rebellious-confectionery-blog

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So many designs, so little time.

Chocolate can be found on sale in a huge range of different shapes and sizes, ranging from the humble brick-like chocolate bar form (commonly associated with the likes of Cadbury) to abstract geometric shapes of independent artisan chocolatiers. So choosing which chocolate moulds to purchase first when you're just starting out can be an overwhelming experience.

Choosing the right chocolate mould.

I would highly recommend starting your collection off with a classic, the humble chocolate bar mould. When you Google chocolate, you will more than likely find that there are more image results for chocolate bars than individually cast chocolates. The reason for this is quite simple, chocolate bars have typically proved to be more economical to produce in mass thanks to the reduced amount of labour and materials required to package them in. It is mainly for this reason that we associate chocolate bars with large scale producers such as Cadbury and individual chocolates with far smaller artisan chocolate shops.

You can find chocolate moulds on sale in a variety of different sizes and designs both online and in most cookware shops on the high-street. One thing worth taking into consideration regarding the size of chocolate bar moulds is that the larger the bar, the more melted chocolate you are going to need to produce a single bar. For this reason, I would recommend opting for a smaller size, to begin with.

Another thing to take into consideration is what the mould is made from as this will have a large effect on its life span and initial retail value. I would recommend opting for a medium price-range silicon based chocolate mould. I personally find them to be the easiest to turn out when the chocolate is set, are hard wearing and are easy to clean. You can also find chocolate moulds (normally Easter egg moulds) made from clear, thin plastic. These moulds are often cheaper than their silicon counterparts however, they are prone to cracking, melting and discoloration over time. At the other end of the price-spectrum is the professional poly-carbonate chocolate moulds. These moulds are made of solid, heavy wear plastic, but with its professional label comes a higher price tag.

If you find the commercially available chocolate moulds are just too pricey for you at this time, why not try some generic plastic items that might already be in your kitchen right now. Plastic Tupperware boxes make ideal moulds to make what are called “chocolate slabs” (more on this to come in a future post). Empty plastic yogurt pots and plastic ice cube trays also make great moulds for making individually cast chocolates. However it is worth noting that whatever you use as a mould must have a glossy finish otherwise, your chocolate will come out with an undesirable matt finish.

How to get the best results.

Here are some tips and tricks to get the best results when casting chocolate in your new chocolate moulds:

Before filling your mould, always make sure it is clean, dry and free of any foreign bodies such as hair or dust.

Try polishing your mould with a lint free cloth to produce a high gloss finish to your cast chocolates.

Always start with properly tempered chocolate. Regardless of its colour, correct tempering is crucial for casting. When tempered chocolate sets, it shrinks ever so slightly in the mould, making it easier to turn out.

When moulding a solid chocolate bar, always overfill the mould and scrape off the excess back into your reserve of tempered chocolate. This way you will produce a nice clean finish at the base of the bar.

Once you have filled your mould, gently tape it against the surface of a worktop. This will ensure any trapped air bubbles are flushed to the surface and burst.

If your chocolate was correctly in temper, then you should have no issues turning it out when set. However, if you find it needs a little bit of helping hand, try gently stretching the mould from each of its corners and then from its sides. If the chocolate appears to rip from the sides of the mould while doing this, this means the chocolate has not had long enough to set and was not correctly tempered.

Cleaning.

When finished using your chocolate mould, you are going to naturally want to clean it ready for next time, but beware, depending on what your mould is made from depends on how it should be cleaned.

Silicon moulds - Even though silicon moulds are often dishwasher safe, I would highly recommend against doing so. Instead, wash them in a bowl of warm-hot water with around 3 lid fulls of white or clear spirit vinegar and 1 drop of washing up liquid. The vinegar is crucial here as it will gently clean the mould and will not discolour or taint it. Leave the mould in the water for around 5 minutes to allow the chocolate build-up on the mould to melt, then rinse under a cool running tap.

Thin and clear plastic moulds - Do not and I repeat, DO NOT! wash these moulds in hot water as they will melt and distort. Instead, wash them in a bowl of lukewarm water with 3 lid fulls of white or clear spirit vinegar and 1 drop of washing up liquid. Leave the mould in the water for around 5 minutes then wash with a non-abrasive cloth to remove any melted chocolate build-up, then rinse under a cool running tap.

Professional, poly-carbonate moulds - Wash in a bowl of warm-hot water with around 3 lid fulls of white or clear spirit vinegar and 1 drop of washing up liquid. Leave the mould in the water for around 5 minutes to allow the chocolate build-up on the mould to melt, then rinse under a cool running tap.

