Chocolate Alchemy
In one of my last posts I promised to talk about chocolate. Well, here it is!
For some time, I have wondered why there is no faction of people out there making there own chocolate. After all, people now make wine, beer, cheese, smoked foods, ice cream and all sorts of things at home or in "micro" productions, so why not chocolate? I had tried to do some research on the subject (looking for chocolate recipes) and kept reading that it was too complicated for someone to make at home. The above link goes to a page that says otherwise.
This of course, made me think of Andy, who is always up for a culinary challenge. This is interesting reading and I would be game for trying it out sometime, maybe over a weekend "up north."
My original thoughts (before finding this page) were not quite so ambitious. In the process of making chocolate a manufacturer roasts (fermented) cocoa beans, shells them, grinds them to create liquified cocoa liquer. Then they separate the "cocoa" from the cocoa butter, then recombines these ingredients in company secret proportions along with varying amounts of milk, sugar and other ingredients. This mixture is then "conched" (mixed) for a long time creating a velvety smooth texture. Lastly, the near finished product is tempered and molded.
So while the chocolate alchemy page is about completing this entire process at home (with the exception of separating out the cocoa butter), my original (and continuing) quest really was to find some guidelines for simply using my own cocoa, food grade cocoa butter and other ingredients to "make" my own chocolate. I still have yet to find information for this.
But this process sounds like fun and if anyone else is interested in attempting a home made chocolate experiment I would be willing to give it a go!
Jon
