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Post by Ben on Oct 10, 2023 8:51:37 GMT -5
You're welcome! 6 hours is probably not going to be long enough for a batch this size. I'd either reduce the batch size or extend the grind. Lecithin would help to reduce the viscosity. I don't use it so I never think to suggest it. There's a lot of discussions about it here in these forums, so you should be able to get a good idea for quantities, when to add it, etc.
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Post by Ben on Oct 9, 2023 11:07:04 GMT -5
I make a hazelnut chocolate spread with just hazelnuts and chocolate (cacao, sugar, cocoa butter). It works great. I just refine hazelnuts in a stone grinder and then mix them with the melted chocolate. It needs to be 'tempered' sorta, by cooling it down to about 80F before pouring into jars. Otherwise the cocoa butter tends to separate a bit and form little solid bits. They're not really a problem if you're going to be spreading this on something warm as they'll just melt, but they're ugly and if you can feel them if you just eat a spoonful of it.
Since the spreadability comes from the fat in the hazelnuts, you'll need to have a pretty high ratio of hazelnut to chocolate. Pretty easy to mess around with to figure out your ideal ratio.
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Post by Ben on Oct 9, 2023 11:01:21 GMT -5
There's a lot going on here. I'll try to answer some of the questions and provide some suggestions. First, how much does 3 cups of date powder and 3 cups of almond protein weigh? It's difficult to know what your actual formulation is without the weights. I would highly recommend measuring only using weight. Also, how long did you refine this for? Viscosity of chocolate is essentially determined by the ratio of cocoa butter to solids. Your current formulation almost certainly doesn't have enough cocoa butter to produce the viscosity you're looking for. Basically, there's too many solids and not enough fat. If you don't want to add cocoa butter, the only other option is to add more nibs relative to the other ingredients. This will make a stronger/darker chocolate, however. Note that sugar doesn't melt or dissolve in chocolate since chocolate is fat-based and has no water. So, the sugar is refined by being crushed by the stones. Date sugar will also be refined by the stones, so just having date sugar won't necessarily make your chocolate thicker than if you had used regular sugar. I'm assuming that what you mean when you say that your formulation made a 'dark' chocolate is that the chocolate was stronger or darker than you had hoped, and that you're trying to make something sweeter and lighter. This again, is due to formulation. To make something sweeter and/or lighter, you need to add more of the sweetener and/or milk alternative. The problem with this, of course, is that your chocolate is already too thick with your current formulation. Essentially, you've got to decide which compromise you're willing to make. Either you can have a darker chocolate with a lower viscosity, a lighter chocolate with a thicker viscosity, or a chocolate with added cocoa butter. My guess is that added cocoa butter isn't really the problem as much as too much cocoa butter overall. So, you could probably lower the amount of nibs and add some cocoa butter to get a lighter and less viscous chocolate. You could try your monkfruit idea, but it's going to have the same issues as your current chocolate unless you somehow adjust the fat to solids ratio. Hope this helps!
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Post by Ben on Oct 6, 2023 22:29:46 GMT -5
If it's burnt, they'd have to have extracted it with some crazy high heat! Cocoa butter's smoke point is near 450F. Where'd you get this cocoa butter?
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Post by Ben on Oct 6, 2023 8:14:57 GMT -5
As long as they're tempered they should work fine.
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Post by Ben on Oct 5, 2023 16:35:09 GMT -5
Hello! What you're describing is just grinding chocolate, which is what the premier refiner is intended for. So it can definitely do it. If you want it to be smooth, it will take longer than 20 minutes, though.
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Post by Ben on Oct 2, 2023 13:10:56 GMT -5
Interesting. I believe he used to suggest not going that hot for fear of weakening the epoxy that holds the steel bowl and stone base together.
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Post by Ben on Oct 2, 2023 8:15:42 GMT -5
Hello!
Where does he recommend heating the cocoa butter that hot? I generally only heat it until it's 140-150F.
Regarding cracked wheels, I'm not sure. It probably depends on where and how big the crack is and if it's in danger of breaking further.
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Post by Ben on Sept 29, 2023 11:00:01 GMT -5
Dry conching refers to conching with less cocoa butter than will be in the final chocolate. In an industrial process, I believe it's generally done by pressing out some of the cocoa butter from the chocolate liquor and then putting that partially-defatted mass into the conche. I starts dry and crumbly but then transitions to a 'pasty' phase. If I remember what I read years ago in Industrial Chocolate Manufacturing and Use correctly, this pasty phase is the most effective stage of conching. Once conched sufficiently the removed cocoa butter (and additional if being used) is added back in to the conche and mixed until fully incorporated.
