So i recently made a batch of 45% milk chocolate. The problem is that most people who tasted it said it had a raw(ish) milk taste to it, which theydidn'tlike.

That got me thinking if could i possibly roast the milk powder or maybe cook it in a little cocoa butter.

any suggestions??

updated by @chirag-bhatia: 04/10/15 17:53:46

Hi There,

milk powder is already "cooked".. is made either by "rolling" milk into a big heated cylinder and then scraped off, or by spraying milk into a hot chamber to vaporize the water.

The differences between milk powders are generally : Fat content (use a 20%), what kind of cows, season, area of growth (fed with green grass, hay or whatever) ,production system.

What system of making chocolate you do use, what temperature, how do you grind/insert the milk powder to the chocolate and mailny what quality of milk you are using will affect the final taste of your product.

Do not compare to swiss milk chocolate (unless you live there), their cows make a very mild milk, and they add malt to the milk powder....

If you cook the milk powder in cocoa butter you will end up with caramel...... then we are in a different game...

Thanks for the knowledge Antonino

I live in India so my chocolate wasnt being compared to swiss chocolate..

i use nestle "everyday" brand of milk powder which is 18% fat content..

the reason i thought about cooking the powder was because i read about milk crumb which adds a cooked/caramel flavour to chocolate

i am a newbie using a stone wet grinder(santha) to refine and conch. i dont know what temperature the chocolate reaches in it.. but will now try to find a good ir thermometer to measure it..

i like thinking out of the box so do you think its possible to cook/caramalise the milk powder in cocoa butter or will thatreleasemoisture which will cause the chocolate to seize.

Chirag, nice to hear from milk chocolate makers worldwide.

You can try to get some caramelized flavor by substituting the milk fat in whole milk powder with Ghee. Take whole milk powder by weight (100%) and substitute with 72% skim milk powder and 28% ghee. Make sure that it has no traces of moisture by heating it above the water's boiling point.

I am one of those who believe smaller bean-to-bar chocolate makers are in debt to Indian cousine forever based on the quality of wet grinder engineering.

Felipe

Store brand milk powders in India are often fortified with additional calories by adding vegetable fats to them. Often times those fats are susceptible to oxidative randicity. Might want to check your supply to see if that's causing the off flavor.

And a note, cooking milk powder in cocoa butter will likely only increase the off flavor. In order get generate the caramel flavors, you need 3 things: protein, reducing sugar, and water. Cooking in cocoa butter means you wont have the latter, and lots of heat, generally speaking, does bad things to the flavor of fats.

Thanks Felipe will try using ghee.. sounds like an interesting idea.

Thanks Sebastian that makes sense.

hi chirag,

instead of 'everyday' you can try 'nova whole milk powder' that works better. before you are mixing milk powder you must taste it to ensure that it is not salty. because some baches of milk powder tends to be salty. every day is a dairy whitener not milk powder.it contains added sugar also. for any other clarification you can write to me at mannachoco@gmal.com.

Hi Chirag,

Milk powder contains a chemical called hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). H2O2 is an oxidizing,bleaching and germicidal agent used to preserve milk. The percentage of peroxide in milk powder can vary from one brand to another and because its presence in milk affects the taste, it might be the challenge you are facing with your chocolate today.

Attached is a study made on hydrogen peroxide and milk powder. On page 427 You can find a detailed description onthe effects of H2O2 on the taste of milk powder.

http://whqlibdoc.who.int/monograph/WHO_MONO_48_(p423).pdf" target="_blank"> http://whqlibdoc.who.int/monograph/WHO_MONO_48_(p423).pdf

hope this helps..

Omar

Thank You Omar will have a look..

Interesting document - i've never seen this actually practiced in western milk plants, nor in New Zealand. Is this common practice in India? Looks like it's an early 60's publication.. i didn't read nearly the whole thing (only 1 page) so i'm certain i've missed context - i'm wondering if it might have been historical practice?

I would say that I'm *completely* unconcerned with H202 levels in modern chocolate processing....

Hi Sebastian,

With my experience, H2O2 is still used in processing milk powder at least for warm climate countries like here in the middle east(Im assuming india as well)Every batch we receive from our supplier gets tested for percentage of peroxidemaking sure it does not excees 0.04%. When it does exceed, the taste gets affected leaving a slight old cheese after taste..I wish I know how to better describe it. So, to answer your question, peroxide is still in business.

I think it is what we are still practising in india. Because when i use some batches of milk powder despite the brand some times it taste aweful , when i asked my supplier he told that it is because of the preservative . so before i am purchasing milk powder i always taste it to make sure that, the batch is good. ( I am not a techinical person to do the lab test). sebastian you are wondering if it was some historical practice , if you know that some of our most modern technologys are that, west practiced it some 200 years before,then how much you wonder about..??

sebatian, i like to read your postings and replys, with thorough knowledge and sceince

omar, the information you given is very useful , thank you.

Interesting stuff guys - thanks. The notion of H202 as a preservative in a highly oxidative susceptibility product such as milk powder is strange to me at first blush, given that H202 is SUCH a strong oxidizer. Certainly it's an effective microbiological suppressant, but it'll absolutely destroy the flavor of the fat in the milk. There are much, much better ways to protect quality than the use of this. My guess - it's the cheap option!

Ramya - many modern chocolate factories are still using stone grinders, which are quite effective - so just because something's old doesn't mean it's not useful 8-) For something like H2O2 in milk it surprises me as there are much more effective ways to do the same thing, w/o making it taste bad.