Grinding Sugar
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
what amount of sugar are you looking to grind? hammer mills are fast and grind sugar well.
Forum Activity for @holycacao
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Fermented cacao beans-bar
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I only recently heard my first explanation of how raw chocolate is made without posing contamination risks that actually seemed "logical/possible". It seems that the raw community(at least in Israel) prefer unfermented, dehydrated cacao.
The beans are harvested/ washed and dried immediately- at least that is the claim. I've tasted Sanchez cacao from DR that wasn't fermented- didn't care for it but was told its used for butter. They get packaged in the country and then shipped. I guess that without fermentation, it's possible to hygenically possible to process, as now there are several manufacturers offering (I've seen one in Peru, and Costa Rica).
I would like to know what if any difference there is nutritionally.
I need some help with mint milk chocolate source
Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted
Find a good milk chocolate, and find some peppermint oil - a few drops per kilo should do it.
Aloha! Our bitter tasting product needs some guidance to turn tasty!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
There seem to be several Hawaian chocololate makers on this forum. It's hard for me to imagine you couldn't convince someone to make a small amount of sweeter chocolate for you. Remember, cocoa is also very bitter, fat and sugar are the ingredients that counter the sweetness. You probably just need to get the right balance of sugar.
I would recommend using a chocolate that you like the way it tastes. I don't know what type of bitter taste the kava root has, but you probably need plenty of sweetness to cover it. Try using a chocolate that is semisweet (50% cacao -60%) instead of bitter, maybe that would balance the kava. I don't know because I've never used the product.
The macadamia nuts will "sweeten" the chocolate a little as well with a similar creamy feeling as milk. If you want a paste and not a bar than use a larger % of nuts to chocolate so it can spread.
All the best,
Jo
Aloha! Our bitter tasting product needs some guidance to turn tasty!
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Try grinding nuts (macademia maybe) with sugar into a paste and working 10-20% sweetened nut paste into the 73% chocolate. Adding water to the chocolate is going to shorten its shelf life and seize the chocolate making it difficult to melt. Sugar does not dissolve into chocolate so I would recommend starting with a sweeter chocolate if you don't have any grinding machinery.
Nut paste will soften your chocolate (Gianduja) and cut the bitterness of the kava.
Hope that helps.
All the best,
Jo
refining
Posted in: News & New Product Press (Read-Only)
Quantity will dictate the best grinding method. We've used stone grinders in the beginning and now use a hammer mill and 3 roll refiner. The hammer mill quickly grinds the nibs into a rough liquor. The roll refiners take longer to refine but give the best results in my humble opinion. Having 2 refiners in series would speed up production - as would having larger rolls $$$. I think most chocolate makers would tell you that you make chocolate with what you have. Its possible to find a good deal, be prepared to fix up machines (a necessity in this business).Jo
Tempering Raw Chocolate
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
The raw cacao that I have tasted here is more like a hard ganache in texture, its no wonder you need to use so much cocoa butter with the water content of he agave syrup. It sounds super fattening (55% ccb + the ccb from the powder up to 22%. If the chocolate (can it legally be called chocolate since it is made with agave?) is mixed well - like a ganache it could be tabled like ganache before being cooled. But this is still not really tempering.
Dealing with mold release marks
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Try using a large fan in a cold dry room. The turbulence helps remove the heat from the areas around the molds. I found this method speeds up the contraction time.-jo
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
How large of a tablet are you molding? The larger bars with heavy grade polycarbonate usually needs some form of fan if you don't have a cooling tunnel/cabinet. It might just take to long to remove all of the heat from the bar. You can also try to let the chocolate crystalize a little more- overtemper, help it set up faster.If your seeing swirls that are a thin film of cocoa butter (prailines or truffles) chances are that the chocolate it a little out of temper and that the pieces were cooled too fast. Needs more crystalization.Hope that helps,Jo
Has anyone used the NETZSCH chocolate machines?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
What equipment have you looked into and what volume are you trying to make in a batch/week etc?I haven't used NETSCH but think that you could do bean to bar in that space.Jo
What do you make/grow/do by youself?
Posted in: Uncategorized
It's the cb that is in the beans. We don't add extra cb to the chocolate. It is 70% beans 30% sugar. An estimate of the cb from the beans is about 50% which would make the cb content of the 70% bar 35%. We have made some small batches that have added cb but I felt it was too sweet and to fatty. It makes sense with milk chocolate as there is a significant amount of milk powder and sugar. It needs the added cb in order to flow properly. Btw re this post, we are also working on developing goat milk powder. And possibly milk crumb, and then gianduja of course.
