Level: Novice
Read time: 7 minutes
"At this point, just make the chocolate as you would any other" isn't recipe directions. Would you call it a recipe for oatmeal cookies if I just listed the ingredients and then wrote, "Just make them like you would any other cookie"? Your "recipe" has only left me with dried nibs. Then what???
This comment came in about my recipe for Ruby Chocolate. I think it is very worthwhile to point out what I also said in the recipe:
This recipe is just a jumping off point. Feel free to experiment. The only really thing you need to keep in place is adding 10% of the weight of the nibs worth of citric acid (in theory other dry acids like ascorbic and malic acid will work also) and driving the water off.
Chocolate making isn’t baking.
I recently attended a webinar on making fermented nut and seed spreads. Why might you ask? Because I have more in my life than chocolate making....and I thought maybe I could make a fermented bicolor spread - stay tuned for more on that.....
Pascal Boudar said beautiful things when discussing how his process of fermentation has become more and more simple as the years went on. He said “Mastery is the art of simplicity” and I can’t agree more. I have a version of that from Constantin Brancusi “Simplicity is complexity resolved” that really resonates with me.
Paul Bergner is a master herbalist who wrote a great article called How to Become a Master Herbalist in Thirty Years or More that again really resonates with me about how long it takes to master something and for me, I see how it has shaped much of my life and will continue to shape it.
Mastery of any topic is attained after years to decades of becoming fully engaged not only in the field, but being constantly engaged with a level of rigor and practice that steadily expands and also deepens understanding of the facts and principles of that field or topic. The master brings the subject completely alive in their own being and experience. Ultimately their career is characterized by various “threshold events” of understanding and insight which contribute new understanding for the current generation and a legacy for future generations. Those thresholds are made possible by an intuitive synthesis of many facts and observations during the career leading up to them. This process is how a field stays current and alive throughout generations.
On one hand I deeply feel that chocolate making is simple. But it has taken me 2 decades and over 3 million words of complexity to begin to dip my toe onto a path that might lead to mastery in another 10-20 years or so.
I find it interesting as I look at my reaction to this comment. It was mixed annoyance tinged with bafflement as to what isn’t clear about ‘just’ making the chocolate. The thing about annoyance or other such negative emotions is that they often come from feeling attacked and it has taken me a couple months to work out why I was feeling attacked. I’ve had these feeling before and lead to the infamous post Where the Alchemist loses his shit. I’m not going to do that again here. Sorry not sorry.
This, for the time being, is a kinder and more gentle and understanding Alchemist.
I finally realized that I could and should have given a link to the directions I was referring to. I honestly thought it was obvious through my lens of near mastery. It never crossed my mind I might need to or that it would be hard to find.
What I hoped everyone would do is a bit of research. I’m not talking about searching and reading 157 articles I’ve written about making chocolate. I’m simply talking about going to our guide How To Make Chocolate, in the header of the site. In there I talk all about ingredients, recipe formulation, the options you have in using a Champion Juicer to make liquor or adding the nibs directly to the melanger, and so on.
My self appointed job is teacher though and if I’m not leading you properly to the knowledge that I want and expect you to know, that is on me. So be it. I own that. I’ve now included the link in that recipe.
With a bunch of philosophical meandering done for the time being, it is time to discuss the simplicity of refining chocolate.
Over the years, especially as I watch people try to make it oh so complex, I’ve come to the stance that the final stage of making chocolate, the refining part, is the least important and simplest in regards to details and techniques. It is equivalent to taking the cookies out of the oven, not making the cookie dough.
Again, chocolate making isn’t baking. More specifically, chocolate refining isn’t baking.
In making cookies, it is important how you handle and combine your ingredients.
Do you cream the butter, melt the butter or grate the butter? Each decision will effect how the final cookie comes out.
Do you add the sugar to the creamed butter or combine it with the eggs. That too will change how the cookie comes out.
Do you refrigerate your dough or not? That too will change your cookies.
The deep key here is that none of that matters or applies to chocolate making by the time you are making the chocolate at the melanger.
Do you add the cocoa butter before or after the nibs? It doesn’t matter. The chocolate will be the same.
