Delicious and beautifully designed chocolate, made with love in your kitchen, is a wonderful gift that will never go unnoticed. So, let’s talk about how to make natural chocolate and please your loved ones! 5 recipes how to make natural chocolate at home.
What is chocolate made from. 5 recipes how to make natural chocolate at home.
Cocoa beans contain 300 biologically active substances that affect the whole body, but are especially useful for the heart and blood vessels. If you periodically eat natural chocolate, you can strengthen your memory and performance, protect yourself from stress and raise your mood.
And to make the enjoyment as complete as possible, you need to prepare a truly delicious chocolate and buy high-quality products for this. It’s definitely not worth saving on chocolate!
The minimum set of products for homemade chocolate consists of three ingredients — unrefined cocoa butter, grated cocoa beans and sweetener. You can add a pleasant sweetness to chocolate using sugar, honey, malt, jam, agave or Jerusalem artichoke syrup (as well as any other syrups), sweeteners of all kinds .
For piquancy, you will also need spices and additives — nuts, berries, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pieces of dried fruit or candied fruits, cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, nutmeg, citrus zest and coconut chips, air rice balls, waffle or cracker crumbs.
You can also use butter, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, carob, powdered or regular milk, flour, coffee and cream — it all depends on the recipe. You can add a little chili pepper, mint or sea salt to the chocolate — it’s original and unusual! Additional ingredients are crushed in a blender or added to the chocolate mass in pieces.
Choosing raw materials for chocolate
Without cocoa butter, which is a squeeze of the fruit of the chocolate tree, you can not prepare natural chocolate. This product is incredibly rich in vitamins, antioxidants and fatty acids. Most importantly, cocoa butter has a pleasant taste, so desserts with it are excellent. Choose yellow, cream, or light brown oil, since white is often rancid or unnatural.
Also pay attention to the texture of the oil — it should not melt at room temperature. Because good cocoa butter has the same consistency as regular chocolate. Be sure to smell the product — there should be a clear aroma of cocoa. That is why buy this oil in specialized stores for confectioners,
Grated cocoa is obtained from roasted chocolate tree beans, which are ground and heated to form a liquid mass, and oil is melted from it. Outwardly, it looks like a chocolate stone, from which the pieces are easily separated. Grated cocoa is a natural raw material for making chocolate, if it is dried and ground into dust, cocoa powder is obtained.
When choosing cocoa powder in the store, study the composition — it should not contain additives, and the ideal fat content is at least 12 %. Cocoa powder should have a natural brown color, a uniform structure and a subtle chocolate flavor.
Rub the powder between your fingers — after high-quality cocoa on the skin will remain a brown trace with an oily sheen. If you see a brown precipitate at the bottom of the cup after drinking, it means that cocoa is natural, and it can be safely used in culinary experiments.
Secrets of chocolate making. 5 recipes how to make natural chocolate at home.
The classic technology for making homemade chocolate is quite simple — you need to mix the main ingredients (grated cocoa, cocoa butter, butter, sugar) and melt them in a water bath or over low heat with constant stirring. Some confectioners melt grated cocoa and cocoa butter separately, others combine them in advance — all have their own traditions. The proportions of cocoa butter and cocoa mass depend on what you want to get in the end, because the more butter, the softer the chocolate.
Sometimes raw materials are mixed in a certain sequence during the heating process, and spices and additives are laid gradually or after removing from the heat, because there are many recipes for making chocolate. By the way, you should not heat the products too much to preserve their natural taste and aroma, and many confectioners do not recommend using a microwave oven, because, in their opinion, it destroys the structure of natural raw materials.
The maximum heating temperature is 104F degrees , so use a special kitchen thermometer for accuracy, and to make the heating even, slightly chop the products before heat treatment.
