Thought of the Day

“There is nothing so powerful as truth,—and often nothing so strange.” – Daniel Webster

We have a table top winnower in the works. In the mean time, a blow dryier and large shallow (12”) bowl works well. 1-2 minutes with stirring will blow most of the husk away and your nibs will be ready for the Champion.

“Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.” – Thomas S. Szasz

With our home refiner (the Santha Melanger) it is pretty difficult to over refine. But it can happen. If you chocolate starts to really thicken up, and you have been refining over 20 hours or so, you may be starting to overrefine. If the flavor is still not smooth as you want, remove the tension spring, and effectively you will be conching but not refining.

“It is good to love as many things as one can, for therein lies true strength, and those who love much, do much and accomplish much, and whatever is done with love is done well.” – Vincent van Gogh

There are three basic stages of roasting.

1) The bacterial kill from the inital (350 F) temperature
2) The drying phase – usually a little lower than your final temperature 240-260
3) A final stage slightly hotter temperature to bring out the roast flavor of the bean. Some delicate beans don’t need this stage.

“Be who you are and say what you feel because the people who mind don’t matter and the people who matter don’t mind.” —theodor seuss geisel

Is it bad when you’re trying to figure out a technical problem and searching google just keeps bringing you back to the things you’ve wrote about the problem? me thinks it is. Ruzz

I have had that same problem with various equipment for homemade chocolate. Sucks being the leading expert when you are searching for alternatives. Alchemist

“The cost of a things is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”—Henry David Thoreau

If you have an bright or acidic cocoa bean (Madagascar), don’t try and rush the roast. It takes time for all those acids to make it out of the bean and be driven away. 30 minutes is not uncommon. But keep the temperature moderate (260-270 F) for most of the roast so you don’t over roast.

“True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.” – Albert Einstein

I often hear about the grave danger of roasting cocoa, the fire hazard, etc. Please rest assured, the danger lies when roasting hundreds if not thousands of pounds together. The danger of roasting 10 lbs of cocoa approaches zero. The temperatures are just not hot enough and there is not enough mass to present a fire hazard.

Happy roasting.

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”—Arthur Schopenhauer

The Chocolate Melanger can refine more than just your chocolate. You can make praline paste (which I have heard could not be done at home – guess what) , nut butters and even creamed honey. In addition, it can refine other flavors in your chocoalte – coffee beans, dried peppers, cinnamon. If you can eat it and it is dry, you can refine it. I have a favorite “latte chocolate” that is a pound of white chocolate and 4 oz of coffee grounds refined to smoothness. No real chocolate, but divine.

“Be who you are and say what you feel because the people who mind don’t matter and the people who matter don’t mind.” —theodor seuss geisel

Give some thought to your final molds. Their shape, size, thickness…I am offering a new Leaf mold. I adore the thinness of it. It puts just the right amount of chocolate in your mouth, and bites off with just the right amount of pressure. Some molds I rejected to carry were beautiful, but the resulting chocolate was too thick to bite through and that distracted from the eating experience.

“60% of the time, it works every time” – unknown

When molding your chocolate, work quickly and efficiently (although, don’t rush). Try not to disturb the chocolate too much or it may streak or bloom.

“Not all things worth counting are countable and not all things that count are worth counting.” – Albert Einstein.

On that note:

Should you use 22.5% cocoa butter or 23.0% cocoa butter to your milk chooclate? Should you roast 20 minutes at 285 F or 25 minutes at 265 F?
Did you lose 22% or 23% husk and if it was 23% how much did the chocolate cost?

Answer:

Don’t get caught up in the numbers. Sure, they are important, but the end result of the chocolate is what matters