Hi Brad
I tried the drinking chocolate yesterday its wonderful so chocolaty.
I made it by mixing the corn starch with the powdered sugar first, then I added the ground cocoa paste 96% cs, I boiled the milk and whisked in the dry mix brought back to boil and let simmer for 2 minutes to thicken.
I did it this way as I intend to supply the mix in a bag for sale.
Do you think this is an ok way to make it. It tasted fantastic and I could not taste the corn starch in it.
(Also whats called corn flour in Ireland and the UK , is actually maize starch, I checked the back of the pack)
Louise.
It may be a translation thing. - I Googled "corn starch and Ireland" & found that in Europe, corn starch is called corn flour.
- Corn Starch - very fine, white powder, used to thicken gravies...
Corn Meal - Coarse bits of ground corn. i.e. Polenta.
Louise, is the corn flour you have that fine white powder?
Brad
Thank you for pointing out that corn starch is a different thing to corn flour, I never knew this, I have to get my hand on cor starch now, I live in Ireland and it is difficult to find some ingredients, As soon as I try it out I will let you know, it may be a few weeks before I can source corn starch.
Thanks
Louise
Louise;
There is a big difference between corn flour and corn starch. I don't use corn flour.
Brad.
You're welcome Larry;
There isa LOT of flavour variance from various types of beans and roasts. I currently import 5 different varieties of beans, and have found that only one of them makes an appealing drinking chocolate. The other 4 are too fruity (while I can roast out the fruitiness, it simply makes more sense to celebrate that characteristic in another way, and find a bean that works betterfor drinking chocolate)
In the meantime, your use of unsweetened baking chocolate (aka liquor) is a BIG improvement from cocoa powder, even if the liquor isn't as good of quality as that from premium beans. I'm sure you even noticed the difference right away.
The drinks I have created (and am currently working on) have become so popular that they represent almost 1/3 of each store's revenue, and are great for filling the sales void between "chocolate seasons". Combine that with some simple baked goods using our own in-house made liquor and it makes for pretty good months all around.
Cheers
Brad
I tried the recipe. I'm going to keep trying and playing with it. When you posted it, it connected a lot of dots. 
The light especially kicked on when I thought about using chocolate liquor instead of coverture or ganache. - There is less fat in liquor! In reading other recipes, some people complain about the cocoa butter separating out and forming an unappealing layer on top.
I don't have ready access to Chocolate Liquor, although I will find some. To try the recipe (I couldn't wait) I discovered the unsweetened baking chocolate at the grocery store is chocolate liquor. - at least the ingredient list simply states that it is "chocolate". I doubt that chocolate is from high quality flavor beans, but it was a good start.
I'm looking forward to trying many variations and will hopefully be able to get my hands on some liquor from high quality beans.
- Thinking about this, I wonder how much flavor, texture, and fat variance there is amongst various beans and roasts. This is a whole new area of chocolate to discover
I will also admit that heading up to Canada to try some O.M.G. is on my bucket list now.
Thank you for sharing the recipe Brad!
Brad
I haven't tried it yet, but im delighted with the formula, I buy chocolate coverture not liquor, I sell hot chocolate pack basically flaked chocolate and spices etc, they sell really well for me. I am going to try to come up with a recipe to sell the chocolate flakes with the cornflour included so the result is a thickened drink. Have you any recommendation of how I might achieve this, maybe if I add a small amount of powdered sugar with the cornflour mixed in as per you recommendations and ratio, do you think this would work?
Louise
So Louise, did you try the recipe I supplied?
Hi Andy
Thank you for some great recipes, they both sound great.
Louise
We do not sell this in a take-home form. I don't think it'd be hard to make a take home form. Making it a pretty take home form would be a challenge and keep the cost down. It would also be a very temporary product since we don't add stabilizers or preservatives to our products.
Like I mentioned it's our truffles just without an enrobing. So you're dealing with a butter/cream ganache. I mix something like 31g of ganache in a demitasse with hot frothed milk to it and stir until you get something like pudding and then add more to dilute--or not depending on the customer.
Now for a hot chocolate (not sipping chocolate) which will take a vast amount more milk I make a cacao based syrup out of a dark and a mild cocoas, a little sugar, vanilla and water. Thicken, reduce, squeeze bottle it, and that just lasts.
Andy
This sound really interested also. The cream in the ganache would help thicken the hot chocolate I presume. Do you sell hot chocolate packs for your customer to bring home? Is it a truffle mixture you use?
