For the cold version, are we talking about individual portion at once or storing a quantity and pouring into a cup for service as needed? I have some ideas, I'll let you know the results when I have some time to try them out.
That sounds similar to what I am using at present... your
2 ounces single origin chocolate (50gr)
5 ounces hot water (150ml)
whereas I am using 50gr chocolate, adding 50ml water to get the chocolate melted, blending and topping up with an extra 50ml water. I do it that way, because melting the chocolate takes all the heat out of the water, so I find that I have to add extra hot water to raise the temperature of the drink.
So we are pretty much agreed on the hot version. But the biggest problem that I have is in producing a cold version.
Cooling this drink quickly, cause it to thicken.
Cooling it slowly, the cocoa butter seems to form a waxy foam on the top of the drink, which I don't mind, but I can understand would not be popular with everyone.
Hi Julie,
I didn't realize that you were using single origin. How about this for the chocolate to be the main component.
2 ounces single origin chocolate
5 ounces hot water
Place pieces in cup, add hot water, wait for chocolate to melt. Blend with frother or hand blender until smooth and foamy on top.
If you want thicker use less water or more chocolate. I tried with 71% and felt sugar wasn't needed (for my taste anyway).
Thanks Steve, I will try this recipe.
What you are doing is reducing the cacao butter content, by adding in cacao powder. It is therefore a slight compromise, if I want to offer single origin chocolate drinks, but I will have to see how much it compromises the Origin flavour.
Thanks.
Steve's Hot Chocolate Recipe:
For 1 serving:
1 ounce dark chocolate (this recipe used 75% in button form)
1/2 to 1 tsp sugar (adjust to taste if using 65% may not need to add as much sugar)
1 to 1 1/2 tsp dutched cocoa powder
1 to 1 1/2 tsp natural cocoa powder
6 to 8 ounces hot water
Place dry ingredients in cup. Add water. Wait a few moments for chocolate to melt. Blend with frother or hand blender until smooth and foamy on top.
The natural cocoa powder helps with creating foam while the dutch adds smoother taste.
Can also be made with sugar alternatives such as sweet and low, equal, or stevia powder, but I use less as these usually taste sweeter than sugar.
I will give you my recipe tomorrow as I normally do it by eye and count, so would want to provide measurements. The important component though is either a hand frother or blender to smooth it out and create a nice foam on top. Even though it uses water, I've given it to people who normally use milk and they enjoy it too.
I have an aversion to adding milk to my chocolate. But I do want to enjoy a chocolate drink, both hot and cold.
Has anyone any advice on the best way to acheive this? I am normally using 65% or higher chocolate.
Wow! Thank you so much for you thorough reply, Clay!!! You gave me much to think about!
Anna -
There are many different ways to do this ... all depends on what you want to achieve. For the most part I do not like the use of starch thickeners in my chocolate drinks as it changes the texture in ways I do not like. One thing however, is that (I find) it takes time to fully hydrate the starch so you don't really want to make it up a la minute. You can make a dense mousse with the starch in advance and then add the liquid
In my town, the local chocolate shop makes their (French-style sipping chocolate) in advance and dispenses it out of air pots. It's "just" chocolate and dairy - and one of the best sipping chocolates I have had this side of the Atlantic. They use very fresh organic cream. Personally, I think this is the secret - very high quality dairy.
At Bonnat in their salon, they make up the chocolate in advance and put it back in a milk jug in the fridge. They then steam it to heat it for service. At least they did back in '98 when I visited.
You could make a water-based ganache and add the (hot) dairy of choice to the ganache and then whip it using a frother or steamer. I like this approach as it makes it possible to vary the density of the product quite easily by changing the ratio of ganache to dairy - thinner for kids, thicker for adults.
You don't have to steam the milk, you could keep it hot in a coffee urn, as they do for Cuban caf con leche. This adds a nice caramel note as the lactose in the milk gets cooked.
Another idea - line the inside of the cup with a layer of tempered chocolate (any milk, white (!), or dark) and use (homemade) chocolate syrup. The hot dairy melts the chocolate lining the cup and adds interest to the drink.
Greetings! I am new here, so not sure how to go about all this! I make a mean sipping chocolate for the family....how do I transfer that to the cafe? For those of you who have shoppes that sell sipping chocolate, do you make it from scratch to order? or do you have a batch made and waiting? If so, how do you keep it?
Additionally, for those who sell dense sipping chocolate [with corn starch or tapioca powder], do you make each to order [which seems like an awful long time to wait], or do you have a batch made up and, if so, how do you keep it?
Thanks in advance!!!
Anna 
They will never become unsafe to eat if stored in dry conditions.
The flavor will change over time - how long is appropriate is up to you, really. General rule of thumb is that if there's milk fat present, it will not keep as long. If they are packaged in a very high oxygen barrier packaging, they could be great for years (i've literally kept one brand for 7 years in sealed packaging and appropriate environmental conditions and it was great - very good).