Once you have finished washing your mould, shake and slap the mould with your hand to encourage any water droplets out of the corners of the mould, then leave it to air dry somewhere warm and dry. When the mould is completely dry, polish it gently with a lint free cloth and store ready for next time.

It should be noted that chocolate moulds do not require washing after every use as chocolate contains no raw or wet ingredients. Just make sure you remove any solid chocolate that might have built up in the corners of the detailing and give it a polish. In fact, a very fine layer of cacao butter will remain on the mould which will help to give the next batch you mould an even better shine.

So until next time, stay rebellious.

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Smooth and creamy white chocolate, introducing “The light blend”.

Chocolate or not, white chocolate has become a well established favourite around the world with its uniquely sweet and creamy flavour making it, like “The dark blend”, an ideal companion for flavorful fillings.

The light blend.

This recipe will produce approximately 75g of white chocolate. Since this is quite a small amount I would highly recommend repeating the stages of “Making, The light blend, steps 1-7” before moving on to tempering.

Ingredients:

30g Cacao butter.

25g Icing sugar.

20g Full fat milk powder.

½ tsp Vanilla bean paste.

Instructions:

Making, The light blend, steps 1-7.

Blend the milk powder and icing sugar together in an electric blender until smooth and flour like in consistency.

Next, begin to melt the 30g of cacao butter in a heat proof glass jug using the hair dryer method as covered in “Delays, summer heat and how to gently melt cacao butter”. Melt the butter down until there is only a few lumps left solid. The residual heat left in the glass and the molten butter will melt the remaining lumps without any need of further heat.

Gently heat the pestle and mortar using the lowest heat setting of your hair dryer until it is no longer cool to the touch.

Pour the now fully melted cacao butter into the mortar, followed by the milk powder and icing sugar mix.

Begin to conche the mixture using the pestle for around 10 minutes, by mixing and grinding the mixture. If the chocolate begins to thicken while conching, heat it gently using the low heat setting on your hair dryer until it has thinned.

After conching for around 10 minutes, pour the melted chocolate into a clean, plastic ice cube tray. Don’t forget to scrap the remaining chocolate out of the mortar using a spatula.

Place the ice cube tray in the fridge for around 15 minutes or until solid. When set unmould the chocolate from the ice cube tray and store in an airtight container for around 24 hours. This will give the flavours of the chocolate more time to mature and develop.

Tempering, steps 1-7.

After around 24 hours your pre-tempered chocolate cubes are ready to be chopped or grated into smaller chunks.

Melt the white chocolate chunks using the hair dryer method in a glass mixing bowl until only ⅕ of the chunks remain solid.

Turn off the hair dryer and continue to stir the molten chocolate until the remaining chunks have completely melted.

When all the remaining lumps of chocolate have melted down, pour around ¾ of the chocolate onto a marble slab or cool metal worktop and begin to spread the chocolate back and forth until it reaches the consistency of margarine.

Once the chocolate has thickened on your slab, return it to the reserved ¼ of molten chocolate and stir until the two have recombined.

Next, add the Vanilla bean paste to the tempered chocolate and stir to combine.

At this point your chocolate should be tempered and ready to pour into moulds, ready to set and enjoy.

In the next post, we will be taking a closer look at chocolate moulds and how to get a flawless finish to your cast chocolates.

So until next time, stay rebellious.

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Intense and rich dark chocolate, introducing “The dark blend”.

Dark chocolate, with its rich and at times intense flavour is certainly a “love it or hate it” type of chocolate. However, its unique flavour makes it the ideal companion for flavour packed fillings. So prepare to enter into the shadows of the chocolate spectrum with “The dark blend”.

The dark blend.

This recipe will produce approximately 62g of dark chocolate. Since this is quite a small amount I would highly recommend repeating the stages of “Making, The dark blend, steps 1-7” before moving on to tempering.

Ingredients:

30g Cacao butter.

25g Icing sugar.

7g Cacao powder. 

Instructions:

Making, The dark blend, steps 1-7.

Blend the icing sugar, cacao powder together in an electric blender until smooth and flour like in consistency.

Next, begin to melt the 30g of cacao butter in a heat proof glass jug using the hair dryer method as covered in (insert link here). Melt the butter down until there is only a few lumps left solid. The residual heat left in the glass and the molten butter will melt the remaining lumps without any need of further heat.

Gently heat the pestle and mortar using the lowest heat setting of your hair dryer until it is no longer cool to the touch.

Pour the now fully melted cacao butter into the mortar, followed by the icing sugar and cacao powder mix.

