Can you make chocolate at home .whats ingredients?

Answer 1

The first cacao trees grew wild in the Amazon basins in north Brazil. Today cacao is cultivated in tropical climates. The cacao tree likes climates within 10 to 20 degrees of the Equator. The trees need warm, humid weather and loose rich soil. They also like shaded sunlight with little or no wind. The largest growers of the cacao tree are Brazil, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, and Nigeria.


20 to 60 cacao beans are inside the pod


Three main varieties of cacao beans are grown today. The criollo bean is a native of Central America. Approximately 10 to 15 percent of the cacao trees are criollo. These trees are small and hard to grow. The forastero cacao is much easier to grow and makes of 70 percent of all the cacao grown. The forastero is more bitter than the criollo. The third type of cacao bean is the trinitario. It is a cross between the criollo and the forastero. About twenty percent of the cacao beans produced are forastero.

Three main varieties of cacao beans are grown today. The criollo bean is a native of Central America. Approximately 10 to 15 percent of the cacao trees are criollo. These trees are small and hard to grow. The forastero cacao is much easier to grow and makes of 70 percent of all the cacao grown. The forastero is more bitter than the criollo. The third type of cacao bean is the trinitario. It is a cross between the criollo and the forastero. About twenty percent of the cacao beans produced are forastero.

Although cacao trees grow about sixty feet in the wild, plantation owners trim them to about 20 feet so that workers can reach the pods at harvest time. Since the cacao tree prefers shade banana trees, rubber trees, or coconut palms are planted beside the cacao tree in the orchard.

The pods take five to six months to develop. When the pods ripen they turn from green or yellow to orange or red. Cacao trees can be harvested twice a year. Workers use a machete to cut the pods off the trees. They are placed on banana leaves in large wooden boxes. They are left to ferment for several days. Criollo beans usually ferment for two to three days while forastero and trinitario beans fervent three to seven days. During fermentation the beans become darker and wrinkled and lose their bitter taste.

After fermentation the beans are sun-dried for several days. They are then packed in burlap sacks and shipped to factories. When the beans arrive at the chocolate factory they are sorted and cleaned. The beans are roasted at 250 to 350° degrees for thirty minutes to two hours depending on the type of bean. They are roasted in large revolving drums. The cacao beans give off a wonderful aroma during the roasting process.

After roasting the beans are winnowed. This is the process that removes the outer shell. The shells are sold as animal feed. The inner nib is then crushed then heated to melt the cocoa butter and ground to a thick paste. This paste is called chocolate liquor, but contains no alcohol.

If the nibs are to become Dutch-processed cocoa they are treated with an alkali. If left untreated with alkali the chocolate liquor becomes cocoa powder. To make cocoa power a large press extracts all but 10 to 25 percent the cocoa butter from the chocolate liquor. The remaining cake is then ground and sifted through fine nylon, silk, or wire mesh. Low fat cocoa contains between 10 to 13 percent fat where high-fat contains 15 to 25 percent. Low-fat cocoa is usually used for cocoa drinks. The high-fat cocoa is used to flavor desserts.

To make unsweetened or "baking" chocolate the chocolate liquor is molded and solidified. Dark chocolate is made by combining chocolate liquor with sugar, cocoa butter, and vanilla. To make milk chocolate chocolate liquor is combined with cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids or powder. White chocolate is made without chocolate liquor. It is the cocoa butter that gives it the chocolate flavor. Dipping chocolate is made with more cocoa butter than regular eating chocolate.

Chocolate is mixed with .3 to .5 lecithin. This helps it mix more easily and makes the chocolate smoother. Another type of chocolate is gianduia. It is a blend of chocolate and roasted hazelnuts.

Once the ingredients are combined the chocolate mixture goes through a refining process. It is kneaded between large steel rollers. This make the mixture smooth. Next is it conched. During this process the liquid mixtures is heated and continuously mixed, ground, and stirred. High quality chocolate is conched for several days and lower quality chocolate are conched for onbly a few hours.

After conched the chocolate is tempered. This is the process that gradually raises then lowers and raises the temperature to a set degrees. Now the chocolate is ready to be molded into chocolate bars.



