Jul 7, 2017
In honor of World Chocolate day, Check out this video of bachelor’s students in the Advanced Concepts in Baking and Pastry Concentration making chocolate bars, and truffles from Bean-to-Bar!
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In honor of World Chocolate day, Check out this video of bachelor’s students in the Advanced Concepts in Baking and Pastry Concentration making chocolate bars, and truffles from Bean-to-Bar!
A @chocolatdujour abre um novo ponto de venda na Vila Nova Conceição, dentro da loja @richards74, com vitrine de trufas e área de degustação com café e bebidas. Endereço: Rua Domingos Leme, 247, São Paulo.
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Curso com Carlos Alberto Dória explora a história do chocolate e ensina a fazer receitas exclusivas.
Le nouveau MELANGEUR ALLURE FM!
Making bean to bar chocolate at home: Batch #1
DAY 1...
This morning I decided to attempt my first batch of bean-to-bar chocolate.
I freaked out when I opened the sack of Madagascan beans, worried they looked mouldy. After a bit of research, I was relieved to discover the pale dusty appearance is normal - just yeast from the fermentation process. Plus they smelled good. Phew! Dumping 10kg (22lb) of gorgeous Sambriano Valley beans would’ve been gutting; and my own fault for not storing them properly. They’ve been in a burlap sack in a cardboard box in the coolest part of my house, but I’ve been wondering whether it would be wiser to keep them completely airtight.
Since it was my first time using the Premier Table Top Tilting Grinder, I ran 1kg (2.2lb) of granulated sugar through it for over an hour, slowly tightening the rollers until they were all the way down. This smooths the rollers out and gets rid of any minerals.
I threw the sugar away, but didn’t wash the grinder, since moisture would ruin the chocolate.
Step 1 - ROASTING
Before roasting, I removed the dodgy looking beans that looked gnarly or broken. Some folk recommend discarding the flat ones too, as they haven’t fermented properly.
I don’t have a roaster so just roasting in the oven.
There’s no definitive answer when it comes to temperature and roasting times. Every chocolate maker has their own way and there are lots of variables: your oven, the dish you roast them in, the type of beans and of course the flavour you’re after.
One method is to start at a higher temperature and gradually lower it, or vice versa. Since this is my first go I went for a simpler method, roasting at 130C (270F) for 30 minutes.
It’s common to roast beans in a single layer spread out on a baking sheet, but I heard that this can scorch the beans underneath, particularly if the roasting tin is thin, so a heavy glass dish could be more reliable. I didn’t have a glass dish big enough so used a cast iron pot, stirring the beans every 5 minutes for an even roast.
After 30 minutes there was a distinct aroma of brownies, so I took them out the dish to cool. Some chocolate makers think it’s best to cool them for a few hours, even 24, but I didn’t wait that long.
Step 2 - CRACKING & WINNOWING
I assumed since the batch was small, cracking and peeling the beans by hand wouldn’t be a big deal. Holy crap was I wrong. After an hour, I had a tiny jugful of nibs and a massive tray of unpeeled beans staring at me. Some of the beans were difficult to peel and pretty soon I wanted to kill myself.
I decided to crack the beans a bit more aggressively, putting them in a plastic bag and bashing them with a rubber mallet (in the absence of a rolling pin). I learned from this first botched attempt that it’s better to put fewer beans in the bag and use a transparent bag, so you can spread then out in a single layer and see what you’re doing, carefully whacking them just hard enough to crack the husks and break the beans into pieces, without pulverising them to a powder.
When I attempted winnowing with a hairdryer, I suffered the consequences of bashing my beans over-zealously.
I put the cracked beans in a large bowl and blasted them with a hairdryer on the cool setting. This is best done outside, as husks fly everywhere, making a huge mess. You might want to wear goggles and a mask if you’re doing loads, because it gets really dusty.
