Forum Activity for @Maria6

Hello Gap! thank you for the recipe! I will try it next week, may be withoyt lecithin.

Have a nice week-end!

Hello,

I would like to make some white chocolate with my cocoa butter. Does anyone have a recipe for delicious white chocolate?

thank you in advance!

Hello!

For my chocolate I use cocoa beans from Venezuela, and I would like to try to make chocolate with Ecuadorian cocoa beans. Have you ever tried to roast Ecuadorian cocoa beans? The taste of the raw beans is not acidI think I will try to roast them at low temperatures ( 260F-280F).

What do you think?

Thank you in advance!

Hello !

I have just found someone who roasts freshly coffee and I have some ideas to make chocolate with this coffee. Can I put the coffee in the grinder with sugar and other ingredients ? How do you make it ?

The problem is that I have just one grinder and I make other types of chocolate too..

Thank you in advance for your help !

Hi Felipe !

thank you so much for your help ! The information is very useful, really... just one question about whole milk. when you say that the full milk goes stale quickly, do you mean that it can happen some weeks after, or the chocolat can be ok for some months but less than an year ?

Now, I make some dark milck chocolat, with only 10% full milk inside, and the best before is 1 year.

I hope that my question is clear, sorry for my english.

Hello !

I make dark milk chocolate ( 60%) and I would like to try to make milk chocolate... 25% or 30% of nibs. Do you have some advices for the quantity of cocoa butter I have to add ?

Thank you in advance !

Hi Katherine,

we have ECGC 65 A grinder from cocoatown. my husband changed the belts a week ago and it was ok. he used a wrench 19. we did not remove the motor, just raise it, but don't remove it.

Thank you very much for the information. very interesting the information about the water activity; Yes, the raw sugar has more water... and the storage conditions are also important.

Hello,

I would like to ask you what best before dates you give to your chocolates ? I make my chocolate from the beans, 70% cocoa beans + raw sugar. Do you think the chocolate will be ok 2 years after its production ?

Thank you in advance !

Maria

Hello ! Thank you for sharing your experiences !

Our dark milk 60% is delicious, we added some nuts and our friends like it. the texture is smooth and the taste is good. We did not add additional cocoa butter, the tempering was ok, much more easier than the other chocolates...

But I would like also to try what you sais Antonino, reducing the nibs and adding some cocoa butter.. thank you for the idea !

Hello Tom and Sebastian,

thank you very much for your help. I have just tried the second option: I removed the contents of the grinder ( the texture was almost smooth, but not perfectly) and I will liquify some more nibs. Later I will add the first mixture to the second one. So, I will have 60% cocoa nibs, 15% whole milk and 25% sugar. I really hope that this formula will work..

I know that some chocolate makers make dark milk chocolate 60% without adding other ingredients, but I can not remember their names..

Thank you again for your advices, I will tell you the result.

Hello,

I am trying to make my first dark milk chocolate from the beans, and I have some problems about grinding and conching. I do not add soy lecithin or cocoa butter, only cocoa beans ( 45%), whole milk and sugar. I use the CocoaTown grinder and after 72 hours of grinding - conching, the texture is not perfectly smooth. But the taste is very delicious ! I wonder if I have to wait another 24 hours ?

What do you think ? I don't want to add other ingredients, do you think that I can make a smooth dark milk chocolate without additional soy lecithin or cocoa butter.

Thank you in advance for your advices !

Maria

Hello !

I have just started making chocolate from the bean. I make 70% chocolate, two different origins. They taste good, I think I have found the best temperatures for the tempering process, but I have some problems... I use Selmi tempering machine. My molds are warm, but not too much.After tempering, the structure and the color of the chocolate are ok, but there are always 2-3 very bright, glossy, spots, not white, and not always on the same molds.

Do you know why ? I don't know if there is a problem with the molds or with the temperature ?

Thank you in advance !

As Tom said, try to find another roasting. If your beans are acid, you have to roast them at higher temperature. I had the same problem with my Domenican Republic beans, I changed the temperature and the result was completely different, no acidity, and very good aromas.

Good luck !

very interesting ! thank you Denise. Paper is another option, we have to try.

I wish you all the best for the new year

Do you know if it's possible to use the roasted shells to make tea, without any other special treatment ?

Thank you !

Hi Clay,

thank you for your help. Actually I buy the beans from a broker and he gives me all the sanitary certificates. Do you think that there is a risk ?

A read that salmonella and all the possible bacterias are killed if the temperature is 70C or more. May be for cocoa beans is different ?

I roasted today my beans from Venezuela; before roasting the beans were not acid, no bitterness, just a taste of butter.

Firstly I tried the same temperatures and time as for DR beans, just to compare the results. The result for the beans from Venezuela was: the beans developped bitterness and no chocolate aromas; I tried another roasting, at lower temperature, for 15minutes, and the flavours were so different ! beautiful chocolate taste, no acidity, no bitterness. I tasted the nibs with some cane sugar and it was delicious.

