Ask how to make chocolate!

I once made a website about making my own chocolate. I read a lot of online information and tried it myself. But I didn't do it all, because I thought it was too much trouble to say it online, but the effect was good. Here are some general steps, I hope they are useful to you.

Raw materials for making chocolate

In the supermarket, we can see all kinds of beautifully packaged chocolates. So how are they all made?

To make chocolate, we must first understand the brand and nature of raw materials. At present, there are many common brands of chocolate raw materials in China, among which "Kama" and "Swiss Lotus" are relatively pure and of good quality, usually packed in 2 kilograms. Chocolate raw materials generally have three colors, namely black, brown and white.

Dark chocolate has low sugar content and bitter taste; Brown chocolate is milk chocolate, which tastes very good and is very popular with people. White chocolate is made of cocoa butter mixed with milk and sugar, not chocolate in the strict sense, because there is no cocoa powder added, but chocolate of various colors can be made by adding oily pigment into it.

How to make chocolate

1 How to melt chocolate

To make large pieces of pure chocolate into small pieces with stuffing, you must melt the chocolate first. When melting chocolate, you can take it out in the microwave oven at low temperature and stir it from time to time to reduce its temperature. You can also put the chocolate in a container, cover it with plastic wrap, and then put the container in a hot water pot to melt the chocolate by "double cooking". You can also use a special chocolate melting machine. The temperature of melting chocolate generally does not exceed 32℃. If the temperature is high, chocolate will vomit milk. Some people like to cut chocolate into small pieces when melting it, but this is completely unnecessary. Cutting chocolate into small pieces is easy to produce particles when it melts, so just cut chocolate into small pieces. But be careful not to get wet when melting chocolate.

The temperature at which chocolate is made

Be sure to control the temperature when making chocolate. Among them, "Kama", "Swiss Lotus" and other brands of raw materials have higher requirements on temperature. If the temperature is not well controlled, the finished product will be dull, easy to spit white and difficult to demould. "Kama" and "Swiss Lotus" are melted and cooled to the point where they can feel cold with their lips, so they can be used to make them. If time is short, you can pour the melted chocolate on clean marble or paper and stir it repeatedly with a spatula until it cools. Kama and Swiss Lotus are suitable for making all kinds of chocolates and decorations.

Compared with Kama and Swiss Lotus, raw materials of chocolate such as Eagle brand and Crystal brand do not need high temperature. They can be used for making when they are melted and cooled to warm, and are easy to demould and tough to form, but the finished product tastes a little worse. "Eagle brand" and "Crystal brand" are generally only suitable for decorations.

Step 3 make chocolate stuffing

The basic formula of chocolate stuffing: chocolate 1000g whipped cream 500g.

Production: Boil the whipped cream, turn off the fire, pour the cut chocolate into the whipped cream, the chocolate will melt quickly, then stir it evenly, cool it and put it in the refrigerator. After solidification, take it out. Chocolate candy is made by rubbing chocolate stuffing into small balls and hanging a layer of pure chocolate that melts and cools to a proper temperature.

4 making chocolate with mold

Besides hand-made, chocolate can also be made with molds. Chocolate molds are all board by board, and one board can make more than 20 chocolates at a time. Chocolate made by molds has various shapes, such as round, square, heart-shaped, flower-shaped and various animal shapes.

When making chocolate with a mold, it is necessary to clean the mold first, then pour the melted chocolate cooled to a proper temperature into the mold, then pour out the excess chocolate, scrape the chocolate around the mold, and evenly coat the inner wall of the mold with a layer of chocolate to form an empty chocolate shell without a back cover. As soon as the chocolate in the mold is solidified, the chocolate stuffing that has just been cooled but not solidified is quickly injected into the chocolate empty shell in the mold, and then the mold is put into the refrigerator for refrigeration. After the chocolate filling is solidified, take out the mold, seal the bottom of the empty shell with some chocolate, and then put the mold in the refrigerator. When the chocolate is separated from the mold and there is air between them, the chocolate can be poured out. Whether you make chocolate by hand or with a mold, you can add other things to the chocolate stuffing. If nuts are added to the stuffing, they can be made into nut chocolate; Rum chocolate can be made by adding rum. In addition, caramel can also be added to the stuffing to make caramel chocolate; Add chestnut paste to make chestnut paste chocolate and so on.

Production of three-dimensional hollow chocolate

On Easter, people usually make chocolate eggs and rabbits; At Christmas, chocolate Santa Claus, Christmas bells, boots and carriages are also made. And these chocolate products are three-dimensional and hollow. So, how to make three-dimensional, hollow chocolate with molds?

Let's take a look at this chocolate mold first. The mold for making this chocolate is usually only the size of a palm and consists of two halves of different shapes. When in use, the two halves are put together and fixed with iron clips to form a complete mold.

When making, first clean the mold, put the two mold halves together and fix them with iron clips, then pour the melted chocolate cooled to a proper temperature into the mold to fill it, then turn the mold over and pour out the chocolate in the mold, leaving only a thin layer of chocolate on the inner wall of the mold. At this time, gently tap the mold from the outside with a spatula, on the one hand, make the chocolate layer on the inner wall of the mold as thin as possible, on the other hand, avoid bubbles in the finished product. Then put the mold on the grid, and then use the container below to let the excess chocolate in the mold flow into the container. When the chocolate in the mold is almost dry, scrape off the chocolate hanging at the lower end of the mold with a knife. On the premise of ensuring that the finished product is not broken, this kind of three-dimensional hollow chocolate is better to be thinner, but of course not too thin. Therefore, if the chocolate layer on the inner wall of the mold is hung too thin, it needs to be hung again to prevent the finished product from being broken. When everything is ready, put the mold in the refrigerator. When the chocolate has just been demoulded, it is taken out, and the clip and mold are removed to obtain solid hollow chocolate.