What do you make/grow/do by youself?
Posted in: Uncategorized
I don't add any cb in the dark chocolate. We are working on a press for milk chocolate which needs cb. By using your own cb the aroma from the roasted cocoa is in the cocoa butter and enhances the chocolate flavor rathr than dulling it. Adding cb is necessary when you want sweeter chocolate
Documentary on chocolate ...PLEASE!
Posted in: News & New Product Press (Read-Only)
Ilana has some in ashkelon, and regarding the video, I'll keep you posted on its progress.
Documentary on chocolate ...PLEASE!
Posted in: News & New Product Press (Read-Only)
Limor,I make bean to bar chocolate in Israel, and may be able to help you for what you are looking for. We have been trying to document as well as we can, and eventually will put a video together.All the best,Jo
From David Lebovitz: Chocolate-Covered Caramelized Matzoh Crunch
Posted in: Recipes
just replace the butter with equal parts coconut oil, and follow directions as posted at lebovitz (above) adding shredded coconut and chili, zest of lime, you can go crazy with it because its just the topping on top of ....cardboard, I mean lechem oni!
From David Lebovitz: Chocolate-Covered Caramelized Matzoh Crunch
Posted in: Recipes
If you want a pareve one, try coconut oil from the health food store. As an added bonus it tastes really good and if you sprinkle on some dessicated coconut (or the mixture of the two chocolates I gave you-if you still have peru) it goes really well with salt and a little chili pepper. Damn, now I'm going to have to make that I my seder too
Is Taxing Chocolate A Good Way to Help Fight Obesity?
Posted in: Opinion
We just need to set up a study trial of several thousand people eating nothing but 100% Tava Bars for 10 years and see how that plays out. You need to isolate the "chocolate" and who better to do that than Tava (Langdon send me chocolate-i don't have any money but I'll send you one of mine in return!)
Chocolatiers = Re-melters?
Posted in: Opinion
How about 70% truffles/pralines etc? 70% what?! Cocoa solids, no way, maybe 70% fat that's almost believable but not marketable, so I think by labeling confections with percentages they obviously are reffering to an ingredient used in the "creation"/recreation of said confection.Marketers can kill language by using references out of context. (example "less fat"...than what?)What bothers me about this thread is that when I read it, I feel myself completely agreeing with Brad on many points. I don't like having to sell my product and explain that while it's true that there might be better tasting chocolate in Israel, we're the only ones who actually "make our chocolate" by cleaning beans and roasting, and finish by cutting packages and hand wrapping. It's hard to educate people in a completely un condescending/loving way. That's what I was hoping for in this thread. Everyone agreeing to drop the word "remelter", adopt fondeur, its french, marketable, and not to be confused with melanguer, which they don't use, unless they're actually french and are referring to another type of mixer.I think the real culprit in this thread was the word "makes" as in "i make chocolates". That's a lot harder of a definition to pin down. I don't know if the word "makes" means that you start from chocolate couverture and mold it into a bar, since they "form" the bar with couverture. That may constitute "making chocolate". But the word "makes" can also mean made from liquor, or beans, or starting from the tree.. or , maybe it is altogether impossible to "make" anything. Who made the system in which all of these components are processed in these ways and the result would taste like chocolate?-An obvious proof of G-d's existence, and possibly one of His best creations!
Chocolatiers = Re-melters?
Posted in: Opinion
My 2 cents-There is a lot that the people chocovore listed as producers do to the chocolate. Some are connected with the source, others buy brokered cacao. Either way the manufacturer has a product, that if tasted raw and unroasted would have a very small market, (raw food people I guess). A lot happens to those well fermented or poorly fermented cocoa beans and that is the art of chocolate. Each of the makers listed have a style that regardless of cacao is recognizable (textures, flavors, roasts etc)The fact that they have a style and can be a part of the whole process demonstates skill of the trade.In another thread I quoted Art Pollard of Amano, "The problem with chocolate, is that every step is the most important step".So it's hard to do everything-and that's ok. But the people who do everything, and do it right, deserve the recognition for it. (isn't there a database for this somewhere?! Shouldn't that be authoritative?!)And the people who don't do everything, that's also ok.(They'll be the "star belly sneetches" in the database)
Chocolatiers = Re-melters?
Posted in: Opinion
Are your boxes precut and glued? Because I am embarressed to show a picture of my packaging room. I delayed cleaning up all of the "cuttings" because I was really curious to see how much paper was getting wasted and how many packages I needed to cut in order to be able to swim in it- so far I'm 300 in and it's only a kiddie pool!