It could theoretically be done at home, but not with only a small stone grinder as it requires separate refining and conching processes, as well as a way to press out some of the cocoa butter. The stone grinder isn't good at conching to begin with and really needs all the cocoa butter to keep things moving.
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Post by Ben on Sept 29, 2023 10:52:22 GMT -5
Working with chocolate vs the candy making wafers (compound chocolate) is going to require more technique and precision. My guess is that the Ghiradelli chocolate you tried was fine--assuming it was stored sealed and dry, age and moisture shouldn't be a problem--and that the issue was more related to your process. If you gave us more detail on your process that resulted in the just-ok truffle shells, we could try to help troubleshoot.
I'd also recommend checking out the Pastry & Baking section of the eGullet forums. They're much more focused on bonbon/'chocolates' making vs here at Chocolate Alchemy where we're more focused on making chocolate from the cocoa bean.
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Post by Ben on Sept 20, 2023 10:07:03 GMT -5
You'd definitely want at least a thermocouple in the beans and one that measures the air temp, so if the low end ones don't have that, I'd consider that a deal breaker. A cooling tray is very helpful, too.
I'm not sure what that video is either, but I don't think it says anything about a 'best' roast. My guess is that it's showing different flavor profiles for one specific bean roasted at different levels. It's not making any claims for all cacao. Every cacao needs to be roasted differently to bring out their best flavors--there's no best roast for all cacao.
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Post by Ben on Sept 18, 2023 14:09:16 GMT -5
Regarding roaster recommendations, I'd look at a coffee roaster that has controls for power, drum speed, and airflow. I use a small roaster from Buckeye Coffee Roasters here the US, but it's just a rebranded chinese roaster that is probably available from Alibaba.
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Post by Ben on Sept 18, 2023 14:07:24 GMT -5
Hi Mark! I've moved this thread from the Ask the Alchemist forum to the Roasting forum. Alchemist John doesn't really ever come onto the forums anymore. If you'd like him to weigh in, you'll need to email him directly or submit a question on his Ask the Alchemist page: chocolatealchemy.com/ask-the-alchemistPersonally, I am a big fan of a drum roaster because they give a much more consistent roast than a convection oven--even a good convection oven. All convection ovens have hotter and cooler spots, so you're always going to get some variation. While a consistent roast doesn't mean a good roast, it does give you more control over trying to compensate for the shortcomings of an oven. From your description of your oven it does seem like it has some specific shortcomings that could lead to a less than ideal roast. Where did you see that Alchemist John concluded that 265F was the best roast? From what I've read from him, I don't think he would say that one specific end of roast temperature (EOR) is the 'best' roast. Different roasts will bring out the best flavors in different beans, so while 265F may be a good EOR for one bean, it is probably a terrible EOR for others. For me, I currently work with five different origins and don't roast any of them as high as 265F. Also, as John discusses in his series on roasting (starting around Ask the Alchemist 200 IIRC), the EOR is only one data point--how you get to the EOR is just as important for developing flavor. I'd start with that series of posts if you're looking to improve your roast.
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Post by Ben on Sept 18, 2023 11:18:54 GMT -5
Hello! I bought a 40L universal from Nantong Twinkle Machinery Equipment Co in Nantong, China. While I've been overall happy with it and have been using it for almost 5 years now, the process of buying it and having to do a bunch of work to get it up and running means that I can't recommend them. Also they presented themselves as the manufacturer, while they were actually just a reseller. I have heard good things about Newtang machinery www.newtang.com/ Along with a couple other recommendations I've heard, Brad was at one point (and may still be) a distributor for them here in North America and highly recommended them. Maybe he'll see this post and weigh in. I've also heard a recommendation for the universal from Sinofude: sinofudegroup.com/
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Post by Ben on Sept 15, 2023 11:09:01 GMT -5
Hello!
That chocolate doesn't look unusually thick to me. Two ingredient chocolate is inherently thicker than chocolate made with added cocoa butter and/or lecithin. Two ingredient chocoalte made in a stone grinder will also generally be a bit thicker than if made with some other methods, but not hugely so.
You could thin it out by adding some cocoa butter. Something like 65% nibs and 5% cocoa butter will be noticeably less viscous than just nibs and sugar. This can be done at the end of the refining process so it's easy to test by adding a bit, grind for a minute or two to incorporate, and then taste. If not thin enough, you could add a bit more and test again.
It's also possible/likely that you're over-refining, which, counter-intuitively, makes chocolate thicker. 96h is a really long time, but probably more important is the 24h with just nibs. I would suggest just refining the nibs until they're somewhat liquid and then adding the sugar. After that, refine until it's smooth (tested either with a grindometer or just by putting some in your mouth and using your tongue to rub it against the roof of your mouth). I'd test it after 24 hours and see where it's at. Depending on batch size, it could very well be done at that point.
Hope this helps!
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