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Post by vagrant on Apr 23, 2006 19:52:14 GMT -5
This may be a stupid question but can cocao powders be used in producing chocolate? I have a fairly large quantity of 22/24 cocao powder and was looking for something to do with it.
I would assume cocao butter would need to be added but I haven't done any experimentation.
Just a curiosity and didn't see anything about the idea on the board
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Post by Alan on Apr 23, 2006 20:22:15 GMT -5
This may be a stupid question but can cocao powders be used in producing chocolate? I have a fairly large quantity of 22/24 cocao powder and was looking for something to do with it. I would assume cocao butter would need to be added but I haven't done any experimentation. Just a curiosity and didn't see anything about the idea on the board Dear Vagrant, It can be done, but will not taste the same as dark chocolate where powder is not used, especially if the cocoa powder is alkalized (dutched). Also, the particle size of the powder will almost certainly cause the finished product to be grainy without further refining. You can actually test out what you might get by tasting dark chocolates that list cocoa powder as one of the ingredients on the back, and then tasting some that don't in the same percentage range. I believe that Santander, for example, adds cocoa powder to their chocolates, or at least to some of them, for example, the 70%. I'm not a fan. Alan
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Post by Sebastian on Apr 24, 2006 7:22:24 GMT -5
Particle size shouldn't be an issue - almost all commercially ccp's are around 85%> 10 um or so, which is much finer than, well, any chocolate i've ever seen. Whatever you make with it, however, definately won't taste like chocolate. It'll certainly have 'chocolate like' characteristics, but it won't taste like the real mccoy... If you've got lots of it, however, give it a try and see what happens. There's no substitute for your own taster!
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Post by Alan on Apr 24, 2006 7:32:11 GMT -5
Particle size shouldn't be an issue - almost all commercially ccp's are around 85%> 10 um or so, which is much finer than, well, any chocolate i've ever seen. Whatever you make with it, however, definately won't taste like chocolate. It'll certainly have 'chocolate like' characteristics, but it won't taste like the real mccoy... If you've got lots of it, however, give it a try and see what happens. There's no substitute for your own taster! Interesting. Everything I've read says that though cocoa powder particle size is very small on the whole, but that there is a decent amount of inconsistency. This is just the type of thing that I would expect to be pretty noticeable to the tongue, feel-wise. Maybe there is more consistency than I was led to believe? Alan
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Post by vagrant on Apr 24, 2006 10:04:34 GMT -5
Thanks for all of the input. Does anyone by chance have a recipe for using the powder in place of liquor?
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Post by Alan on Apr 24, 2006 10:11:50 GMT -5
Thanks for all of the input. Does anyone by chance have a recipe for using the powder in place of liquor? Hmmm. Well, usually good roasted cocoa beans will have about 55% cocoa butter, give or take a bit, so if you want to make a 70% chocolate, maybe you could try the following: 30% sugar (powdered) 30% cocoa powder 40% cocoa butter You can add a bit (very small amount) of vanilla too and a bit of lecithin if you want, but neither is necessary. If you want something creamier or sweeter, then increase the cocoa butter or sugar percentages. Alan
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Post by sugaralchemy on May 6, 2006 12:07:01 GMT -5
I've found that cocoa powders are an interesting way to modify the flavor profile of your chocolate... I have a small library of various beans, various roasts, various fat content. It's all right there, really handy. However, cocoa powders seem to convey a different taste than the liquor and I'm not particularly excited about using them except for messing around or if there's no other choice. Cocoa powder is also useful in situations where you're making a chocolate-like substance but the firmness of the cocoa butter is unacceptable.
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