Begin to conche the mixture using the pestle for around 10 minutes, by mixing and grinding the mixture. If the chocolate begins to thicken while conching, heat it gently using the low heat setting on your hair dryer until it has thinned.

After conching for around 10 minutes, pour the melted chocolate into a clean, plastic ice cube tray. Don’t forget to scrap the remaining chocolate out of the mortar using a spatula.

Place the ice cube tray in the fridge for around 15 minutes or until solid. When set unmould the chocolate from the ice cube tray and store in an airtight container for around 24 hours. This will give the flavours of the chocolate more time to mature and develop.

Tempering, steps 1-6.

After around 24 hours your pre-tempered chocolate cubes are ready to be chopped or grated into smaller chunks.

Melt the dark chocolate chunks using the hair dryer method in a glass mixing bowl until only ⅕ of the chunks remain solid.

Turn off the hair dryer and continue to stir the molten chocolate until the remaining chunks have completely melted.

When all the remaining lumps of chocolate have melted down, pour around ¾ of the chocolate onto a marble slab or cool metal worktop and begin to spread the chocolate back and forth until it reaches the consistency of margarine.

Once the chocolate has thickened on your slab, return it to the reserved ¼ of molten chocolate and stir until the two have recombined.

At this point your chocolate should be tempered and ready to pour into moulds, ready to set and enjoy.

In my next post we will be returning to the light side of the chocolate spectrum with my new recipe for a smooth and creamy white chocolate, “The light blend”. So until next time, stay rebellious.

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Creamy light milk chocolate, introducing “The light milk blend”.

Milk chocolate, potentially the world's most popular blend and with this new recipe, you can now make it at home.

The light milk blend.

This recipe will produce approximately 76g of light milk chocolate. Since this is quite a small amount I would highly recommend repeating the stages of “Making, The light milk blend, steps 1-7” before moving on to tempering.

Ingredients:

30g Cacao butter.

25g Icing sugar.

5g Cacao powder.

16g Full fat milk powder.

Instructions:

Making, The light milk blend, steps 1-7.

Blend the icing sugar, cacao powder and full fat milk powder together in an electric blender until smooth and flour like in consistency.

Next, begin to melt the 30g of cacao butter in a heat proof glass jug using the hair dryer method as covered in “Delays, summer heat and how to gently melt cacao butter”.  Melt the butter down until there is only a few lumps left solid. The residual heat left in the glass and the molten butter will melt the remaining lumps without any need of further heat.

Gently heat the pestle and mortar using the lowest heat setting of your hair dryer until it is no longer cool to the touch.

Pour the now fully melted cacao butter into the mortar, followed by the milk powder, icing sugar, and cacao powder mix.

Begin to conche the mixture using the pestle for around 10 minutes, by mixing and grinding the mixture. If the chocolate begins to thicken while conching, heat it gently using the low heat setting on your hair dryer until it has thinned.

After conching for around 10 minutes, pour the melted chocolate into a clean, plastic ice cube tray. Don’t forget to scrap the remaining chocolate out of the mortar using a spatula.

Place the ice cube tray in the fridge for around 15 minutes or until solid. When set, unmould the chocolate from the ice cube tray and store in an airtight container for around 24 hours. This will give the flavours of the chocolate more time to mature and develop.

Tempering, steps 1-6.

After around 24 hours your pre-tempered chocolate cubes are ready to be chopped or grated into smaller chunks.

Melt the light milk chocolate chunks using the hair dryer method in a glass mixing bowl until only ⅕ of the chunks remain solid.

Turn off the hair dryer and continue to stir the molten chocolate until the remaining chunks have completely melted.

When all the remaining lumps of chocolate have melted down, pour around ¾ of the chocolate onto a marble slab or cool metal worktop and begin to spread the chocolate back and forth until it reaches the consistency of margarine.

Once the chocolate has thickened on your slab, return it to the reserved ¼ of molten chocolate and stir until the two have recombined.

At this point your chocolate should be tempered and ready to pour into moulds, ready to set and enjoy.

If you like your milk chocolate to be a little darker and richer in flavour, then my next post will be right up your alley. So until next time, stay rebellious.

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Delays, summer heat and how to gently melt cacao butter.

So, once again it's been around two weeks since my last post, despite making a commitment to get at least one main post out per week, apologies for this. The current spell of hot and humid weather here in the UK has made it impractical to make chocolate recently. Finding the right balance between writing, chocolate making and full-time work has also proved to still be a challenge. However, I think I may have found a solution in the form of batch blog post writing sessions, so this should hopefully mark an end to the delays in the posting schedule.