Louise
Brad
I really appreciate that you shared this recipe with me, I have been trying to replicate the hot chocolate we get on our holidays in Italy and Croatia and have failed, I;m going to give it a go for sure to your recipe, I am looking forward to going weak at the knees, thats what I love about chocolate...
Louise
We have a new shop with a cafe element, we've done away with pre-prepped notions. We have blocks of our ganache ready and weighed. We heat them lightly then blend them with frothed milk to a proportion the customer wants. Thick to stand a spoon up, or diluted to a more hot chocolate. It's simple, we always have ganache on hand for enrobing and it's as close to a liquid truffle as you'll get. So one further option if you don't have a cafe is to just pick up a steamer and prep on demand takes <45s per serving and you're always fresh.
Louise;
Cornstarch is balanced between the ratio of milk and sugar and liquor. More liquor and sugar and less milk, and the drink ends up thick enough that you don't need cornstarch. In our case, our drinking chocolate is not dark at all, and a bit sweet, so with the lack of liquor we need cornstarch. Here is my base recipe. The trick here is to mix the cornstarch into the sugar first so it doesn't clump up, and then bring the milk/sugar/cornstarch mix to a boil before adding the liquor.
4L homogonized milk
450g liquor
900g sugar
60g cornstarch
Have fun, and into each 200ml add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp cloves, then top with whipped cream and a good sprinkle of nutmeg. (make sure you're sitting down when you try it. Your knees will go weak!)
Cheers
Brad
Brad
How much cornstarch do you add to your hot chocolate to thicker it. I have experimented and have fouund that the cornstarch taste come through the hot chocolate. Louise
I have the Benchmark dispenser . I do not love it. I don't hate it -- but I do not love it. It does not hold my chocolate at the temperature it is set to. I heat it on the stove top to temp, then let the dispenser keep it there, but it's usually about 15 degrees less than the highest temp on the device. It's also a condensation nightmare.
I wouldn't recommend this one personally.
Thanks Brad.
I figured that something was turning rancid. We had the machines turned to 60 degrees C. Not sure what it is in Fahrenheit.. So should we have turned them up higher? I figured above 65c would be too high. What I didn't like about the steaming was the foamy textures. I might try adjust the recipe again. Also hoping to use this at a stall without any kind of coffee machine (only a chocolate machine). Has anyone else ever had their mix turn rancid so quickly?
Cheers
Your milk products are going rancid. The temperature of your contents needs to be above 165 degrees F to stop bacteria growth. Anything less, and you are essentially creating a one gallon petrie dish.
The problem with the types of machines listed here is that if the temp is too low, your milk product is souring. If the temperature is too high, your product is separating and you are getting a skim of cocoa butter on top (not appealing to look at). I have a couple of them, and stopped using them. Now, my staff creates a "base", refrigerates it, and then just steams it as needed. This is much safer from a pathogenic perspective, and there is almost no waste, as a refrigerated product lasts longer than our demand allows it to.
It is VERY possible to create an absolutely fabulous drink by steaming it. Here are 150+ online reviews of our drinking chocolates in a recent competition we won: http://yychotchocolate.com/omg/
Oh... if you want to make a very nice sour cream, just leave a litre of buttermilk on your counter for 8 hours, and strain off the thin liquids. I do that quite often instead of buying it in the store.
Cheers.
Brad
Great recommendations people!
Instead of starting a new thread, (which I might do later anyway) I thought I would ask all of you experts here. We have a small chocolate & patisserie boutique. We make everything there from scratch. Anyway, we originally made our hot chocolate by making a ganache and then steaming it with a little exta milk added. We weren't keen on doing this so we decided to get a continuos hot chocolate machine. The first one we boght was kind of cheap, around $300 Aus $. After having the machine on for a few hours we noticed the flavour would change and then eventually turn rancid and off smelling. It seemed to be happening sooner and sooner and so we thought we'd bought a dudd machine that maybe was only good for powder mixes etc. So eventually we invested in a better machine. it was around $700, and it heats via a baine marie. We thought this would be a lot better, and it was for a little while but eventually it has started to do the same thing. Yesterday it went bad after only 5-6 hours of putting the fresh batch in.
The weird thing is, it seems to happen a lot less if I change the recipe to have no cream in it, only milk. (not a fan of this either). I have eventually tried modifying the recipes a lot, but my favourite recipe which is a modification from a very skilled French chocolatier, seems to go bad every time. Anyone know if it could be that certain creams have fats that go off quicker?
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance
Chantelle
Let's see if I attach the photos correctly!!!