Do you add the sugar at the beginning or after 12 hours? It doesn’t matter, the chocolate will be the same.
How much pressure should you put on the tension knob? I address that in the Guide. In this case it matters, but only to the point that you should apply all the pressure you can as soon as you can. After that, it does not matter.
But here is the great part. If you don’t follow my near master advice, the only thing affected is the amount of time it will take the chocolate to finish. It will not change the final product. It is akin to the speed should you incorporate your sugar into your creamed butter. The suggestion is to add it as quick as possible without staling the mixer, but there in no harm, and the cookies won’t change, if you take 30 minutes to do it (assuming you don’t melt the butter).
As a reminder, that recipe was not so much a recipe as a jumping off point. The ENTIRE point was to lay out the very detailed instructions on how to acid treat the certain nibs so they turn color and then how to handle them so as not to violate the first commandment of chocolate making,
Ye Shall Add No Water Based Ingredients
I laid out the important part and by implication, nothing else matters. It is impossible for me to tell you everything that does not matter.
It does not matter if the room is 70 F or 77.7 F.
It does not matter if you had bacon for breakfast.
It does not matter if you add the nibs with your left hand or right hand.
It does not matter if you use 10% nibs or 60% nibs.
It does not matter when you add the sugar, whether it is at the beginning or in 12 hours.
It does not matter if you take 15 minutes to get everything into the melanger or 7 hours, 32 minutes and 42 seconds.
The last thing I’ll say is that this is not an invitation to tell me all the ways you think something matters or how when you some specific step it makes a difference (when to add the sugar leaps to mind, yes, I disagree strongly with Dandelion Chocolate about this). I too have tested so many variations and when you really, really control the variables, it is amazing what simply does not matter.
Yes, if you burn the cocoa butter, it will affect the chocolate.
Yes, if you dry the nibs 350 F for 72 hours, it will affect the chocolate.
Yes, if you melt the sugar when warming it, it will affect the chocolate.
No straw arguments allowed.
If you follow my directions (as simple as I can make them currently), and try to understand the intent behind them, it is all going to go just fine and you will be on your own path to mastery.
I previously wrote about each step of the chocolate making process (the Iron Triangle of Anguish) noting you can’t have everything all at once. What do people think about one on How to Simply Make Chocolate? Is writing a lot about it contrary to simplicity? Have I already done it? Is it not really simple and only appears that way due to my experience? Oh, so many existential questions.
Weigh in folks, I’m here for you.
Carry on and go make some chocolate and the best chocolate chip cookies.
This is my version of Dandelion’s really great recipe.
The even more bestest chocolate chip cookies.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (220 g) salted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup, packed (256 g) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp (4 g) vanilla extract (1 tsp of orange oil is also fantastic)
2 ½ cups (315 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Realsalt
1 ½ cups (227 g) chopped chocolate (65-75%)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350°F (176.7°C), and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
With a hand electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream BUTTER and both SUGARS on medium speed about 3 minutes. Add the EGG and VANILLA, and mix on low speed until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the FLOUR, BAKING SODA, BAKING POWDER, and SALT. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in two additions, mixing on low speed to just combine after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary. Mix on low speed until just combined, about 2 minutes. Add CHOPPED CHOCOLATE and mix on the lowest speed if using a stand mixer or by hand if using a hand held mixer, just until chips are distributed evenly throughout the dough.
I like baking the cookies at this point. Dandelion recommends refrigerating the dough overnight (chilling the dough for at least a few hours produces a chewier, more flavorful cookie with better color and even spreading). When you’re ready to bake, scoop out ¼ CUP (60 G) portions of the dough, roll each into a ball, and press the dough balls down slightly.
Place the dough on the prepared (see, even Dandelion doesn’t tell you what prepare means) baking sheets, but do not crowd the cookies; we recommend no more than 6 cookies per baking sheet. They will look enormous. For me, preparing the baking sheet is putting down a piece of parchment paper.
Bake for 12 minutes, until golden brown on the edges, rotating the baking sheets 180 degrees halfway through to ensure even coloring. These are delicious served warm, or completely cool them on the baking sheet and store in an airtight container for many days.