  How to melt cacao butter gently.

Melting cacao butter for making chocolate at home can be quite tricky when you're first getting started. As I have covered in previous posts, there are two main ways of melting cacao butter. The first is in the upper pan or bowl of a double boiler and the second is in a microwave. However, neither of these two methods are completely full proof.

Melting cacao butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water puts the chocolate at risk of coming into contact with water vapour, while melting in a microwave can put the cacao at risk of burning as well as exposing the fat to any undesirable odours that have become trapped within your microwave. So how can we get around these problems? The answer is to gently heat the cacao butter with a hair dryer.

  Melting cacao butter with a hair dryer.

Warning: If your hair dryer overheats during this process, turn it off at the mains and unplug it, wait until it has cooled down before attempting to use it again.

  Instructions.

Finely chop the cacao butter into evenly sized chunks of around ½ cm in size and place into a heat proof glass jug.

With your hair dryer pointed towards the cacao butter and held about 18 cm away, begin to gently heat the butter by using the hair dryer’s lowest heat setting available.

It is important not to focus the hair dryer’s output on one spot as this can lead to the cacao butter burning. Instead, move the hair dryer around in a circular motion to ensure an even and gentle heating.

Stir the butter from time to time as soon as you can see it starting to melt.

When around ⅘ of the cacao butter chunks have melted down, turn the hair dryer off. The residual heat in the glass jug and partially melted butter will be enough to melt the remaining chunks without overheating it.

Once all the chunks have melted down, your cacao butter is ready to be used.

  In the next post, we will be putting this new melting method to work by producing a new light milk chocolate, “The light milk blend”.

So until next time, stay rebellious.

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Expired core ingredients.

At the end of last weeks post, “To conche or not to conche”, I said this week’s post would be focussing on the new recipe I have devised for making a light milk chocolate. However, during the production of the chocolate for the accompanying photos for this post, I made the discovery that despite having stored my cacao butter and cacao powder in my kitchen as stated by the manufacturers they have begun to develop rather pungent odours and their flavours have significantly changed. Both ingredients had been stored in their air tight packaging at ambient room temperature, out of direct sunlight and well within their best before dates yet they have still managed to go bad. What has become clear to me in the wake of the binning of the now foul tasting core chocolate making ingredients, is that even though it often works out far more cost-efficient to purchase these two products online in large quantities, they simply do not last as long as you might expect despite the estimated best before dates from the manufacturers. So, even though it may work out cheaper to buy in bulk, don’t. Buy what you need for the time being. Yes it’s more expensive technically but remember that any savings made by buying in bulk are lost when you have to waste it earlier than planned. The resulting light milk chocolate I made from these degrading ingredients is pretty much inedible despite looking deceptively enticing, however I have taken the decision to postpone this week’s recipe post until I can make a fresh batch with fresh ingredients which I have now ordered from Nutriseed. So until next time, stay rebellious. 

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To Conche or not to Conche?

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To Conche or not to Conche?

Condensed milk in my Blend I: Milk chocolate and Blend II: White chocolate recipes may have seemed like the answer to making a super smooth chocolate, but after some further testing, I can say for sure that it is far more trouble than it’s worth.

Condensed milk as we have discussed previously contains a very small amount of water in its make-up making it a far better source of milk for making milk chocolate with than actual liquid milk, however this small amount of water can still be enough to cause the liquid chocolate mixture to seize and curdle. What I am looking to devise is a reliable recipe for making chocolate at home. What is the point having a recipe for making super smooth chocolate that tastes as good as or even better than what you might get in the shops if only 1 out of 10 attempts at making it actually work. And now that I am working full time again, I need to be able to break the production into two stages. Something which has proven impossible with the current Blend I & II recipes. After some research and experimenting I have figured out a way of making a 100% milk powder based milk chocolate as smooth as the condensed milk version but with reliability at its core. One of the most important ingredients in making chocolate is unsurprisingly, sugar. But did you know that store bought confectioners/icing/powdered sugar doesn't just contain sugar? It is in fact a blend of ground sugar and cornstarch which is used as an anti caking agent, this basically means your icing sugar stays clump free and ready to use. However, while this makes this ingredient more practical, the cornstarch can lead to some adverse effects when making chocolate and one of these is the formation of a grainy texture.

Pretty much every brand of icing sugar I have found on sale here in the UK contains some sort of anti caking agent, so the best way to get around this is to make your own. It’s simple, all you need to-do is to blitz some granular golden cane sugar in a clean and I’ll say it again, clean coffee bean grinder or an electric food blender. I would recommend blending the sugar using the pulse setting for only a few seconds at a time to prevent the sugar from getting scorched by the heat produced by the rotating blade. What you will be left with after a few seconds is a fine icing sugar, free of any unwanted anti caking agents.

