Hello! The last batch of 70% dark chocolate I made (from bean) didn't have any extra cocoa butter,…
Hello! The last batch of 70% dark chocolate I made (from bean) didn’t have any extra cocoa butter, just sugar. I use a wet grinder only. The result was tasty but I only managed to pour 6 bars worth before my chocolate was too viscous to pour. Using the wet grinder, do I really need to use cocoa butter in order to have less viscous tempered chocolate? I found it impossible to knock the bubbles out of the bars too…any thoughts? I had wanted to practice with the purest form of bean-to-bar without adding cocoa butter, but if I’m getting unworkable chocolate then will have to use cocoa butter. Beans are new ones to me, Sambriano Valley. I read that the location of the beans in relation to the equator determines fat content in the bean. Any one got any tips?! Thanks so much. Very much a novice. My batches are only 2kg max.
The viscosity of a chocolate is going to be highly dependent on the recipe (how much cocoa and how much sugar) and the amount of fat in the bean. You can make a recipe with the exact same proportions and timings and the viscosity can be very different if the fat in the bean (which can be 50% +/- 3% or so). This is true no matter how you are refining the chocolate.
The relationship to the equator has less to the with the fat content of the bean and more to do with the melting point of the fat, so that’s also an issue.
How are you tempering?
If you’re not able to work with what you have adding cocoa butter – just enough to make your life easy – may be the best alternative.