I have been thinking of using Stawberry gum in chocolate making, there is a place that makes ice-cream with it in http://www.bushtuckericecream.com.au/
Do you know anywhere to get it from I know the Melbourne Food Depot does it http://www.mfcd.net/store/categories.asp?cID=4&c=244157
Yeah, New Zealand has a massive tradition of marshmallows and chocolate, a friend of mine was telling me that about half of the chocolate bars in NZ have some form of marshmallow in them.
Perhaps looking back to when it all started, the first marshmallow to sully a hot chocolate, that may provide some insights. I am hoping that perhaps some Americans can comment as for some reason I associate marshmallows in hot chocolate with the USA.
Personally, I find marshmallows revolting, probably on par with fairy floss (candy floss) as the most horrible confection. That said I have not made my own marshmallowsand I usually find that if I make something myself the traditional way they result is lightyears ahead of the mass produced filth.
For me marshmallows are too sweet to add to a good hot chocolate and the huge vanilla hit or God forbid strawberry hit you get from adding them totally overpowers the chocolate. Perhaps you are right and a hand made more subtle variety is required to understand why it was done in the first place....or perhaps it was a sugar addict that did it!
As far as I know there are two components to conching, to round the particles off for better mouth feel (the 'grinding' component) and to drive off unwanted volatile compounds (the heating/mixing component). These two usually occur in concert but with the Kenwood, as you say, there would be no grinding component.
The thing with conching though is that you need to know what you want to achieve by doing it. Iwork with some beans that I don't conche (anymore than what occurs in the time it takes to grind a batch down to 15-30 microns - heating/mixing/griding) and some that are more acidic that I find benefit from what I would call a medium conche and others that are very acidic that need a damn good conche.There is a lot ofpersonal taste in this too.
To further complicate this the flavour and mouthfeel of chocolate will change quite dramatically over the three weeks after you make it so you have to follow your chocolate's flavour/mouthfeelcarefully for about three weeks before you get good feedback on what you have done to it.
To do the heating/mixing part of conchingin a Kenwood though you would need to heat it with an IR lamp or other heating appliance.
Don't forget the sheering forces in the grinder will destroy the enzymes anyway, no matter what temperature it hits. I posted a link to an article inone thread a long time agoabout protein breakdown under sheering forces. I am with you Clay on the minimally processed but I am firmly of the opinion that chocolate must be fermented and roasted, it makes me feel good and that is good for your health too. Don't forget the placebo effect.
Just had a look for that post but it is gone, it was a thread Sam started and it vanished when she left. I think the search I did was along the lines of 'enzyme activity and sheering forces'. Haven't time to look for it now but Clay you might have the thread archived somewhere to extract the info?
Thanks for posting this - very interesting!
Is it true that all of Pralus' origincacao are grown in a plantation in Madagascar (obviously not the recent Chuao bar)? I think I heard this somewhere? It seems strange to me but if true would this not be a good terrior experiment. It would not be perfect though as a manufacturers processing willimpart different results beyond the dried bean starting material. However, gross distinctions may be able to be made like in the case above where there is a lack of the 'Arriba' flavour.
Glad to be of help, I agree on the degradation point, it is really dissapointing.
The recipe was 2 cups water, 1 cup sugar, 4 tbs cocoa powder, 3/4 cups frozen berries, 1 tbs jam of the same berries. As I said I haven't played with this but the levels of ingredients seemed good taste wize. Any berry will do, we used rasberry but the recipe actually indicates blueberries.
I look forward to partaking of an ice block when I get up to QLD next.
They are the ones!
Ah, I have found a few minutes to cruise the web. Love the ice blocks concept, reallly appeals to the scientist in me - I'd like to try them all, the muslie one last though I think. You should so do a rasbery and cocoa sorbet one, my wife made one one day and it was amazingly good! I experiment a lot with cocoa liquor as an ingredient and found that the cocoa butter does make for super creamy ice-cream but I haven't re-made the killer sorbet with cocoa liquor yet. I have been slowed down this summer by breaking my wrist which makes most things difficult let alone making chocolate. 22 days in the cast to go.
I have a small Spectra 10 machine which I use as a grinder and a conch, I do 1-2 kg batches at a time. All other machines or devices are thecommon or garden variety and I built my own winnower. It is extremelly time consuming! Also have you approached Big Tree Farms in Indo - they do raw choc and cocoa powder - Ben Ripple is on here. Just check me friends list for a quick way to find Ben and Andreas (Nui).
Good luck, hope to see some ice blocks around SA soon.
I am just a hobby chocolate maker at this stage.
So your in the business of making ice blocks is that right or is that just the brand name for you chocolate?
I just realised you are not a member of the 'Chocolate Down Under' group. You might find some more info in those threads especially about Nui which makes raw chocolate bars from Vanuatu beans - they are my primary source of beans also - though I roast mine. They may be interested in helping you, Andreas is a member on here.
Which cocoa liquor you want is going to be flavour dependant, they are all quite different in this region. Vanuatu is boozy and chocolatey in flavour the Australian cacao have strong notes of pineapple and liquorice, Fiji (which Nui are also importing) are mild and have really nice honey and nut notes (similar to the beans in Samoa), Bali beans have a more orange citrus note and Papua is fruity and chocolatey - I haven't worked with beans from there myself though.
Using cacao from this region is best in my opinion, there are arange of flavour profiles, ithelps our neighbours, lowers your businesses carbon footprint and saves on shipping.
Sounds a little sensationalist to me
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/06/eco.chocolate/index.html
How long do you freeze dry for? The custom dryers here specialise in wedding bouquets and they dry them typically for 4 days.
Last night on Auussie and NZ TV was aired a doco on chlid slave labour in the cocoa industry, specifically Ghana and Ivory Coast. If you go to the link below you can read more.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/
If you are in Aust. or NZ you will be able to watch the program over the web, I am not sure about access in other countries.
The in the doco the investigative reporters found many children in forced labour with no pay or schooling.
I was reading an article recently about some coffee roaster who had just gotten his Q-Grader qualification. This appears to be an independent course / test that establishes how good your coffee palate is. Is there such a thing for chocolate? Would such a thing be useful now that there are now many small bean to bar chocolate operations, not to forget the large number of home brew chocolate makers? Would consumers be impressed if the roaster of their favorite bean to bar manufacturer had such a qualification? Would it make hiring a chocolate roaster easier if they had such a qualification assuming of course the industry becomes big enough for this sort of thing? Would it be useful for cocoa brokers to have such a qualification, so companies could feel more confident in purchasing beans? How would such a test be evaluated, single origin bars, well there are certainly enough bars from the same origin from different manufacturers. Would the test involve tasting the roasted bean or making a micro batch of liquor for evaluation as a drink or directly?
Anyway it is food for thought and I was just thinking out aloud above.
