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Blending chocolates
at Sat, 31 Jan 2004 06:50:44 GMT in >,
(Mark Thorson) wrote :
>While I know better than to attempt to make my own
>chocolate from beans, I've been thinking it might be
>possible to produce a pretty darn good chocolate
>by blending premade chocolates. For example,
>El Rey offers a number of single-varietal chocolates
>that don't contain any flavor additives.
>
>I don't think these could be really great chocolates
>by themselves, but they might be just the right material
>to blend to create a great chocolate.
>
>Has anybody here done that? I assume I'd have
>to retemper the chocolate. I've been thinking maybe
>I could grate them very finely, mix the powdered
>chocolates and flavor additives, then consolidate
>them in a mold under pressure. Then, maybe
>tempering wouldn't be necessary.
>
You will need to retemper the chocolate, because once it's been melted, the
cocoa butter will need to achieve the proper temperature profile.
Consolidating them in a mould under pressure will do one of 2 things:
either the chocolate will melt (thus necessitating retempering) or it won't
combine. In the metallurgical industry what you're thinking of doing is
called "sintering". However, sintering requires the individual particles to
melt, at least somewhat, and that's what needs to happen with the chocolate
as well. A "sintered" bar would also inevitably be less uniform and poorer
in texture because of the larger particle size.
As for blending itself, it's a great idea and the basic thinking you talk
about is often the best way of achieving the "perfect" chocolate for you.
There are several single-varietals out there, as you no doubt know, from,
e.g. Domori, Michel Cluizel, Amedei, etc - all 3 of which produce superb
results. It's best to blend chocolates with the same proportion of sugar,
and better still, with the same amount of cocoa butter, so that you won't
have problems with the one chocolate not mixing with the other (uneven fat
ratios are a common cause of this problem) For instance, trying to mix El
Rey's Gran Saman (a low-cocoa-butter chocolate) with Domori's Porcelana (a
high-cocoa-butter chocolate) will be most likely an exercise in
frustration. Similarly, mixing Valrhona's Gran Couva (a 64% chocolate) with
Bonnat's Hacienda El Rosario (a 75% chocolate) could create issues.
Finally, don't forget that some varietals clash, and others will simply
overwhelm any other beans in your blend. For instance, if you take Domori's
Porcelana and blend it with Amedei's Chuao, the Chuao will *completely*
overwhelm the Porcelana, because its flavour is so much more powerful. Or
if you took Domori's Carenero Superior and blended it with El Rey's San
Joaquin (an Ocumare), your results would probably be only so-so because the
flavours will clash.
However, if you take the time to think about the flavour and ingredient
profiles of the chocolates you're working with, the results are well worth
the effort.
--
Alex Rast
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)
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