The idea was to shimmy the bowl around while blowing the husks off with cool air, leaving the nibs. But unfortunately there wasn’t enough weight difference between husk fragments and nib fragments, so I ended up blowing loads of my nibs away.
I ended up with just under 500g (1.1lb) of nibs, when I started with 750g (1.7lb). I only expected to lose about 20% of the weight after winnowing, so I’d wasted over 100g (3.5oz).
Second time around, with fewer beans in the bag, a clear bag and much more careful bashing, I cracked the beans into bigger chunks, rather than powder.
I also tried to use a little more finesse with the hairdryer, holding it further away and gently agitating and sifting the nibs with my hands, so I didn’t create a hurricane in the bowl and blast everything clean out. The tortoise approach is definitely superior to the hare.
After a while, there were still quite a few beans with husks on, so I spent another hour or more hand-peeling those, wondering whether I was being too OCD about it. I didn’t want to risk the texture and flavour of the chocolate by leaving too many husks in, so veered on the side of perfectionism. About 2% husks is okay.
Step 3 - GRINDING & CONCHING
I ended up with 483g (1lb) of nibs.
Before grinding the nibs, I whizzed them to a fine powder in a blender, to ease the pressure on the grinder’s rollers and motor. If I had a better blender or food processor I would’ve kept going until they were more like a rough paste, but they were clogging up, so I stopped at a powder.
I’m in a hot climate - it was about 35C (95F) outside and 28C (82F) in my adega-turned-chocolate-factory. I tipped the nibs into the grinder, holding the hairdryer above to get the heat going, but they reached 45C in no time so there was enough heat in the grinder to ditch the hairdryer.
I tipped 140g (5oz) melted cocoa butter into the nibs straight away. Next time I might try waiting for a few hours, before adding the cocoa butter. Apparently some chocolate makers conch the nibs for 24 hours, then add the cocoa butter and sugar and conch for another 10. There are endless combinations and it’ll be interesting to see what difference it makes to the flavour.
After about 10 minutes I added 340g (12oz) sugar, so everything was in the grinder really quickly. I gradually tightened the rollers in 5 minute intervals until they were all the way down.
I was aiming for 65% dark chocolate. The recipe was 500g (1.1lb) nibs, 350g (12oz) caster sugar, 150g (5oz) melted cocoa butter. Since I blew away more nibs than planned, I reduced the quantities a tiny bit. Having tasted the liquor and read more recipes, this might be heavy on sugar, but we’ll see how it turns out. I tend to prefer less sweetness. Next time I might try more like 65% nibs, 5% cocoa butter and 30% sugar.
My liquor was grinding at 45-50C (113-122F), so I didn’t need to put the lid on for extra warmth. Leaving the lid off reduces the acidity and smoothes out the flavours. If you’re in a cooler climate you can use a lamp to keep the temperature up.
After a few hours, during which I scraped down the sides of the grinder a few times, it looked like melted chocolate. I kept tasting as it got less grainy. Still seems a bit sweet.
I’m going for a 24 hour conch.
I’m worried about tempering, moulding and storage in this heat. Storing chocolate in the fridge may be my only option, but there’s a risk of condensation that’ll cause sugar bloom and ruin the temper. From what I can gather if chocolate loses it’s temper because it’s too hot (I know the feeling), you can re-temper; but if it loses it’s temper because it has been stored in the fridge too cold, you’ve had it. I haven’t tested this for myself yet. Regardless, the chocolate will still taste good and will be perfectly fine for cakes, hot chocolate etc. The best I can do is to store it in an airtight container, wrapped up in towels or bubble wrap. That way, when I come to use it, I can bring it up to room temperature slowly to reduce the moisture. Not ideal, but until I get a wine fridge, it’s the only way.
DAY 2...
I tasted my chocolate after 16 hours in the grinder and all the graininess had gone. Silky smooth and tastes delicious.
I could store my untempered chocolate for a few weeks to age, to develop the flavours. But I’m already concerned about storage in this hot climate, so that’s an experiment best left until Winter. I’m not sure whether ageing is effective in the fridge. Also I don’t have the patience to wait, because I’m desperate to see my first chocolate bars!