Now, regardless of how fine your chosen cacao powder and full fat milk powder are, I would still give each one a couple of seconds in the blender as well  to ensure that each of our dry powder ingredients has a similar particle size. The resulting powder from each blending should be able to fall straight through a fine mesh sieve or tea strainer unaided. If it doesn't then put the powder back in the grinder for a few more seconds. Another little trick I have recently discovered when making your own chocolate is the refinement stage called “Conching”. Conching is a process whereby the chocolate is continuously stirred and milled for multiple hours, sometimes even days until it is velvety smooth. This process also allows for noxious, bitter tasting acidic chemicals to evaporate out of the liquor, giving the chocolate a more refined taste. Now, dedicated chocolate conching machines are normally custom-built for industrial scale chocolate manufacturers such as Cadbury, not for home users so finding alternatives can be tricky. The best solution I have found so far is the humble pestle and mortar, though this method is only really suitable for conching small amounts of chocolate at a time. Also, this methods results are based on how long you can stir the chocolate for. I personally have found that 10 minutes milling in a pestle and mortar can completely transform the taste and smoothness of the chocolate, but the longer the better really. One thing you will need to watch out for while conching your chocolate is the starting temperature of your pestle and mortar. If your pestle and mortar is too cool, you will find your molten chocolate will set solid before you've even really started to refine it. One way to avoid this is to warm the chocolate while in the pestle and mortar using the lowest heat setting on a hair dryer for a few seconds at a time. After around ten minutes of conching your chocolate in a pestle and mortar, you can either temper it and use it straight away or pour the chocolate into a container and allow it to set, ready to be melted down and tempered at a later date. Now, I understand this process may sound a bit dull and time-consuming, but just 10 minutes of stirring the molten chocolate in a pestle and mortar really will transform the quality of it from “OK chocolate” into shop quality chocolate. In my next post, I will be sharing with you guys a new and improved recipe for making light and dark milk chocolate at home along with a step by step guide on how to conche it. So until next time, stay rebellious.

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Radio silence and the new job.

It has been a little more than a month since “Assembling your arsenal: part II” was posted, so why the radio silence? Well, recently I have just started a new job working full time, which has thrown my writing schedule out the window while I adjust to my new workplace. However, even though this new chapter in my life is a positive one, it hasn't been the smoothest of transitions for me.

Starting a new job for a new company I guess is a bit like your first day at a new school. You’re unsure where things are, how things are done and what the day will be like. This I’m sure to most people is a daunting process on its own, but couple that with D & A and, well, let’s just say it's not been the most stress free of times. My first few days at work passed quickly, fuelled by the euphoria and excitement of my new job, but by the third day I was beginning to hear that little voice at the back of my head, that little voice which manipulates and twists your once happy and positive thoughts into something darker, making you lose confidence in yourself and what you are doing. After discussing these troubling thoughts with members of my family I began to feel more positive about things, considering this to be a wobble and was back to myself a few days later. This radio silence has not meant I have stopped my research and development of new methods and ways of making chocolate at home. In fact, I had planned an Easter related blog post all about moulding chocolate Easter eggs, however, this proved more troublesome than I had first thought with every egg half breaking into pieces when released from their moulds, due to the Blend I milk chocolate being too thin in consistency to produce a thicker shell. So, I have been reformulating the recipe again, playing around with the percentages of the ingredients and the early results are looking more promising but it's not quite ready to share just yet. So when will the next Rebellious Confectionery post be? Well, I am looking to get at least one major blog post published every Sunday from now on and these will soon be joined with a new YouTube series of recipe and “how to” videos as I look to broaden the blogs reach. Lastly, I wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you for your support over the past few months by following this blog as it has just surpassed the 1000 follower milestone here on Tumblr. I hope you are enjoying reading it as much as I am creating content to share with you guys. So until next time, stay rebellious.

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Assembling your arsenal: Part II.

The secret to chocolate’s almost mirror like finish and distinctive “snap” when broken is Tempering. Chocolate’s structure when set is made of one of six different crystal formations which develop at different temperatures as the chocolate moves from a liquid to a solid state. However, only one of these six crystal structures will give the chocolate the qualities we have come to associate with it and that is type V.

Tempering chocolate can also determine how long it can be stored for. When chocolate isn’t tempered, it will most likely separate in a process called “blooming” whereby the cacao butter rises to the surface. This change in the chocolates structure also results in the texture becoming grainy and crumbly.