Do you think that 15min ( 140C ) is ok, or it's not too much... ? the result was good, but I see that many of you roast the beans for at least 20minutes.

Thank you in advance.

Hi Tom !

We have just tried to roast our DR beans a little bit more. We roasted 100gr of nibs. 5 min at 170C, and 10 min. at 150 and 10 min at 130C. I compared the results with my first roasted beans, and what a difference !!! The first beans were very acid, and these ones have lost the acidity and they had chocolate taste.

I tried also something: I continued to roast some of the beans another 5 min. and I found that it was too much.

Thank you very much for your advices !

I am still waiting my grinder and I am wondering if 48h will be ok for the chocolate liquor. What do you think ? I will not add additional butter or emulsifiers.

P.S. sorry for my english it's not very good

Tom, Thomas, thank you very much to share your experience with these beans. It's so usefull for me ! So, I think, that I have to roast these beans more than 20min if the temperature is 130C. I will try later to roast the beans at higher temperatures and for 40 minutes at least, and I will compare the results.

The other type of beans I wil use is Rio Caribe, Venezuela. Have you ever worked with this type of beans ?

Thank you in advance !

Hi Tom ! Thank you for this information and the advice for dark milk chocolate.

I use Domenican Republic cocoa beans, type Hispaniola, and I don't roast them more than 20 minutes. Did you use this type of beans ?

Daniel: thanks for your answer ! I don't use a Juicer, I bought a grinder from CocoaT, I didn't use it yet. But I don't think that if you pass the roasted nibs through the juicer, they become bitter. I think that you have to try to roast the beans at lower temperatures, between 260F - 300F.

Hi again Daniel,

I am just starting my business, I don' t have a lot of practical experience. I know that roasting is very important and if the temperature is high the beans become very bitter; what is the temperature and the time you chose ?

You write that you use different type of beans, and do you find that all are bitter or just some of them ?

I use also a convection oven, I roast the beans at 130C for 20minutes, and I think it's ok.

I learnt that after conching resting is necessary to remove bitterness, I think 2-3 weeks is good, at room temperature. And only then you can temper it.

What type of beans do you use ? How do you roast the beans ?

After grinding, and conching, does your chocolate rest for some days or weeks ? This time is necessary to eliminate bitterness and acidity.

Hello Clay !

Thank you very much for all the information. I learnt a lot of things from what you wrote. So, conching is very particular and personal process. It's up to me to determinate the taste that I am looking for. Very creative process !

Thank you again !

Hi Mark,

thank you for you advices ! I will try to conch for more than 48 hours, to see the difference. May be later if I buy another grinder or a conche, I can do it easily and all the time.

Hi Duffy,

Thank you very much for your answer. So in less than 48 hours I can have some good chocolate. As I don't want to add emulsifiers I was worried that I had to grind and refine the liquor more than 48 hours.

Hope that I will have my grinder soon !

Thanks again !

Hello !

I am just starting a small business ( beans to bars) in Bulgaria. I will use the grinder from CocoaT and I would like to ask you how long it takes the process of grinding and developing flavours. 2 days is ok ? or more ?

Hope that people who use the same grinder, can give me more information.

Thank you in advance !

Maria

Hello,

I would like to offer to my clients roasted cocoa nibs, and I have some questions about packagind solutions. I know that some chocolate makers use jars, but it's more expensive that paper. But can I use simple kraft paper bags for food ? What about the conservation ?

Thank you in advance for your help; sorry for my english which is not always very good

Maria

Hi Samuel,

I think that you can use all the three, but I read that the aluminium foil for chocolate is the best for the conservation of the chocolate. When you purchase the foil or the paper, the seller has to send you a certificate or a document which prooves that is for food use. Here, I have to show this certificate if the authorised institution controls me.

Hi Duffy,

thank you very much ! I have just sent them a message. I see on their website that they offer many interesting products.

Thanks again !

Hello !

Do you know some suppliers of aluminium foil for chocolate in Europe ?

I have some difficulties to find this.

Thanks in advance !

Maria

Hello Kerry,

thank you for your help. I know that some people let the chocolate harden in the same room ( 18-20C) and they say that there is no problem; but It's slower, and there is always a risk I think.

I found something like a fridge, not very expensive, and it goes up to 10C, so, It will be ok.

Thanks again !

Hello,

Firstly, I would like to thank you for this site and forum, it's very useful, really !

I am going to start a small chocolate business, and I found a lot of information about machines, technology... but I have one question about the cooling of my bars after molding. What is the temperature of cooling the chocolate molds in the fridge ? What type of fridge do you use ? What about condensation issues ?

Thank you in advance !

Maria

Hello !

Firstly, thank you for this site and for this forum ! It's so useful for us!

We are new to making chocolates and we would like to create our factory for handcrafted chocolate in a small european country.

We learned from internet, that tomake1 kgofchocolate, about300-600beans ( 500-700gr) are processed. Is this true ?

We would like to build our winnower. Do you have some advices ?

Thank you in advance for your help !