Mixed News From Hershey: Recession is Good - Closing Plants
Posted in: News & New Product Press (Read-Only)
"1) Educational infrastructure"Not only for the chocolate maker, but also the customers. Chocolate tasting instructions. In my market, people eat chocolate so fast that is impossible to taste anything but sugar. When a representative of Vahlrona came to Israel and tasted Israel's chocolate company his response was "they use high quality sugar"! The public needs to be reintroduced to the concept of chocolate.For 2 & 3 thanks for helping Clay.Jo
Spicy dark chocolate bars?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Buy some cocoa butter, buy some chilis- piquin, ancho, chipotle, whatever flavors you are working with. I have been dreaming of pairing my Dominican Organic Dark -which has a lot of raisin notes in it- with the ancho-also has raisiny flavors. Grind or chop the chilis-melt the cocoa butter- heat gently to extract the chili flavor directly into the butter-and then add to the chocolate and temper. Another way of doing it would be to throw the chilis directly into the melanguer-if you are making your own chocolate- with the nibs. Chili flavor will be dispersed very evenly throughout the chocolate. The downside (if this really is a downside) is that the spicyness will be hard to get off the melanguer and may affect future batches.I read recently on AMerican HEritage chocolate's website that the mills that used to be used to mill cocoa, were also used to mill mustard, ginger and black pepper which added a nice kick to chocolate.
Deconstructing Cocoa Content
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Ilana1. Cocoa content is what we generally see as percentages on labels. The content is calculated based on the total percentage of cocoa products (cocoa mass or sometimes called cocoa liquor + cocoa butter -if added.2. Cocoa Mass- Liquor-ground beans anywhere from 45-65% cocoa butter and the remainder3. The cocoa butter is 25% of the total mass not just of the cocoa content- which means18% Cocoa Mass (think beans) + 25% cocoa butter + 38% Sugar + ...the tech specs don't say the % of milk fat so-Total fat is 39% - (25% cocoa butter + fat from liquor, about 9%, half of liquor) which equals39-34=4% milk fatSo again 18% Cocoa Mass + 25% Cocoa Butter+ 38% Sugar + 4% Milk fat + 1% Vanilla and Lecithin which equals86%.So what is missing? The nonfat milk solids- which need to be calculated.4. In clay's example the cocoa content is minimally 41% which I guess means it could also be 43%
The Fine Art of Chocolate ... Criticism
Posted in: Opinion
I think that your absolutely correct about this review. I think it is tough enough to make good chocolate. There are almost an infinite amount of variables that affect flavor. How many flavors the human mind can describe are less. On one hand descriptions of "dirt, sand, mud" while they convey a mental flavor- how many chocophiles do you know that have closed their eyes, and TASTED, while chewing only 3 times and swirling it all around their palate with a pen and paper describe that experience, and then rinse their mouth out and repeat with sand.In attempting to be accurate, the descriptions are so specific, it leaves very little wiggle room for the brain to translate. I often wonder if I should give tasting notes. I want the flavors to stand up on their own that anyone paying attention (key component) would be able to write them themselves. After all, isn't that the appreciative element of eating chocolate?I recently dropped around $300 in fine chocolate in the US and tasted it with my parents. We had a great time describing to one and other the different flavors.One of the bars was a taste pack from Amedei. To me, the Jamaica bar tasted very similar to a raisinette. Great dark chocolate flavor, with a creamy "dairy/buttery" texture (I find this common in Amedei that the texture makes me think of milk chocolate even when it is dark) paired with purple raisins. Now I didn't want to say raisinette. I kept it to myself. When both my parents, and later friends said that it was dead on raisinette-that shared experience was greater by all of us being able to come to it on our own senses.Isn't that what we strive for in making great chocolate? That our customers taste and perceive what we do- even when we don't tell them.However some people need some kind of map-so I understand giving flavor notes. But lay off the metaphors and diatribes (I apologize for this one, I have a batch of chocolate in the melanguer and have probably ingested too much and will be up for the rest of the night!)
Aging chocolate
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I'm jealous, not only have I not received my copy, which was ordered from amazon a month and a half ago, it will take me another few weeks to get it to Israel.So I think a summary on beta VI crystals should follow in some forum. If I read you correctly, what you are saying is by using beta VI crystals to temper, applying high shear and sufficient cooling will produce stable V crystals.It seems that the issue of melt may or may not be related. I've experimented with several different mold dimensions and also the size of pieces eaten to try and pin down texture. Besides, conching, proper tempering,a certain amount of aging, the amount of chewing will also determine the quality of melting. Since VI has a higher melting point I'd imagine the texture to be different (my association with waxy chocolate is compound chocolate from my youth).I 've noticed that my chocolate in the winter is different that it was several months ago. I also was recently told that Hershey's had different formulas for their chocolate based on the seasons as well.All the bestJo
Aging chocolate
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I actually ordered the new one while in the states, and have been waiting very patiently to get it!