In order to obtain the type V crystal formation, chocolate must undergo a tempering phase whereby the molten chocolate is worked to gradually reduce its temperature evenly and in some cases then re-heated slightly to achieve its ideal working temperature of 29°c for milk, 28°c for white and 30°c for dark chocolate. There are several ways that chocolate can be tempered, but for those making chocolate at home there is only one method I would recommend, the tried and tested slab method.

The slab method for tempering chocolate.

Equipment: • A marble stone slab or granite stone slab, if you don’t have a stone slab you can always try using a cool ceramic bowl. • A pallet knife. • A Dough scrapper or wallpaper scrapper.

Method: • Pour around two-thirds of your melted chocolate onto a marble or granite slab keeping the remaining third warm. • Spread the molten chocolate across the slab using either a dough scrapper or a pallet knife. • Work the chocolate back and forth until the chocolate begins to thicken after a few minutes. • Once the chocolate thickens to a margarine like thickness, scrape the chocolate off the slab and return it to the reserved molten chocolate. • Stir in the thickened chocolate with the molten chocolate until the two have combined. • The chocolate at this point is now tempered and can be used as needed.

As you will notice from this method, I don’t check the temperature of the chocolate and this is for a very good reason. Kitchen thermometer probes can have a margin of error of around a few degrees if they have not been calibrated correctly which can lead to trouble when tempering. What I have learnt is that it’s better to trust your eyes when tempering. If the chocolate thickens and becomes glossy then its probably around 27°c for milk which is what we want for type IV and type V crystal development. Once the chocolate has been combined with the remaining third it should be around 29°c, at this temperature the type IV crystals will have melted leaving only the desirable type V crystals. If you are thinking this sounds difficult, it really isn’t. Like most things, it just takes practice and once you can spot when the chocolate is visually at the right temperature than it will become second nature.

The best thing about learning how to temper chocolate is that if you don’t get it right the first time, you can simply melt the chocolate down and try again.

So until next time, stay rebellious.

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Blend III: Dark chocolate.

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The dark side of the chocolate spectrum, Blend III: Dark chocolate.

With recipes for milk chocolate and white chocolate formulated and tested, I am pleased to share with you my recipe for making dark chocolate, Blend III: Dark chocolate.

I personally have never been a huge fan of dark chocolate with its deep and sometimes intense bitter flavour. It’s certainly something of an acquired taste, but I think this recipe strikes the right balance not being too sweet nor super intense. However, if you like your dark chocolate to be really dark and intense, you can simply add another tablespoon of cacao powder.

Blend III: Dark chocolate.

Recipe: • 60g Cacao butter • 3 tbsp Icing sugar • 2 tbsp Cacao powder • A pinch of salt. (ideally pink Himalayan salt)

Method: • Begin by melting 60g of finely chopped cacao butter in a microwave in 10-20 second full power bursts, stirring in-between bursts. • When the cacao butter has fully melted, pour the molten butter into the top bowl of a double boiler. • Heat the double burner on a low heat. • Sieve 3 tbsp of icing sugar and 2 tbsp of cacao powder into a bowl. • Add a tbsp at a time of the combined icing sugar and cacao powder to the molten cacao butter, whisking the mix to combine. • Once all the icing sugar and cacao powder has been combined add a pinch of salt to season the chocolate. • Continue stirring the chocolate until the mixture thicken slightly and becomes glossy. • At this point you can temper the chocolate and use as required.

In my next post we will be taking a look at how to temper chocolate, what equipment is required and what happens to chocolate when you don’t. Lets just say its not appealing.

So until next time, stay rebellious.

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Blend II: White chocolate

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Blend II: White Chocolate.

White chocolate, the worlds most debated chocolate was first created by Swiss confectioners, Nestle in 1936 as a way to use up an ever growing surplus of cacao butter which they blended with milk powder and sugar. Additional ingredients such as vanilla and salt are also added to give the chocolate flavour, something it lacks due to the absence of cacao solids which provide the “chocolaty” flavour found in dark and milk chocolate.

It is the exclusion of cacao solids which has led to some questioning whether white chocolate is even a type of chocolate at all and with manufactures under pressure to make their products more cost efficiently in turbulent economic times, we are now seeing the rise of white chocolate imitation products. These imitation products including a reformulated version of the first commercially available white chocolate, Nestle’s Milkybar are a lot cheaper for manufacturers to produce due to their decision to substitute cacao butter for vegetable oil. However, these items of confectionery legally cannot be sold as “chocolate” in EU member countries where they must contain at least 20% cacao butter to be legally called “chocolate”.