So tempering and moulding right away it is.
Step 4 - TEMPERING
As with most aspects of chocolate making, opinions differ on the best tempering method. If you don’t have a tempering machine, a bain marie works fine to raise the temperature. Then to drop it down, you can spread the chocolate onto a marble slab, or use a cold water bath, stirring like mad. Some people seed the chocolate with pieces of previously temperated chocolate, but I don’t have any yet. I’ve also seen Dom Ramsey and others succeed by cooling it naturally.
I spotted a few minor variations on recommended temperatures:
i) Heat to 49C (120F), cool to 26C (79F), heat to 32C (89.5F). ii) Heat to 45C (113F), cool to 28.5C (83F), heat to 31C (88F). iii) Heat to 40C (104F), spread on slab until it thickens, heat to 31C (88F)
Some say tempering in a hot climate is nigh impossible, but I’m not having that. My first attempt, however, was not a success.
First of all I tipped the mixture straight out of the grinder. It had been sitting around 43-45C (109.5-113F) all day, so theoretically was close to the high temperature already. By the time I’d scraped it into the bowl, it was in the thirties, so I decided to heat it back up. I tried the hairdryer first of all, but that wasn’t cutting it, so made a bain marie. I took the bowl off when it was at 45C (113F), but it rose quite a bit more, to almost 50C (122F).
I thought since the room temperature was around 28C, I’d be able to hit the low temperature with the help of a fan and lots of stirring. Not so. I ended up running to fetch a pan of ice water, but I didn’t have enough ice, nor a big enough water bath, so it was taking forever to cool down.
After about 10 minutes of frantic stirring, I remembered I had one of those blue ice pack things in the freezer, so dropped that into the water and the temperature started to fall.
When it hit 28C (82.5F), I started heating it back up with the hairdryer to 31C (88F).
I do have a marble worktop, so perhaps shouldn’t chicken out of the spreading method.
The bars aren’t beautiful and glossy like I hoped for, so it’s back to the drawing board on the tempering front. There’s cocoa butter bloom on some of the bars and the chocolate stuck to the mould for the same reason.
With only 10 bars from this batch, I’m not going to sweat it too much. I’ll have another go with tomorrow’s batch.
Overall, the chocolate is silky sooth and I’m pleased with the result flavour-wise. I just need to master the tempering, despite the challenging climate.
Lessons for next time:
If using the water bath method: big sink / basin full of water, don’t skimp on the ice.
Don’t keep the bowl on the bain marie; instead take it on and off, stirring and measuring the temperature, so it’s easier to control and doesn’t rise so aggressively. It’s particularly important not to let the final temperature rise about 32C (89.5F), otherwise you need to start again. This could easy be what knackered my temper this time. Perhaps it also took too long for the chocolate to cool.
Life is too short for crappy, floppy silicon moulds. Invest in some decent, rigid, transparent ones. They’ll be easier to tap and shake to remove air bubbles; plus you’ll be able to see when the chocolate is set. I blemished two bars popping them out a little early as I couldn’t tell.
Test the temper before moulding by putting a blob of chocolate on a knife and letting it set at room temperature (some say in the fridge) for a few minutes. If it looks uneven dull, as opposed to glossy and smooth, re-temper it right away. When you touch properly tempered chocolate, it won’t leave a melty smudge on your finger.
Experiment summary, Batch #1
Recipe 483g (1lb) nibs (50.2%) - Madagascar Organic, Sambriano Valley 140g (5oz) cocoa butter (14.5%) - Chocolate Madagascar Organic 340g (12oz) golden caster sugar (35.3%)
Method Roasting: 130C (270F) for 30 mins, stirring every 5, in cast iron pot Adding ingredients: Everything added very close together in the first 10 mins Conching: 24 hours Temper: half-assed last-minute-flap water bath. Rubbish.