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How to make chocolate, from the, The Soda Fountain

The first step in producing a premium quality chocolate is the blending of cocoa beans (actually seeds). Cocoa beans very greatly in quality, and it goes without saying that only the highest quality beans can be used to produce a premium quality chocolate. Furthermore, there are many varieties of beans. Some are grown in Africa, others in the Caribbean, and others in South America. Each variety of bean has its own strengths -- some beans have a more intense flavor, others have a longer lasting taste, and another bean may have a special aroma. Lastly, the beans are similar to wine grapes, in that their flavor is effected by weather. Subtle variations of the blending process can allow the production of a consistent tasting product year after year.

After blending, the cocoa beans are roasted. It is the process of roasting the cocoa beans that brings out the chocolate flavor and aroma (I can tell you from personal experience that this process also produces one of the most lovely aromas my nose has ever smelled).

Next the cocoa beans are shelled, and the pieces of seeds (called nibs) are then ground until a chocolate liquor is produced. Extra cocoa butter is then added (when producing cocoa or sweet ground chocolate it is removed). The extra cocoa butter increases the delicacy of the chocolate, and is largely responsible for its flavor. Depending on the type of chocolate being produced, additional ingredients such as sugar, vanilla, and possibly dry milk powder are added to the chocolate liquor.

The next step is a process called conching. Conching is a process of continually folding the chocolate liquor upon itself in a kind of wave motion. This breaks down all the small particles in the chocolate, and results in a smooth texture that literally melts in your mouth. Ghirardelli conches their chocolate for about 14 hours. This long conching process produces an extremely fine chocolate -- a shorter conching process produces a gritty chocolate, and a longer conching process would break down the chocolate and produce an oily chocolate.

The mixture is then "tempered," by slowly cooling the chocolate liquor to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit while the mixture is continually kept moving. This last process produces the chocolate crispness, and sheen. The chocolate is then molded into bars, packaged, and sent to the customers.

The secret to premium quality chocolate has three components:

A quality blend of only the finest cocoa beans.
The liberal addition of extra cocoa butter.
A long conching process.
Ghirardelli excels in all three areas. If you purchase inexpensive chocolate, you can be sure of at least one and probably several of the following:

The manufacture used inferior beans -- quality beans are expensive.
The chocolate has a low cocoa butter content, that may have been supplemented with animal or vegetable fat -- cocoa butter is expensive.
The conching process lasted only a couple hours -- tying up equipment for 14 hours is expensive.
To understand how much a difference in quality makes, purchase some Ghirardelli chocolate, and a real cheap chocolate bar. Open the Ghirardelli chocolate, and notice the aromatics. Brake off a small piece and let it melt in your mouth. Rub the chocolate up against the roof of your mouth and feel its smooth texture. Close your eyes and savor the fine sweet flavor, and notice how long that flavor seems to last. Repeat the process with the cheap chocolate, and you will quickly notice the lack of flavor, smell, and a gritty texture.

If you produce any of the recipes found on this Web site that uses chocolate or cocoa, then keep in mind that quality ingredients are the key to success, and there is no higher quality chocolate than the chocolate produced by Ghirardelli.

Answer 2

Yes you can make chocolate at home. I read a article in the paper about chocolate and how they make it.

Sorry i don't know the ingredients though.

Answer 3

If you mean, "can I turn raw cocoa beans into what we think of as chocolate?", then the answer is: Possibly. But there's NO WAY that it'll be worth the time it'll take you.

See, the process of actually turning cocoa beans into chocolate is pretty complicated. The beans have to be roasted to the proper temperature, cooled, shelled, sifted to remove pieces of shell, warmed, ground into a paste, "diluted" with cocoa butter, flavored, conched, and sweetened.

And that doesn't even address the complications of actually procuring raw cocoa beans....

Really, just go to the store and buy some chocolate. The alternative is complicated, messy, and I doubt you'd be able to achieve satisfactory results in your own kitchen.

Answer 4

No you can't in the context of your question, any time the word chocolate is used it's already been processed into what you mean by "make chocolate"

Answer 5

I dont know how to cook that much only quesadillas, but YOU can make chocolate by buying a Hershey bar and reading the ingridients. Than buy all the items you need and make it.