The interior looks a lot like a rice cooker, but the pan can not be removed. There is a small hole at the bottom where water flows through and then up the exterior tube that give you a visual water level. This is the part that confuses me as far as hot chocolate is concerned, if the tube is filled with a chocolate mixture, how do you clean it. There is just no physical way.
Maybe Clay knows something about this and has used the Zojirushi???
Hope these photos help....
I think the capacity is about three gallons. I'd love to check out your drinking chocolates for my store.
Interesting thought. I wonder how much like a hot water kettle it is--being that if there is a raw heating element in it the amount of output is sure to scorch at the source, and clean up would be a beast. I need to see if there is anyone selling these local to go look at one.
Your idea is solid though, just keep the liquid at temp and then drop a few pre-weighed ganache bits in and you're good to go.
I just happen to have one of these Zojirushi's in my garage sale pile, which I just reclaimed. I also have the Italian made BRAS hot chocolate machine, but I am perplexed at the amount of plastic on a high end machine. If I did not know the machine was made in Italy, I would think it was made in China!! Anyone out there use the BRAS.
Clay, I just read your book, very nice, thanx. S.
Hi Melanie, I should send you some of my Mayan hot drinking chocolate mix to see how you like it and how it works out in the machine. What is the capacity/volume that it holds?
Andy:
It's that time of year again, so people are looking more and more at hot chocolate. One of the avenues I've been exploring is using one of the insulated Zojirushi water boilers to heat milk instead of water. There are multiple temperature settings, including 175F. Pour your house-made syrup into the bottom of a cup then add hot milk.An alternative would be to create a syrup that has the milk in it and then just add hot water (you can get to boiling in these machines). This would avoid the waste problem at the end of the day that Brad mentions.
I also like the flexibility this approach offers - one for milk, one for water, one for soy milk ...
Price is about $170 each for a 4 liter machine, discounted. Make sure to get the insulated variety as they are far less expensive to operate and can maintain temps above 140F for several hours after being unplugged.
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/cecilware-choco-1-delice-countertop-hot-chocolate-dispenser-120v/385CHOCO1.html
I have this hot drink dispenser and love it. I make my own chocolate sludge with spices, then dilute it, still making a thick chocolate shot which we serve in a 3 oz portion with a shot of whipped cream or handmade marshmallow. The machine warms and agitates and has a wide temp range. It does get some condensation inside but usually not until its gotten pretty low, The bowl capacity is plenty large to take to a function/festival and sell a lot of shots.
On the first days of what looks like long cold winter in Santa Fe, I am on my second cup of thick hot chocolate from Taza.
Just about a year later now, how is your hot chocolate dispenser working out. Did you purchase the BRAS Scirocco or the SF Cioccolata Calda. Have some questions but I will wait until I find out which one you bought....
I have a better idea:
Premake your drinking chocolate base using a scaled up recipe of 1 part liquor, 2 parts granulated sugar, and one part powdered sugar. We make 16 litres at a time, heat it to 165 degrees F and put it in a fridge to cool. It's important to NOT bring it to a boil, but heat it high enough to kill pathogens.
Then when a customer orders, we portion out 200ml and use a cappuccino steamer to heat it. It only takes a few seconds, and at that time the cornstarch in the powdered sugar thickens the drink, making it very rich and creamy.
We also have one of the drink dispensers, but there are challenges with it:
1. You have to throw out what you don't use at the end of the day (waste).
2. For higher volumes, 5 litres doesn't take you very far, so you have to keep refilling it.
3. It limits the types of drinking chocolates you can offer (one per machine)
4. If you use a true cocoa liquor and nobody buys a drinking chocolate for a while, you end up with a skim of very unattractive oil (cocoa butter) on top of the drink in the machine.
5.Multiple machines take upspace
6. Most dispenser binsare made of plastic, not glass. The plastic begins to look ratty after a being cleaned out a number of times.
By premaking a base, and using a steamer to heat individual portions, you can offer a multitude of drinking chocolates with different infused spices, because you add the spices to the drink just before you steam it in the cup. This steeps it just as if it were a tea.
Try this recipe:
1 oz good cocoa liquor
1 oz powdered sugar
2 oz granulated sugar
1/2 tsp Indonesian Cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground Cloves
Sweetened whip cream with a touch of vanillaon top with a sprinkle of fresh ground nutmeg.
My two bits for what it's worth.
Brad
Stu - would you mind letting us know where you got a 5L machine for around $400? I have spent quite a bit if time and the only $400 machine I found was a smaller machine.
