I could see why the pure powder would be so repulsive then as if vanillin only makes 2% of the vanilla bean and then ethyl vanillin is 3 times stronger than that , that makes it 150 times stronger than the bean so it must be a total flavour overload lol. I'll have to try it in a small batch then to see how it works. Thanks for your reply.
I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience using vanilla alternatives. With vanilla going for over $200/lb and no end in sight for the elevated prices I am thinking about alternatives like vanillin or ethyl vanillin. Any feedback would be appreciated by anyone who has used them. I ordered some ethyl vanillin as it is pretty cheap but just tasted a little on my finger and it does not taste how i'd expect it too and has a strong bitter flavor but I expect that would be masked by the chocolate bitterness.
Great, I just bought some from a health store to run some test batches. I have never used emulsifiers as my bars are geared towards the health food crowd and even though I don't think soy is bad in the small quantities or even at all in chocolate most people in my target market do think that. If I can use sunflower lecithin instead and get the same results then it will appease my target market.
By no difference do you mean no difference in comparison to soy lecithin or no difference in comparison to using no emulsifier at all?
Has anyone tried using sunflower lecithin rather than soy? If so what would be the best option. Would one buy the powder or the liquid. Would the amount added still be the same and what is the ideal amount added. I've read 0.3% as a good amount for the soy version.
Thanks, I'll take all that into consideration and figure it out. That's a great help. We both refuse to use soy and her current couverture has no lecithin in it already so no worries on that.
So then basically all chocolate over 70% dark is considered couverture?
The reason I want clarification is that I am grinding my own chocolate and I am working with a local artisan and want to become her supplier for her couverture as she makes truffles but I make chocolate bars. I am having trouble finding out what proportions of liquor to butter I would need to grind in order to make a couverture that would be similar to what she is already using. It will be a 70% so 30% will be sugar but other than that I do not know. My chocolate bars have a ratio of:
56% Paste or Liquor
14% Butter
30% sugar
So basically I just wanna know how much more butter I should add to a recipe for her truffles. Are these only determined experimentally or are there any resources for me to find what commercial couvertures use for ratios?
That can't be right though because then by that definition all chocolate made with liquor is also called couverture. If the definition of couverture is a butter content between 32 and 39% then just having a 70% chocolate made with liquor and no added butter is considered couverture and that just does not make sense because couverture is supposed to be more rich than just plain liquor on its own.
When you see that couverture is a higher percentage of cocoa butter it usually states it's around 32% to 39%. Is this in relation to the cocoa liquor or is it a total including the sugar. Would a 70% couverture be?
39% butter
31% liquor
30% sugar
Or would it be?
39% butter
61% liquor
Then mixed with 30% sugar in the same proportion above.
I currently have been ordering 6"x7" foil sheets from Alufoil however with our weak Canadian dollar as well as fees and duties to ship cross border I am trying to find a supplier in Canada to order from. Does anyone know of one up here. Everything I see online is about 3-5 times the price of alufoil so in that case it still makes sense to pay those border fees.
Your suggestion worked great, the grit went away from just a short time of grinding. Thanks
It makes sense, thanks for your input.
Yes, I wanted to powder the sugar so when I used it in chocolate it would take away the grit but it didn't work so am asking if there is a better way. I would prefer not to grind the chocolate and sugar in my grinder because I know chocolate is fairly hard to clean in it as the drum is not removable. I would rather do chocolate batches in my tempering machine as it is much easier to clean after the batch is complete as every part is removable and doesn't weigh 200 pounds. Plus if I did chocolate in the grinder I would then still need to put it into the tempering machine anyway as well.
If there are any suggestions please let me know or would it be best to just process the chocolate and sugar together in the grinder and then temper it?
The grinder is a spectra 40 stone grinder, i did not grind the sugar and chocolate in it but only the sugar which was completely clean before using. I normally do not use it for chocolate but only use it to process coconut and nut butters. I processed it for a full day and since it still wasn't fine enough I tried to also use the vitamix but it doesn't hold enough so it had to be done in many smaller batches.
