Manufacturing Chocolate at Home
Over the years, readers have emailed me asking if it is possible to manufacture chocolate at home. It certainly is possible - you will need to access raw cocoa beans and then experiment with equipment for roasting, grinding and refining. Can you replicate the quality of the manufactured products? - yes and no, depending on how much time you want to put into searching out good cocoa beans and refining your processes and equipment.
Lets start with the beans. When I was in the chocolate business, finding raw cocoa beans (I used them for demonstrations) was difficult and that hasn't changed much over the years. I spent a day searching the web for suppliers and only came up with the following resources:
Chocolate Alchemy
This site has what I consider to be the best introduction to making chocolate at home. If you start at this page:
http://www.chocolatealchemy.com/cocoabeans.php
and then click on the titles in the top right corner, Alchemist John takes you through the process of home roasting, cracking/winnowing, grinding, conching/refining, tempering/molding much better than I could because he's "been there done that!" He also sells good quality cocoa beans.
Stone and Giacomotto Cacao
Nate & Christophe have developed a great resource for good quality beans. An overview of the process and suggested equipment are not as organized as Chocolate Alchemy at this point – in the section Cacao Journal, you do have to dig for tidbits of helpful information by going through the postings.
Doing a search for raw cocoa beans for sale only brought up the following suppliers: www.rawfood.com and www.gourmetsleuth.com. I suggest that when you get serious about manufacturing chocolate at home that you Google the following terms: raw cocoa beans, cocoa beans for sale, cocoa beans and cacao beans to see if there are any other suppliers at that time. Accessing good cocoa beans in imperative to start the process and come out at the end with a palatable chocolate.
If you decide to manufacture chocolate at home, make sure to have fun along the way – remembering that after all that work the resultant product will be some form of chocolate :o)
Overview of the Chocolate Manufacturing Process
I included this overview to familiarize readers with the steps involved in the manufacturing of chocolate.
Sourcing Raw Cocoa Beans and Blending for Flavor
In order to produce a consistent chocolate, commercial chocolate manufacturers reserve most cocoa bean crops on the world market well in advance of their actual availability. This ensures the manufacturer of a steady supply of cocoa beans. Distributors who supply small chocolate factories purchase the remaining beans.
A variety of cocoa beans are blended by the chocolatier to a specific formula they have developed in order to make their final product unique. Blending also insures that the manufacturer delivers to their customers, the same product year in and year out. There is a movement within the small luxury chocolate manufacturers to produce chocolates by "cru" or vintage. This means that each chocolate they produce has its own distinct flavor and aroma – these can vary crop to crop. Vintage chocolates satisfy the chocolatier’s or pastry chef’s need for special occasion chocolates and desserts.
Roasting and Grinding the Cocoa Beans
After blending, the cocoa beans are roasted and ground. Roasting brings out the chocolate flavor and aroma associated with chocolate and is accomplished much in the same way that coffee beans are roasted. Grinding the roasted beans to a fine pulp in very important as it is the first step in producing an exceptionally smooth product. The pulp, or chocolate liquor as it is called in the industry, is then melted. Extra cocoa butter is added to increase the delicacy of the chocolate mass. The pulp naturally contains about 45% cocoa butter. Fine quality chocolate can range for 60 - 70% cocoa butter, so this addition of cocoa butter is an integral part of the process.
Refining the Cocoa Paste with other Ingredients
Sugar, vanilla, and possibly dry milk powder for milk chocolate are added to the melted cocoa liquor and then emulsified in a refining process called conching. In most cases, a small amount of soy lecithin is added to help with emulsification. Conching is the secret to fine quality chocolate. The mixture is agitated in a folding or wave motion by machine for at least a number of hours and sometimes up to days until all the particles of the chocolate mixture have been made smaller. The result is a smooth texture that literally melts in your mouth.
You can test the importance of conching yourself by starting with two different quality chocolates. For this test, use products that are very divergent in price so the difference in texture will be more obvious. Take a small piece of chocolate and let it melt on your tongue, using your tongue to rub the mixture on your upper palette. You will be able to discern a "grittiness" in the less quality product. The expensive product, especially if it is a European brand, should be much smoother. That is the result of conching for long periods of time.
Tempering the Chocolate for Storage and Distribution
The conched mixture is then cooled slowly to about 90 degrees Farenheit while it is still in movement. This "tempers" the product giving the chocolate a sheen and crisp bite. To explain further, the crystalline structure of the cocoa mass is broken when chocolate is melted over 90 degrees F. In order the re-establishment the crystals in their normal order, the mass must be heated to around 100 - 110 degrees F and then cooled back down to 90 degrees F. Keeping the crystals moving while the chocolate mass cools enhances the process and helps insure the original structure is regained. Once tempering has been accomplished, the chocolate is molded into bars and shipped to customers.
"Secret" Marquise Recipe
makes 6 to 8 servings
7 to 8 ounces good-quality semisweet chocolate broken coarsely into 1-inch pieces
4 ounces milk chocolate, broken coarsely into 1-inch pieces
5 large egg yolks
1/3 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons butter
Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
Combine the semisweet chocolate and milk chocolate in a food processor with a steel knife and process until finely chopped. Set aside.
Heat the egg yolks and 1/3 cup heavy cream in a 7- to 8-inch heavy skillet over low heat, stirring constantly with a fork or spatula flat against the bottom of the pan. The split second that you feel thickening, remove the skillet from the heat and keep stirring. Add the butter and stir in well. Add the chocolate and stir constantly until the chocolate just melts. Continue to stir for 1 minute.
Remove the bottom from a 7- or 8-inch springform pan; you won't need it. Place the ring of the springform on a platter and spray the inside of the ring and the platter well with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon in the chocolate mixture and place in the refrigerator to chill and set firm (about one hour).
Place a medium mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for 5 minutes to chill well. Whip 1 cup cream, not stiff but only to thicken slightly -- the consistency of a thick cream sauce -- add sugar and stir in. Cover individual small serving plates with a thin layer of this cream.
Wet a towel with hot water and squeeze dry. Wrap warm towel around the springform ring for 20 seconds, then open and remove ring. Heat a knife under hot running water and wipe dry. To serve, cut a small wedge of the marquise while it is quite cold and place in the cream on the serving plate. Run the knife under hot water and dry before making each cut. May be served immediately after removing from the refrigerator or cut and held at room temperature up to 30 minutes before serving.
Pam Williams is an educator and business strategist specializing in marketing and communications. Her culinary accomplishments include: founder Ecole Chocolat Professional Chocolatier School, founder of the specialty chocolatier, au Chocolat; author and publisher of three cookbooks including the Canadian best selling chocolate cookbook, Oh Truffles.