Aging chocolate
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
In Beckett's "Science of Chocolate", page 111 he states,"Recently a method has been developed to produce small cocoa butter crystals by spray chilling. Once they have transformed to form VI, they are used to seed chocolate."I think the importance of seeding is the size of the fat crystal used as seed-as beckett mentions later and the distribution. I agree that is hard to REALLY know what works better, it just seems that since melting form VI into form V in chocolate held at say 104F, would provide the necessary seed. Form V would probably melt before it could act as seed.Although this is just my understanding- definitely open to being told I'm wrong.
Aging chocolate
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Alan,I just wanted to clarify regarding beta 6-maybe you can help me understand this better. My point about the beta 6 formation was not that aging would produce a better eating chocolate. But it seems usingbeta 6 as seed produces a better temper, and this only occurs over time. It seems to me that you would not want to melt all of your aged chocolate but maybe only 2/3 and use the rest to temper.
Aging chocolate
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
James,I have tasted my own chocolate over the course of months and find that the flavor does undergo some change-how much I can not say, but there is a change. Flavors don't necessarily mellow, but I think they "unify" with one and other. (Apologize for the ambiguity in the word choice, but that's how I'd describe it)DeVries says he is able to leave more acids in the chocolate, (conching in a very traditional roller style conche) and by aging 6 months those acids also age and mature like wine. http://m.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/feb/14/a-conversation-with-steve-devries-chocolate/ Another possible reason for aging chocolate would be for stable beta crystal formation. I don't have the references in front of me, but I believe that Minifie and Beckett both talk about the most stable form of beta crystals only being able to form off of solid chocolate-hence the commno practice to "seed" melted chocolate with tempered solid chocolate. I my observations, the quality of temper is just as critical to the taste of the final product as the rest of the processing.I recently tasted 2 Cluizel Los Ancones bars, one in perfect temper, and one fat bloomed- I cursed Dean and Deluca for overcharging me for a terrible tasting bar, but when I received a new bar in the mail, I was blown away by the taste.I'll give you an anecdote that I recently heard from Steve De Vries-you can take it how you like(he might be one of the pioneers of this practice). He told me that a colleague of his had tried chocolate in germany that was aged for 20 years and it was described to have many similar aged flavor traits as a fine single malt scotch. Regardless its worth the experiment to set aside some chocolate to se what happens to it over the course of time.I think, like Steve does, that there are so many possible flavors that can come from chocolate- everything from the tree all the way to the processing and possibly storage and aging affect flavor. Although it will take a long time to experiment with the technique of long aging, it may prove to be a new (or old if you ask De Vries) vehicle for more flavors in the finished product.
Intentional Chocolate: Fact or Hooey?
Posted in: Opinion
I know this is off topic a little, but just to let you know that Kosher food is not blessed by a Rabbi, kosher meat slaughter has a blessing on the act of performing the religious rite, but other foods are not blessed in order to become certified kosher, a rabbi or emissary of the rabbi will check the ingredients to ensure they do not contain prohibited foods. I can verify that the taste and way that kosher chocolate makes me feel (nothing special) -brought me to open my own chocolate factory!As a side note, I try to maintain a positive mental attitude while I process chocolate- but that may be the result of working with chocolate!
Roasting Cocoa Beans
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
You can roast in your oven, you don't need a coffee roaster, if you have one that will work. The temperatures are lower for roasting cocoa so that's the only place modification may be necessary. You can find lots of info at ChocolateAlchemy.com. I have found that the best way to roast in the oven is to use a baking stone in the oven, preheat for at least 30 minutes @200 c. Then spread the beans in a single layer on a sheet pan-perforated is better (I now use those wire pizza racks/trays). Roasting temperatures and time vary according to bean size and type, desired flavor, and ovens.Before I bought any chocolate making machinery, I would roast and winnow my beans, and then grind them in a coffee grinder with sugar and sometimes vanilla. It was crude chocolate texturally, but delicious nonetheless.As for beans, Clay has many quality varieties on this site, and so does John Nanci at chocolatealchemy.Enjoy, it's a fun path to journey.