With this background research into what makes white chocolate different from milk and dark in mind, I have been able to make a few revisions to the recipe I shared with you in my previous post for Blend I: milk chocolate to produce an equally smooth and creamy white chocolate. However, while testing this recipe, the molten white chocolate came into contact with water vapour in the form of steam which escaped from the double boiler as I switched the top bowls over. With this in mind I have also made a revision to the method for making milk and white chocolate.

Blend II: White chocolate.

Recipe: • 60g Cacao butter. • 1 tbsp Condensed milk. • 1 tbsp Milk powder. • 2 tbsp Icing sugar. • The seeds from 1/5 of a Vanilla bean pod.

Method:

• Melt 60g of finely chopped cacao butter in a microwave on full power in 20 second blasts until melted. • Sieve 2 tbsp of icing sugar into a bowl and set aside. • Sieve 1 tbsp of milk powder into a heat safe glass mixing bowl. • Add 1 tbsp of condensed milk to the glass mixing bowl and combine with the milk powder to form a paste. • Add the seeds of 1/5 of a vanilla bean pod to the milk paste. • Place the glass mixing bowl over a saucepan of water. Make sure the bowl does not come into contact with the water. • Heat the double boiler (saucepan with glass bowl sat on top) over a low heat. • Drizzle a little of the melted cacao butter over the milk paste and whisk to combine. • Once the butter has combined with the milk paste, drizzle a little more cacao butter over the paste and whisk to combine again. • Continue the previous two stages until all of the melted cacao butter has combined with the milk paste. • Add 1 tbsp worth of icing sugar to the mixture and whisk to combine. • Continue previous stage until no icing sugar remains and the mixture has become smooth. • Temper the chocolate. (more details on Tempering coming soon) • Once the chocolate has tempered, pour or spoon into moulds or use as desired. • If setting in moulds, refrigerate for 1 hour.

So with milk chocolate and white chocolate recipes now formulated, its time to turn to the dark side of the chocolate spectrum and make some dark chocolate, Blend III.

Hope you are enjoying these posts and I look forward to sharing more successes and my occasional confectionery failures with you next time.

So until next time, stay rebellious.

[rebellious-confectionery-blog]

Blend I: Milk Chocolate.

https://rebellious-confectionery.tumblr.com/post/158361630414/from-grainy-to-milky-smooth-introducing-blend-i

[rebellious-confectionery-blog]

From grainy to milky smooth, introducing Blend I: Milk Chocolate.

If you were to stop and ask a person at random on the street what words they might use to describe the texture of a bar of milk chocolate, they might answer with words such as “Smooth”, “Creamy”, “Silky” or even “Velvety”, basically everything that appears to be lacking from my own first attempts at making milk chocolate at home using the Cacao powder method.

Currently, every one of my attempts at making milk chocolate have had a rather unappealing grainy, almost sand like texture which remains on the tongue after the chocolate has melted. The cause of this undesirable texture appears to have been caused by the addition of the ground milk powder which is failing to dissolve fully in the melted Cacao butter. The most commonly recommended solution online to this problem is to try to reduce the milk powder to a super fine, flour like consistency. This does indeed help to smooth out the milk chocolate but it certainly doesn’t solve the grain issue 100%.

While researching for any other possible solutions to this problem, I remembered something I had read while researching the history of the British “Big Three” chocolate manufacturers, specifically Cadbury Brothers and the creation of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. Cadbury’s most famous chocolate product, Dairy Milk, begins its life with a substance called Chocolate crumb being produced. Chocolate crumb is a dry compound made from sugar, melted Cacao butter, Cacao liquor and most significantly, Condensed milk. This mixture is then dried and ground into a fine powder which is then mixed with more melted Cacao butter. This use of condensed milk started to make me think maybe it could be used as a substitute or at least alongside milk powder in my own recipe. However, adding condensed milk to the recipe would not be as straight forward as I had hoped.

Condensed milk is, like milk powder, considered a long life milk product. However, unlike milk powder which contains no water at all, condensed milk still has a water content of around 60% less than that of liquid milk and water equals trouble when it comes to chocolate making. When condensed milk is added straight to melted cacao butter it quickly begins to curdle and cannot be reversed. One way to get around this problem is to dissolve a small amount of powdered milk into the condensed milk before adding it to the Cacao butter, however these two substance will still put up a fight and try to resist being combined. The solution to this problem I have found is to borrow the methodology used for making mayonnaise whereby oil is added in small amounts to the eggs while being whisked to form an emulsion.

