Joe’s Chocolate Recipes

In the last instalment, we looked at how cocoa beans are picked, fermented, dried, roasted and finally ground up to produce “chocolate liquor” - a mixture of melted cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Finally, we consider how this is turned into bars of chocolate:

Some of the chocolate liquor is fed into a large hydraulic press, which squeezes out the cocoa butter, separating it from the dry cocoa solids. In some cases, the cocoa butter is then used for other purposes, such as in cosmetics, and the dry cocoa solids can be used to make drinking chocolate or “cocoa”. However, to make solid chocolate, these are recombined (in different quantities to those present in the raw bean) along with other ingredients.

• White chocolate is made by adding dried milk powder and sugar to the cocoa butter. No dry cocoa solids are used, so some people don’t consider white chocolate to be real chocolate at all! All types of chocolate also contain small quantities of vanilla (flavouring) and soya lecithin - an emulsifier which helps to stop the ingredients separating out.

• For milk chocolate, some dry cocoa solids are added to the milk powder, sugar and cocoa butter. Because cocoa butter is solid at room temperature, but melts at body temperature, the quantity of cocoa butter determines the texture of the chocolate and is what makes it “melt in the mouth”. Some cheap chocolate contains some vegetable oil in place of the cocoa butter, but good quality chocolate only contains cocoa butter.

• Dark chocolate contains sugar, dry cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The higher the percentage of cocoa, the less sugar is in the chocolate, so 85% dark chocolate contains only 15% sugar - so it is often more bitter, but is also more healthy! The taste of high percentage cocoa chocolate can be controlled by carefully blending the types of bean used - the more expensive types of cocoa bean are a lot less bitter.

Once the ingredients are combined together, they are passed through a series of roller mills which grind the chocolate into a very fine runny paste (the action of grinding heats the cocoa butter, melting the chocolate). This removes any “grittiness” in the texture of the finished chocolate, giving it a smooth feel in the mouth.

The mixture is then “conched”. This involves heating it to around 80-85 C while continually stirring it. This process is carried out for several hours, or even days for the very finest chocolate. Conching develops the flavour of the chocolate and removes acidity, giving a fuller, smoother, richer taste.
Finally the chocolate is either cast into bars, ready to eat, or it may be turned into pellets (which can be easily remelted) and sold on to a chocolatier for making filled chocolates.