Top 10 Questions You'd Like to ... Ask Norman Love
Posted in: Opinion
I apologize in advance for the somewhat long introduction that follows, but Norman Love really changed my direction in life.I was in my first trimester at Johnson & Wales University Baking and Pastry Arts program- their inaugural year (2002). I was undecided as to whether I wanted to be a culinary student or a pastry chef. I as a 4th generation baker in my family and thought that I would get more out of the culinary side. At the same time, I am an observant Jew who does not mix meat and milk. This problem led me to decide to start off with the pastry program so as not to make my religious life complicated. As the Good L-rd would have it, this was a very important decision. My first class was Intro to Baking & Pastry taught by Chef Elena Clemens.Shortly after the year progressed, Norman Love came to the campus, and specifically to our class to do a private demo for the 20 of us. Chef Clemens had worked with Norman at the Ritz Carlton and as a result we got extra time with him. At that time, I had never seen chocolate with colors. I also was totally unaware of using chocolate in architectual creations. In short my mind was blown. I also was totally unaware of the varying qualities of chocolate.My experience at my grandfather's bakery had led me away from chocolate- it was a new york retail bakery that made everything from scratch and didn't use to much high quality chocolate. The dark chocolate I grew up with was sickly sweet, and I tended to prefer cheese bialys and other savory breads to the sweet stuff. After seeing Norman's demonstration I immersed myself in trying every kosher dark chocolate I could. I was hooked as they say. I decided after that seminar I wanted to work with high quality chocolate.Fast forward 7 years I find myself in the Holy Land, Israel on the brink of opening the first bean to bar microbatch chocolate company here, and much of that has to do with Norman. I would like to thank him for his openness in continuing education, through seminars and the world pastry forum in Vegas, as well as his committment to the highest quality with Norman Love Chocolates (formerly ganache chocolate). I learned so much in such a short time with him that words really can't convey my appreciation.Finally since this forum is about questions for Norman, I guess I would ask if Norman would ever consider making his own chocolate from the bean, on a limited basis similarly to the European chocolatiers. I know I would "love" to see what his take would be on the bean to bar or confection.AlsoI know he has travelled the world and I wonder if he has been to Israel yet. If not, I send an open invitation to visit and show the locals just how amazing of a medium chocolate can and should be.And FinallyWhat do you think the next "big thing" in chocolate will be
chocolate tempering machines
Posted in: Opinion
Depends on your quantity and your budget. Also depends on if you know how to temper, what it looks like, feels like etc. If you need the entire process to be automatic, you will still most probably need to adjust for your chocolates recipe. A melting kettle can be used as a temperer, but it is very slow if you can't change temperatures quickly. Seed can be made by hand tempering or even aging for a long enough time. Automatic temperers are pretty expensive new (prefamac, selmi, gami, etc)
Describing chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
What about musical staff notation? A "measure" is a period of time. Each line on the staff could represent different "notes" of flavor. Intensity for each flavor could be color coded. The notes could be standardized ( a la TCHO) or the chocolate maker would give their "tasting notes" as they perceive them. Depending on the complexity of the chocolate, there could be one measure, or there could be a symphony. Each time a "flavor note" emerges, the note on the staff would appear with the corresponding color for the intensity of that flavor.The best chocolates would probably have a score, where each instrument has it's own staff for the complex flavor notes.Unfortunately if most of the world does not know how to listen a symphony, they probably couldn't read the sheet music.I'm reminded of a line out the movie "White man can't jump". I'm not going to quote it exactly but it was something to the effect of : you can listen to Jimi (i.e. Hendrix), but you can't HEAR Jimi.
American, Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Makers: A Complete List
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Outsourcing (supervising whatever) roasting may be a business decision- but it will never be a decision based on quality. If you don't own a roaster and decide it makes more financial sense to outsource rather than roast your own -it's hard to be considered bean to bar. Where is all the care and attention to detail that tcho claims to have with the rest of there process line. If TCHO spent less on marketing they could easily roast there own- their factory has cameras and 3d!
Quotable Quotes
Posted in: Opinion
"The problem with chocolate, is that every step is the most important step." - Art Pollard interview with Park City, what an understatement!
Bean to bar chocolate makers
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Holy Cacao Chocolate is a bean to bar chocolate maker in Israel (sold 49th and 50th bar today). -We're young still!
What Makes an Artisan Chocolate Artisan?
Posted in: Opinion
They might if they had more money. in fact, I also would if I had more money.An artisan can create something that can be appreciated (in some cases, by many people), no matter what tools they are limited to. I think an artisan has an innate desire to create, and is constantly trying to do better.