Making chocolate?
So lately i've become interested in making chocolate at home--bars and chunks at first, but eventually truffles and general candies as well.
I'd like to do as much of the work as possible myself--starting from whole cacao beans if at all possible.
I admit my knowledge on the subject is limited, so i can't say too much of what i'm looking for here, but does anyone know of any good resources(books or websites or anything like that) on the subject?
thanks!
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2 Comments:
I think making one's own chocolate, from beans, is pretty ambitious. It requires a lot of equipment and expertise that the home cook and kitchen is unlikely to have. If you'd like to see how it is made you can take a virtual tour of the Scharffen Berger factory. Then, when you are done, you can order your chocolate from them :-)
Not sure where you are, but you might search for a chocolate making classes in your area. There is a marvelous chocolate shop in Santa Cruz, CA called Donnelly Chocolates that offers classes. There are also recipes and photos of the process on his website.
kjgibson at 9:17PM on 06/02/08
I concur with kjgibson's comment about the equipment required to process the beans. Another challenge is tempering the chocolate so that your bars have that 'snap' that you find in good bars. It's not impossible to temper at home (I've done it well in about 25% of my attempts), but changing weather and other uncontrollable factors at home cause problems.
There are other things you can do with whole cacao beans after roasting and winnowing. The resulting nibs can be used to flavor all sorts of desserts and chocolates.
Marc at 11:41AM on 06/08/08