to 325, then to 300. They did not burn, and it sure smelled like we were baking chocolate cake. We made sure that the skins had cracked on the vast majority.
After roasting, the whole family, kids and all, peeled the nibs.
We really don't currently have a lot of discretionary income to devote to a hobby, so we aren't in the market for a juicer, a concher, or any other equipment we don't already own.
However, we did put the beans in a coffee grinder and got them finely ground.
We took some of the powder and made brownies, and some of the powder and made hot cocoa.
The brownies are delicious. I have made the same recipe before using Baker's chocolate (unsweetened), and this time, using just the ground nibs, the brownies rose more (they were more cake-like), and the brownies took on a more chocolate-caramel taste than normal. I realize that using ground nibs is different from using refined unsweetened Baker's chocolate, and I expected the results to be a little different. But, the actual differences surprised me. Any ideas as to why?
The hot cocoa was also delicious, but a little grainy (not too bad, though). I thought it had a very, very chocolatey flavor. But, it had a purplish color to it. I was using nonfat milk and sugar along with the ground nibs. Any idea as to why the color was so strange?
Also, does anyone have other ideas for recipes using the ground nibs?
I can experiment with some of my kitchen appliances to make the chocolate liquor. I don't expect miracles, but, I thought about using the ice cream maker (the paddle goes all the way to the bottom in my model). But, my question is: do the beans have to be roasted for a certain amount of time or to a certain temperature in order for them to become liquor when processed? Is there a magic number?
The store sells the beans pre-bagged and we still have about 2/3 of the bag left, so we have at least two more tries and batches to experiment with. If we get a good result with our first experiments, and we can justify it, we might look into purchasing some equipment in the future to better facilitate our ventures. But for now, it looks like we need to find ways to use ground nibs.
We researched roasting on the internet and we roasted the beans in the oven for 10 minutes at 350, then we turned the oven down to 325, then to 300. They did not burn, and it sure smelled like we were baking chocolate cake. We made sure that the skins had cracked on the vast majority.
After roasting, the whole family, kids and all, peeled the nibs.
We really don't currently have a lot of discretionary income to devote to a hobby, so we aren't in the market for a juicer, a concher, or any other equipment we don't already own.
However, we did put the beans in a coffee grinder and got them finely ground.
We took some of the powder and made brownies, and some of the powder and made hot cocoa.
The brownies are delicious. I have made the same recipe before using Baker's chocolate (unsweetened), and this time, using just the ground nibs, the brownies rose more (they were more cake-like), and the brownies took on a more chocolate-caramel taste than normal. I realize that using ground nibs is different from using refined unsweetened Baker's chocolate, and I expected the results to be a little different. But, the actual differences surprised me. Any ideas as to why?
The hot cocoa was also delicious, but a little grainy (not too bad, though). I thought it had a very, very chocolatey flavor. But, it had a purplish color to it. I was using nonfat milk and sugar along with the ground nibs. Any idea as to why the color was so strange?
Also, does anyone have other ideas for recipes using the ground nibs?
I can experiment with some of my kitchen appliances to make the chocolate liquor. I don't expect miracles, but, I thought about using the ice cream maker (the paddle goes all the way to the bottom in my model). But, my question is: do the beans have to be roasted for a certain amount of time or to a certain temperature in order for them to become liquor when processed? Is there a magic number?
The store sells the beans pre-bagged and we still have about 2/3 of the bag left, so we have at least two more tries and batches to experiment with. If we get a good result with our first experiments, and we can justify it, we might look into purchasing some equipment in the future to better facilitate our ventures. But for now, it looks like we need to find ways to use ground nibs.