Sonia, for all those that like chocolate but can't take dairy...me included, www.genefitnutrition.com has been excellent...eat raw, exclude all dairy, and drink only water and coconut juice...sounds boring but better than being sick...authors stayed with me here in Samoa, Roman and Antje, and it is amazing...we are what we eat! What has fascinated me lately are the medicinal properties of cocoa and coconut... google wart removal cocoa butter coconut oil...and they drop off on the 7-8th week.. google autism coconut oil and I forgot the other...yeahhh, Altzeimers disease and coconut oil...so let's all eat more dark chocolate raw as possible...adding a little coconut may not be too bad either...as a child I loved Coconut Rough Chocolate bars with dessicated coconut sprinkled thruout. Our latest Kokokava Chocolate bar has 250mg of Ni-Vanuatu Kava in it for all those that like medi-chocs...howard was telling me about the "Tom-Cat-Alley" aphrodisiacal chocolate...his favourite!! Cheers Steve (PS processed foods are heated and denatured by definition and NOT what our genes were expecting, with these denatured building blocks 'tricking' our immune system!
Hi Sonia, That is great that you have a melanger on the way, did you get it from Chocolate Alchemy? Pretty good exchange rate at the moment if you did. Are you getting beans in as well? You won't have to taste bad chocolate just roast on 150 celcius for between 30 and50 minutes (~800g-1kgat a time in a backingtray)tasting the beans every 5 mins after about 20 mins to see how they track. To taste I take a bean or two out, shell them and taste them with about 1/4 of a teaspoon of sugar, and chew it around for a while and you get a good indication of flavour and astringency from that. As for winnowing and grinding, that part is simple and Chocolate Alchemy has some good formulations on the website for making the chocolate. The only way you would have bad tasting chocolate is if the beans are crap.
I once made choc with soya milk powder for the kid next door, he liked it but it wasn't my cup of tea. It was simply substituted for milk powder in my formulation.
For other info on suppliers I use etc I have quite a few posts in the Chocolate Down Under group on here.
11/24/10 10:30:57PM @tom:
Hi Sonia, Good to see someone else from Adelaide on here, I think that makes three of us now. If you want to know where to get good chocolate, choc making equipment etc just ask I have been doing it for a while now. You probably know of places to get stuff that I haven't found yet too. Just this week I found a place that stocks Chocovic on Port Rd. (El Choto - a Spanish deli), the Xoconusco is excellent! Just went back a few minutes ago to restock.
Sonia, for all those that like chocolate but can't take dairy...me included, www.genefitnutrition.com has been excellent...eat raw, exclude all dairy, and drink only water and coconut juice...sounds boring but better than being sick...authors stayed with me here in Samoa, Roman and Antje, and it is amazing...we are what we eat! What has fascinated me lately are the medicinal properties of cocoa and coconut... google wart removal cocoa butter coconut oil...and they drop off on the 7-8th week.. google autism coconut oil and I forgot the other...yeahhh, Altzeimers disease and coconut oil...so let's all eat more dark chocolate raw as possible...adding a little coconut may not be too bad either...as a child I loved Coconut Rough Chocolate bars with dessicated coconut sprinkled thruout. Our latest Kokokava Chocolate bar has 250mg of Ni-Vanuatu Kava in it for all those that like medi-chocs...howard was telling me about the "Tom-Cat-Alley" aphrodisiacal chocolate...his favourite!! Cheers Steve (PS processed foods are heated and denatured by definition and NOT what our genes were expecting, with these denatured building blocks 'tricking' our immune system!
Hi Sonia, That is great that you have a melanger on the way, did you get it from Chocolate Alchemy? Pretty good exchange rate at the moment if you did. Are you getting beans in as well? You won't have to taste bad chocolate just roast on 150 celcius for between 30 and50 minutes (~800g-1kgat a time in a backingtray)tasting the beans every 5 mins after about 20 mins to see how they track. To taste I take a bean or two out, shell them and taste them with about 1/4 of a teaspoon of sugar, and chew it around for a while and you get a good indication of flavour and astringency from that. As for winnowing and grinding, that part is simple and Chocolate Alchemy has some good formulations on the website for making the chocolate. The only way you would have bad tasting chocolate is if the beans are crap.
I once made choc with soya milk powder for the kid next door, he liked it but it wasn't my cup of tea. It was simply substituted for milk powder in my formulation.
For other info on suppliers I use etc I have quite a few posts in the Chocolate Down Under group on here.
Hi Sonia, Good to see someone else from Adelaide on here, I think that makes three of us now. If you want to know where to get good chocolate, choc making equipment etc just ask I have been doing it for a while now. You probably know of places to get stuff that I haven't found yet too. Just this week I found a place that stocks Chocovic on Port Rd. (El Choto - a Spanish deli), the Xoconusco is excellent! Just went back a few minutes ago to restock.