The tangy and umami laden Mexican Tabasco is back in stock.
For some reason, there have been a few spats of difficulties lately with too thick or thin chocolate in the Melangers. One person reported only being able to get 4 lbs of chocolate into the Melanger before it spun itself out. The culprit was 3 times the cocoa butter the recipe called for. I don't know why they decided on that much, but it made the warm mixture too thin. I suggested if they wanted to use that recipe then to refine with a more moderate amount for the base time, then add the extra at the end.
I had three people write about chocolate that was too thick. One tried to cut back on the fat content too much (you can't really just randomly decide to alter one ingredient radically and expect it to behave the same) and the final on read the recipe in volume, not weight. meaning for 8 oz of cocoa butter they used a cup (really only about 6 oz), and likewise for the sugar. The "8 oz" of sugar (the 1 cup) was more like 12 oz, so they have a VERY thick chocolate that gave the Melanger a bit of trouble. So, just to be clear, all ounces are weights folks, not volumes. Finally, I may have never addressed this specifically, but it came up the latest tempering articles. You can temper over and over. You don't have just one shot. I had one customer giving away "failed" tempering batches because she thought they were totally ruined. Nope - keep it clean and dry and you can temper over and over until you get it right.
I have been getting this question a lot lately, so I though I would address it. The new Melangers (Spectra 10 - previously the Santha Wet Grinder) should land by the end of the month and be available shortly after. I am not taking pre-orders. There will be plenty. Also coming in this shipment are some larger units - Spectra 20's and 40's that are capable of 20 and 40 lbs of chocolate. The 40's are already all sold, but there will be a few 20's available. Those I AM taking pre-orders on. With shipping (in the USA) they will be $1000. You won't currently find them on the site - if you have an interest in them, send me an email and we will get your name on one. Also coming back is the Tabasco cocoa beans. Demand was greater than anticipated, and we sold out quickly. Look for them this weekend.
On a similar note, the Dominican Republic "Conacado" will be back with a twist. We have two lots you can choose from. The original lot from a few months ago was 2033. We have that one, plus a new one that I found to have a little more chocolate flavor. There is only a little, so if you want to see side by side what difference fermentation can make, now is your chance. It is rather a rare opportunity.
Oh, and it is not an item, but some people have been asking about profiles for the Behmor for something less than 2-2 1/2 lbs. After a little experimenting, the following works pretty well for 1 lb. Set it for 1 lb, P5, and add the maximum amount of time. This will stretch out the profile. Start the roast and then reduce the time to 16 minutes. This will pull the total roasting time back without affecting the shape of the profile. It is still a little faster than 2 lbs, but not bad. If they smell done or start popping before 16 minutes, by all means stop the roast. But overall I think you will find it does pretty well.
I have put together an article on tempering. In it you will find one I wrote some time ago about some of the theory behind all those temperatures you have to worry about during tempering. New now is an illustrated explanation to tempering. My hope in both of those is that it will make tempering more approachable and less intimidating.
Tempering - Deconstruction and Reconstruction & Illustrated Tempering
How's that for a title? I celebrated 12th night last night (secular form actually) and for dessert I prepared a fresh Tabasco (bean of course) based flourless torte - just to die for. I thought I would share both parts.
69% Dark Tabasco chocolate - 6.25 lbs 5 lbs of Tabasco cocoa
5 oz Natural cocoa butter
30 oz unrefined cane sugar
Roasted the Tabasco cocoa in two 2.5 lb batchs in the Behmor, Profile p1, 14 minutes roast time. Cracked the cooled beans in my Cocoa Mill, winnowed them and ground them into liqueur in my Champion Juicer. I melted my cocoa butter in the Melanger, added the Tabasco liqueur. I did something I have never tried before which was a little elevated temperature refining. I put the drum and contents in my oven until everything was 140F. I heated my sugar to 180 F (and no, is doesn't melt). I then started the Melanger running and added the sugar. Brought the whole mass to 155 F.
Now, before you try this at home, I have an aluminum center mount for the wheels (the nylon gets brittle) and have replace the seal on my Melanger (don't ask why I had to do that) so I can take mine over the 150 limit. If you want to try it, just go to 145 or so and all should be good.
In any case, the extra heat helped to drive off some of the acidity of the beans, but more importantly catalyzed some nice acid induces hydrolysis flavor reactions in the chocolate and really smoothed out the flavor and bumped up the complexity of the chocolate. The temperature only stayed elevated for 4-5 hours. I think 8-10 would have been better, but I will have to play with that more. I considered the chocolate finished at 20 hours.
The chocolate itself has some great liveliness and was deemed almost too sweet by some household tasters. Says something for a nearly 70% dark chocolate. I used 1 lb to make the following torte.
Chocolate Torte
1 lb 70% chocolate (homemade is best in my opinion)
2 cups sugar
2 cups butter
8 eggs
(If you like coffee, 6 oz of espresso can be added to the eggs for a Mocha torte)
Preheat oven to 350 F. For really even baking, make a 1" water bath with a 12" pan and get that also pre-heating. Pull your espresso and let cool if you want a Mocha torte. Melt the butter and chocolate together. Also let cool to room temperature. Butter and dust with cocoa powder a 9" pan. I find a springform or cheesecake (removable bottom) pan works well.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together. Whisk in the espresso if desired.
Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture (chocolate to eggs so you don't set the eggs). The "batter" may well gel up - kind of odd, but ok and what allowed me to put the nice spiderweb pattern on the torte.
Pour into the prepared pan and put in the oven (in the waterbath if you are doing that).
Bake 45 minutes. Edges will be set but the middle may jiggle a little. It's ok. Remove and let cool.
This supposedly serves 16. It is VERY rich. I like it the next day best. The rest of the chocolate we molded up. I tested out a new mold. It holds 72 0.2 oz chocolates. I will be selling a limited amount of these. Look for them in the next week or so. Someone (thanks Jasmine) got creative as soon as they were out.
Our Ode to the Aztecs.
We just ran out of Ocumare, and are very low on the Papua New Guinea . But the new Panama should be in Wednesday, and available soon there after.
I hope everyone has had a great holiday season. We took some need time off, but everything is back up and running here. During the time off I had a chance to inspect and test some used Behmors and are offering up a handful as refurbished. In general they have a little cosmetic damage and can't be sold as new, so we have knocked a bit off the price ($225). They still come with the full factory warranty.
Santha has now started offering the Melanger under the "Spectra" name, so over time you will start to see the name change. It is the same Alchemist's Stone Melanger. We expect the next batch of Melangers (with and without timers) in early next month. Hopefully we will also be offering the "Spectra 20 and 40" - 20 and 40 lb capacity Melangers. No promises there though. They have a way of selling out before I can get my hands on them.
Look for a return of a couple cocoa bean favorites. A new crop of delicate 2007 Panama is on the way as well as a small amount of Dominican Republic "Conacado". We are just about out of Ocumare as you will note by the amounts sold out. These will probably be out for a few months at least. But I have been pushing hard to expand with a couple new varieties in the up coming months - we'll see if that pans out.
In the meantime, I know the Christmas season is just ending, but don't forget Valentines day is right around the corner and now is a great time to start thinking and making chocolate for that special person in your life.