If you use cocoa powder for making chocolate, sift it before mixing with other products so that lumps do not form, and it is better to replace the usual sugar with brown. It will give the chocolate a pleasant rich taste. Slightly cool the melted chocolate mass, and when it thickens even more, pour it into silicone molds and let it harden. Additives can be introduced either at the stage of mixing chocolate, or by pressing nuts and dried fruits into the chocolate mass directly in the molds.
It seems that making natural chocolate at home is easy, but if you are preparing this dessert for the first time, limit yourself to a small portion first.
Classic chocolate. 5 recipes how to make natural chocolate at home.
Let’s try to make chocolate according to the classic recipe. Later, when you learn a simple technology, you will be able to improvise more on inspiration.
Ingredients:
cocoa mass 7.05 oz
cocoa butter 1.76 oz
brown sugar 3.53 oz
butter 1 tablespoon
roasted nuts (such as hazelnuts) 1.76 oz
cinnamon to taste
Instruction
Melt the butter and cocoa butter in a water bath — 104F degrees is enough for this. Add sugar, grated cocoa and cinnamon, and then knead the mass well until it gets a uniform texture. Add the crushed roasted nuts, cool the dessert slightly, pour into silicone molds and put it to cool in the refrigerator. You can change the number of nuts at your discretion.
Milk chocolate
Everyone’s favorite milk chocolate is made on the basis of milk and heavy cream, but we will use powdered and condensed milk. You can choose any additives to your taste!
Ingredients:
cocoa mass 3.53 oz
cocoa butter 1.76 oz
milk powder 2 teaspoons
condensed milk 4 teaspoons
vanilla to taste.
Instruction
Melt the grated cocoa and cocoa butter in a water bath, then, using a mixer or blender, gradually add the powdered milk and condensed milk to it. Watch how the consistency of the chocolate mass changes — it should thicken and resemble a dough that holds its shape well. Spread out, thickening the chocolate in silicone molds. Cool it for an hour at room temperature, and then put it in the refrigerator.
Bitter and refined chocolate.5 recipes how to make natural chocolate at home.
Subtle connoisseurs of bitter chocolate will love this aristocratic treat with a minimum of sugar. Of course, you can do without it at all, but then it will be too bitter — for an amateur.
Ingredients:
cocoa mass 2.47 oz
cocoa butter 2.47 oz
powdered sugar 2.82 oz
Instruction
Chop the cocoa butter and grated cocoa with a knife, melt everything in a water bath. Add the powdered sugar, mix until smooth, cool slightly and pour into the molds. If you replace powdered sugar with honey, you will get an even more useful treat.
White and aristocratic
This is how chocolate is prepared at the factory, and it turns out very tasty and tender. You can add waffle crumbs or coconut shavings, and if you add fresh orange zest, you will get a royal delicacy.
Ingredients:
cocoa butter 3.53 oz
powdered sugar 3.53 oz
milk powder 3.53 oz
coconut chips to taste
Instruction
Melt cocoa butter in a water bath, add powdered sugar and milk powder. Beat the mass with a mixer on a slow speed until smooth, add the coconut shavings and cool slightly. Put the chocolate mass in the molds and put it in the refrigerator.
Salted chocolate. 5 recipes how to make natural chocolate at home.
Chocolate with ginger and salt is something new! Men will be crazy about such a manly dessert, which has a lot of nuts and no sugar at all.
Ingredients:
cocoa powder 3.53 oz
cocoa butter 1.76 oz
grated almonds 2 tablespoons
chopped pistachios 2 tablespoons
ginger to taste
coarse sea salt to taste
Melt the cocoa butter in a water bath, add the cocoa powder, add the ground nuts and mix everything well. Add the ground ginger and sea salt and mix again. Cool the chocolate mass for 10 minutes and pour it into the molds. Then you can send the chocolate to the refrigerator.
Chocolate is considered a dessert that gives extraordinary strength and energy. Everything in life can change, but when all other means are tried, the usual chocolate helps. I would like to add — especially if it is natural and prepared with your own hands.
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