I've been trying out batches using organic cane sugar instead of the honey I am used to using. The first batch was quite gritty so i stone ground the sugar in the second batch overnight, it still seemed a little gritty so I also used a vitamix to process through it and it seemed fine so I used it but still have that gritty texture in the chocolate.
How do you get sugar to a consistency that will be smooth in the final product?
I am trying to create a few non raw bars but am having trouble finding decent suppliers in Canada. Our low dollar value and shipping costs makes it really hard to use any suppliers outside the country until I am able to order pallet quantities. All the suppliers I currently use carry only raw cacao products. I do prefer to use organic and fair trade products but if none are available then would be willing to settle. I need somewhere that can do decent prices on 55 or 66 pound blocks. I'd rather mix everything from scratch rather than using couverture so finding cocoa liquor and butter would be great. Thanks for anyone who can help out.
OM foods is expecting a shipment of ecuadorian cacao near the end of the month. The price on the site is a lot lower on this shipment as well. Send them an email and inquire about it. The stuff on the site they are almost out of.
I have tried many of giddy yo yo's chocolates and they don't make me high... If you eat raw chocolate and don't get high from it then I can almost guaruntee that its not fully raw. Chocolate in its raw form stimulates serotonin, and contains tryptophan, anandamide, and PEA as well as theobromine. These things all stimulate feelings of euphoria and excitement but Giddy Yo Yo fails at this. They are probably the biggest raw chocolate maker in Canada though.
Also if your looking for supply they are not a supplier, their prices are too high for raw chocolate ingredients. They are a chocolate manufacturer who also sells ingredients on the side which means you pay a premium to buy from them in bulk.
I would reccomend OM Foods now. They just got a new shipment of Ecuadorian cacao that is organic, raw, and fair trade certified, and their new price on this shipment is the best I've found in Canada.
Hi,
I'd like to offer that I currently make a chocolate bar from raw organic cacao paste and butter in Canada. My cacao comes from peru from a supplier in canada called Advantage Health Matters. Our weak Canadian dollar right now may make it cost effective for you to order from them.
As for the definition of raw when it comes to cacao. I don't know if science has found a true difference in health benefits of raw vs roasted however I notice a huge difference in the way raw cacao makes me feel. If I eat 20g of raw cacao I notice a slight buzz and if I eat 50g of it I feel pretty high off it. I've tried most raw chocolate bars on the market here and most don't give me this feeling so I assume they aren't really using truly raw cacao. A few brands do give me this feeling so I equate the quality of raw chocolate to if it gives me that high from eating it. If it doesn't then its probably not raw. Maybe the temperature has gone over a certain point but if it still makes you high then it probably hasn't crossed any important thresholds.
we had one batch of raw cacao butter doing that to our chocolate. It gave a more waxy feel to the chocolate and had a weird aftertaste. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the conching process as maybe volatiles were trapped in the cacao during processing and not allowed to escape. We just told the supplier and got some from a different batch and were good again.
Thanks for both your inputs, I am going to experiment using dry sweeteners although I did really want honey to work out, I just can't afford to have half my batches not turn out well. I will calibrate the temperature on the machine as well. My last batch I lowered the room temperature and it turned out great so that may be a huge issue. I always run a dehumidifier in the room on days I make chocolate but I live in a humid climate so even with the dehumidifier running all day it still is usually 50-55% RH. I use dehumidifying packs in the fridge as well. They are rated to dehumidify a small room so are ample enough for the fridge. It's the same as those little packs you get in some products except I got large canisters of them that are reusable by drying in an oven.
Keeping a notebook is a great idea, I may try that. Thanks for all your tips. I'm going to experiment on a few of those and see how it goes.