By the way, chocolate can also be used as various decorations to decorate cakes and desserts, such as chocolate chips, chocolate nets, chocolate leaves, chocolate ribbons, chocolate cigarettes and so on.

Chocolate making is a profound art, and it is difficult for us to make it clear in a few words. The production of chocolate is developing rapidly. Although the equipment used now has become more and more advanced, handmade chocolate is still more expensive. Nowadays, the taste of chocolate has also changed a lot, because the traditional taste of chocolate is out of date, and new tastes, such as tea, spice and fruit, are becoming fashionable. But no matter how it develops and changes, chocolate has been loved by people for a long time because of its exquisite and charming characteristics. Therefore, mastering some common sense of making chocolate will definitely help our dessert chef in the future.

Method for making alcoholic chocolate

Its manufacturing method is that 1.5-3.0 wt% alcohol and 0.5-5.0 wt% soybean lecithin are mixed into chocolate raw materials, stirred at high speed to make them uniformly distributed in chocolate raw materials, and then solidified by injection molding. The alcohol used is water-containing alcohol, and the ethanol content is above 80% (by volume), distilled from brandy, wine, whisky and the like.

Wine chocolate can be made in one of the following two ways:

1. Including the method of mixing process. This method is to mix alcohol and lecithin into chocolate raw materials before or after mixing, and start cooling within 5 minutes after mixing to below 20℃.

2. Methods that do not include the mixing process. In this system, alcohol and lecithin are mixed at 30 ~ 70℃ to form a chocolate-like raw material, and cooling starts within 10 minute (preferably 5 minutes) after mixing, and then it is cooled to below 20℃. Soybean phospholipids (such as lecithin) have been used as emulsifiers for chocolate. Increasing the addition of soybean phospholipids to 0.5 ~ 5.0% by weight can make more alcohol directly mixed into chocolate, so that the combined alcohol can be stored in chocolate for more than 6 months.

Method for making colored chocolate candy

Colored chocolate candy is wrapped with a layer of chocolate raw materials outside the candy body, but the difference is that this kind of chocolate candy has various shapes, unique fragrance, elegant appearance and distinctive features, with 20 ~ 30 varieties, not only different tastes, but also different shapes. It is very fashionable to put it in a high-end gift box, and it is also a very popular high-end product abroad at present.

Manufacturing method: 1. Sugar core manufacturing. Chocolate of all colors should be made into candy hearts of all types and tastes, and then coated with a layer. The heart can be divided into the following types:

(1) Hard core: It is mainly composed of various kinds of pralines, and some of them also contain glucose. There are two kinds of frying methods: one is to dissolve sugar in water, filter it, then cook it to a certain temperature, add some nuts such as peanuts into the pot and fry it together, and the temperature of hard candy is slightly higher; The other is to dissolve sugar and glucose in water, filter them, and then boil them to a temperature close to that of hard sugar. Pour nuts such as nuts and meat into the pot and mix (peanuts, almonds, etc. All cooked), add a little cream before taking it out.

(2) Softening the heart: Based on Fontaine (also known as Baimazi), Fontaine has two flavors, one is to use dairy products as the heart, with various milk flavors, and the other is to use various fruit flavors without condensed milk. Fontaine is made by dissolving sugar and glucose in water, filtering, decocting to about 120℃, and pouring it on a cooling table for stirring.

(3) Wine core: based on sugar, various famous wines are added. Dissolve sugar in water, filter, boil to about 1 12℃, leave the fire for 3-5 minutes, add a proper amount of wine, pour the sugar water into the powder tray, then slightly screen a layer of starch on the surface of the sugar water, keep the temperature and crystallize, and wrap the outer layer. There are also various semi-soft candy hearts made of sugar, condensed milk, nuts, raisins and other raw materials.

2. Chocolate coating method. Apply chocolate coat, and apply different specifications of chocolate according to different hearts. It is required that the coated chocolate black has bright light and good finish, and the chocolate temperature should be controlled at about 28 ~ 30℃.

Method for making refined chocolate

The manufacturing process is very complicated. Cocoa beans need to be selected, dried, ground, heated, stirred, ripened, cooled and filled in the mold to form perfect dark chocolate. About 1 kg of cocoa beans can only extract less than 500 grams of chocolate essence, and the production process needs at least 20 steps. It takes 120 hours to make some high-quality chocolates, and the whole process can be said to be time-consuming and laborious. At the same time, the whole production process must be carried out in a strict temperature control system (that is, indoor air conditioning equipment). If you are not careful, the whole pot of chocolate will be in a mess.

1. Choose chocolate bars that can be bought in general supermarkets, without worrying about the complicated process of temperature regulation and cooling. DIY chocolate, the fun thing is that you can add mixed materials according to your preference. We chose crushed almonds, peanut butter and strawberries to demonstrate how to make Rocher and how to put strawberries in suits.

When you dissolve chocolate, you must scald it with water, and you can't cook it directly. Be very careful when handling chocolate, it can't get wet at all.

3. After chocolate and nut paste are mixed into paste, add almond nuts.

4. Mix a part with a fork and knead it into a ball in the palm of your hand. Put the spherical chocolate in the refrigerator, take it out after solidification, dip it in dark chocolate paste, and put it in the refrigerator for setting.

Handy friends can also make new chocolate shapes with fruits. The outer layer of the selected fruit must be completely free of moisture.

6. Making a strawberry suit is very simple. Dip strawberries in a layer of white chocolate paste, put them in the refrigerator for solidification, then dip them in dark chocolate paste, put them in the refrigerator for solidification, and then process them with a roller full of chocolate paste.