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Post by chocdoc on Mar 22, 2006 23:33:03 GMT -5
I've decided to try some milk and white chocolate formulations and I want to know what I should be looking for in the way of milk powder.
Do I want instant nonfat dry powder, do I want non instant powder? Do I want full fat milk powder?
If I am looking for something other than the skim milk powder that I get at the grocery store, where shall I look for a supplier? I'm in Canada, by the way.
Now just to add some fuel to the fire - has anyone else heard about 'cream chocolate'? I recall running across some company in europe that was using cream (in powder form I assume) in place of the milk in milk chocolate, and creating a product that they described as particularly amazing. So that then begs the question, where am I going to get cream powder?
Kerry
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Post by Alan on Mar 22, 2006 23:52:25 GMT -5
I've decided to try some milk and white chocolate formulations and I want to know what I should be looking for in the way of milk powder. Do I want instant nonfat dry powder, do I want non instant powder? Do I want full fat milk powder? If I am looking for something other than the skim milk powder that I get at the grocery store, where shall I look for a supplier? I'm in Canada, by the way. Now just to add some fuel to the fire - has anyone else heard about 'cream chocolate'? I recall running across some company in europe that was using cream (in powder form I assume) in place of the milk in milk chocolate, and creating a product that they described as particularly amazing. So that then begs the question, where am I going to get cream powder? Kerry My thought about cream powder is this: It is going to be very high in fat (about 72% according to one example that I saw), and this will make it harder to temper your chocolate if you use only cream powder in place of milk powder. In fact, the texture of the finished product is not going to be the same as if you used whole milk powder because a much larger portion of the fat in the chocolate will come from milk fat, which has a different melting/crystallization point than does cocoa butter. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that some companies may do this, but then their products are going to be much less chocolate-like, and more candy-like I think. Recently, following Brad's advice, I used non-fat dry milk, which is simply skim milk which has had virtually all of the moisture removed, and then I added a bit less than 5% of clarified butter to the formulation. This mimicked a whole milk powder to a certain extent. If you want to use whole milk powder then try looking at a health food store or hereIt has 3.5% fat. I hope this has helped. Not to hijack the thread, but I have been thinking of a related issue: I love good cheese, and I have come to learn that the milk used to make the cheese has a large impact on the finished product. The best Comte or Parmesan come from the milk of certain cows in certain areas at certain times of the year. This says a lot to me about the importance of milk quality in chocolate too. I would be interested to know if anyone has looked into the issue of different brands of whole milk powders. Perhaps some of the French, Italian, or Irish ones would be best. Just some thoughts and questions. Alan
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Post by chocdoc on Mar 23, 2006 18:46:02 GMT -5
Alan, Thanks for the input. You are certainly not hijacking the thread talking about different milks. I also wonder about various milks. Swiss milk chocolate differs from other milk chocolates because of their milk right?
So how are we going to get some european dried milks?
Road trip anyone?
Kerry
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Mar 23, 2006 18:56:49 GMT -5
chocdoc - I lived in Switzerland for a while and apparently the cows, when they go up into the mountains at certain times of the year, eat a lot of herbs that are in the grass. Apparently this helps produce the flavour of Swiss milk and hence influences the taste of the milk chocolate
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