Thanks for the info, very appreciated. I have found that my extra dark flavor which is 90% cacao and 10% honey tends to have the best luck while my other flavors are around 15% honey and I have lots of problems. I'm guessing the 90% may be under the threshold of moisture which is why it works better. I did the last batch without coconut oil but still used the honey and I had problems again but remelted and retempered and lowered the temperature of the room I was working in and had better luck. I'm going to try a batch without the honey and use cane sugar and see if that completely solves the problem. My packaging is labelled as using honey though and I still have a lot of packaging to go through so may have to make a sticker to go over the ingredient list.
As far as the issues with raw, I realize that technically the fermentation process almost always goes over the proper temperatures however I do find a distinct difference in raw vs roasted chocolate. For one raw chocolate is highly stimulating and gives you a euphoric feeling due to the theobromine, serotonin, anandamide, and PEA. There is debate over theobromine and whether its good or bad. It is a stimulant so I'd categorize it the same as caffeine and say it's ok in moderation. I have tried tons of the raw chocolate bars on the market and most of them don't give me those same feelings so I'm guessing the ones that don't are using cacao that has gone over the temperatures that have destroyed some of these properties but I'm not sure. I used to be all about raw however after reading much I'm indifferent about it. I'd say its definitely not the healthy food that it's claimed to be however I'd say it's definitely not any worse than regular chocolate. I never get the euphoric feeling from a regular chocolate bar either.
With using honey I was trying to create something that was a little better than whats available as I do believe honey is a healthier sweetener in moderation than most others out there. My bars are dark with the highest percentage of honey being 15% and I also add hemp to my bars as an added bonus. It's rare to find chocolate sweetened with honey and now I realize why. I found one company based in the US that does and I sent them an email asking about how they get away with it. They haven't replied yet but hopefully they don't feel threatened as I'm in Canada and offer no competition to them and just want to know how they get a nice temper on their product.
Again, thanks for the info.
Yeah, I fear I'll have to eliminate those ingredients, Any idea if adding an emulsifier would help me keep honey as a sweetener? The coconut oil i'm willing to eliminate, it makes the chocolate softer which is nice but if it interferes with tempering it can be eliminated.
Our recipe was developed before we started tempering our chocolate and kept it refrigerated instead so it worked great then but with tempering it has given problems
I am doing raw chocolate and have been for a while using cacao paste, cacao butter, coconut oil, and honey as a sweetener. I've been having a lot of troubles with it. Some batches turn out amazing and some look like the pic here. I am trying this next batch without coconut oil to see if that changes things. I'd rather stick with using honey as a sweetener but am also looking into different types of emulsifiers to add that may help with making sure a liquid sweetener will work properly. I am also using a tempering machine so the temperatures are pretty consistent. This was posted a while ago so if you have any tips since you posted this please feel free to share with me, thanks
A certain percentage of each batch I make turns out like the picture below. I am not sure what is going on and some batches are worse than others and some are way worse than whats shown in the pic. I use the revolation chocolate tempering machine doing approximately 20 pound batches. The settings are 89 degrees temper point and 6.5 temper delta. I recently changed to these settings as before I was using the default settings on the machine for dark chocolate. It didn't make a difference though. I use polycarbonate molds and I have found that the best way to minimize this problem is to set the chocolate for 30-40 min at room temperature and then give them about 15 min in the fridge. I tried setting them only at room temperature and that seems to make it worse and I have tried setting straight in the fridge without the room temperature time and that also makes it worse.
I read that it is good to warm the molds before pouring chocolate into them so I tried that and it seemed to make it worse. I do find that the first pour into the molds always works the best but I only have enough molds to do half the batch at a time so must do subsequent batches. I have tried wiping the molds with cotton wipes between pours but that didn't help. It definitely works better after my molds have been cleaned with water and dried properly but that takes a long time to do it between every pour and I generally only do it at the end of the batches. Any suggestions on better ways to clean them between batches?
I use honey as a sweetener so would that have anything to do with it? The bars are around 60% cacao paste, 10% cacao butter and the honey makes up about 20% with the remainder being flavorings. I have a 90% bar that is 90% cacao and only 10% honey and it tends to happen less in that flavor but still happens sometimes. The picture is actually from a batch of 90%.
Please help!