Recipe: • 60g Cacao butter. • 3 tbsp Condensed Milk. • 1 tbsp Milk powder. • 1 tbsp Icing sugar. • 1 tbsp Cacao powder. Method: • Finely chop or grate 60g of Cacao butter and place in the top bowl of a double boiler. • Sieve 1 tbsp of icing sugar and 1 tbsp of milk powder and combine with 3 tbsp of sweetened condensed milk to form a paste. • Heat the Cacao butter until fully melted. • Add 1 tbsp of melted Cacao butter to the Condensed milk paste and whisk. • Continue to add melted Cacao butter a single table spoon at a time until all of the melted butter has been combined. • Mix in 1 tbsp of Icing sugar and 1 tbsp of Cacao powder into the mixture. • When all the ingredients have been combined either pour into moulds or proceed to tempering.

The resulting milk chocolate from this recipe was somewhat of a success. The chocolate was completely free from any lumps or graininess caused by the undissolved milk powder, however the addition of the Condensed milk resulted in the chocolate becoming incredibly soft and fudge like. To make things worse, the chocolate also appears to separate and stick to the mould causing an irregular finish.

Through further development of this recipe I decided to try to reduce the amount of condensed milk to the bare minimum needed to dissolve the milk powder, though this resulted in such a dry mixture that it refused to blend once again with the melted Cacao butter and began to curdle.

Fresh on the heels of my latest failed attempt at making a smooth milk chocolate, I decided to take a long hard look at the ratio of ingredients in the recipe. After some refinement and testing, I think I have finally formulated a recipe for making a smooth yet firm milk chocolate using the Cacao powder method.

Introducing Rebellious Confectionery’s Blend I: Milk chocolate.

Recipe: • 60g Cacao Butter. • 1 tbsp Condensed milk. • 1 tbsp Milk powder. • 2 tbsp Icing sugar. • 1 tbsp Cacao powder.

Method:

• Begin by melting 60g of finely chopped or grated Cacao butter in a double boiler. • In a separate bowl, combine together 1 tbsp of sweetened Condensed milk and 1 tbsp of Milk powder to form a paste. • Add 1 tbsp of melted Cacao butter to the milk paste and whisk. • Continue adding 1 tbsp of Cacao butter to the milk paste and mixing until no butter remains. • Add 2 tbsp of Icing sugar and 1 tbsp of Cacao powder to the mixture and stir to combine. • When all the ingredients have been combined, either proceed to tempering or pour the mix into moulds and set in a fridge for 1 hour or until firm.

So there we have it, I am pleased to share this recipe for a smooth milk chocolate utilising the Cacao powder method so that you can try making it for yourselves. This milk chocolate recipe is only just the beginning, there is still a white and dark chocolate recipe to formulate which will form the foundation chocolates for a number of future recipes.

So until next time, stay rebellious.

[rebellious-confectionery-blog]

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Anxiety and Depression can affect everybody in different ways so it is only natural that sufferers will often find their own unique ways of managing the day to day effects of these conditions. As I shared in my inaugural post, I, like many others find the activity of cooking to be relaxing, allowing me to free my mind from negative thoughts in the structure of following a recipe. This naturally led me to explore the world of confectionery making and sharing my progress with you along the way. However, this journey into the world of confectionery has certainly got its ups and downs.

Making confectionery can be an incredibly rewarding process and can give you a huge boost to your self-esteem when everything turns out right, but like anything in life, it can easily go wrong very quickly. Recently, I have been trying to find a way to reduce the overall particle size of the milk powder that features in the “Milk chocolate 2.0” recipe as this seems to be one of the major contributors to a grainy and unappealing texture on the tongue. I have so far tried several recipes utilising different ratios of milk powder, different methodologies, and then there is the different ways of grinding the milk powder. What I can report back is there has been little progress made so far on this front.

At some points, these experiments with different recipes have been so disastrous that they have often resulted in substances more closely resembling custard or even cow poo than melted milk chocolate. And quite unsurprisingly, this has nearly always ended up being thrown in the bin, rather than being poured into chocolate moulds.

At times, I have wanted to chuck it all in and give up. Coming away from the kitchen feeling incredibly low with a feeling of being a complete failure quickly following. At other times I have simply wanted to scream and smash everything in the kitchen. I can happily confirm however that I have not acted out any of these thoughts and that my kitchen is still in one piece.

Though despite the lows, there has also been some significant highs and some useful lessons learnt along the way which I think will come in handy. So I will keep at it and hopefully I will have some more happy news to share with you soon.

So until next time, stay rebellious.