If you plan to melt and coat something with the white chocolate - age is not going to be your friend from a rheology standpoint. Also, generally speaking, white chocolate is going to have a much shorter shelf life from a flavor perspective than it's darker counterparts. Personally i count the shelf life of almost every white chocolate in months. Most branded mfrs will, however, count their shelf life in the 1-1.5 yr range.
How long could chocolate be sate to be consumed after the "best date before"? I have bars of Lindt 70% dark chocolate and also Lindt white chocolate.
thanks
Thanks so much for coming back to me - that soundsbrilliant,especially that it doesn't come off when you touch it - I have just ruined a great champagne bottle by using a silver spray (designed for chocolate) which is coming off so badly that I think I'm going to have to throw it away.I was going to give up the idea, but willkeep on trying (... on something smaller this time!). Many thanks for your help, Cathy
Hi Cathy, I used the spray on just a few pieces of chocolate. You must not spray too close to the confection and you need to just spray lightly with a sweeping motion. It doesn't smell particularly good when you first spray, but it dries quickly (give it a minute) and then leaves a nice sparkly shine on the chocolate. It has no after taste (at least not on the few pieces I used it on) and it does not come off when you wipe your finger across the chocolate. Remember I only used it on a few pieces. I will be experimenting with it more in the future. Let me know how it works for you. Esther
Hi there, I'm interested in using colour sprays on my chocolates too - have you had a chance to try this technique, how did you get on? Cathy
Thanks, Clay, for responding to my question even though I posted it in the wrong place. I want to use Color Mist on my chocolates after they are released from the mold. I'll try it and let you know how it worked. Esther
I'm so happy I read this comments. I've been thinking about taking that on-line course, but couldn't make up my mind if it was going to be worth it for me. thanks for sharing!
We did this course and its was pretty helpful. Most of the learning material is given to you and its up to you to practice as much. Sometimes you get overwhelmed with amount of information that's out there. If you don't have much knowledge of chocolates then this course will be helpful as its nicely organized. But like i said you will need to refer to other material, books, you tube videos, and practice if you want to be come a start a business. We finished this course few months ago, and now its all about trying new recipes and expereiments.
I've taken a total of three courses through Ecole Chocolat (two on-line, one on-site) and overall had a good experience with them. In the on-line courses students are provided with a great deal of information/reading materials and asked to complete assignments based on these materials. Before taking my first course I tried to do quite a bit of research and practice on my own, but I think the additional resources they provided and the more structured format of the course allowed me to progress further and more quickly than I could have on my own.
Hope that helps!
Rebecca
I did check the temperature, it goes between 55-58C (131-136F) so it wasn't the problem for me. Releasing the pressure on it fix the problem and like that it add an adjustment on the melangeur.
BUt thanks for pointing this out it could be part of the problem.
How goes the chocolate business inPennsylvania by the way?
If someone is interest about a system for adjust the pressure on the arm of the melangeur.
I didn't try it yet, I'll tell you more after using it.
I finally found the solution to my problem.
Too much pressure.
I talked about it on the alchemist forum, and someone told me he solved this problem by releasing some pressure on the wheels, when I was trying to add lots of pressure. He made me realise I was going to worn the stone much faster. So I tried the opposite, which is going easy on the pressure. It worked very well! The wheels started to spin full speed again.
Now I just have to find a fix system, to be able to adjust the pressure.
Hope this will serve to someone.
Thanks everyone.
Still have trouble with my Ultra Grind+, the last batches was alright because I added cocoa butter, so the chocolate was enough fluid, then the wheels didn't have to much trouble to spin.
But I would like to make chocolate without adding any cocoa butter. So I'm facing the same problem, the wheels stopped again.
I runned the grinder with the liquor ( 1kg) until it was well fluid, and then I added the sugar on three laps of time, little by little. Waiting between each time to see the liquor getting enough fluid.
It was going well for an 1h30 and then one wheel stopped, so I took off half of the liquor and it started to spin again so I left it run during the night and when I woke up, not good!!!! both wheels were stock.
I wonder if the sugar could make the mix sticky, or maybe it start caramelise a little , but the temperature never go over 136F, so i don't think so.
Is it the me doing something wrong or is it necessary to have a bigger melanger to be able to make chocolate without cocoa butter?
I probably had little bit to much in the drum.
The temperature was around 55c so I don't think it was that.
I just realise the humidity was quite high, around 65%, do you think this could make the chocolate thicker? As I had trouble for tempering, the chocolate started to thicken a lot at 27c.
I know the ideal humidity is 50% or less. Is 65% already to much for work with chocolate?
You've got a lot of variables here. You need both stones to be rolling for sure. It sounds like too much chocolate in the bowl or the chocolate is not warm enough. Not knowing your percentages of ingredients, only suggestion would be to make sure the chocolate mass is warm enough to keep it moving. You are probably going to want temps over 125f to help with viscosity unless you are using additional ingredients to improve viscosity. Was the sugar warm when added? If not, it could take longer than 4 hours for the temp to recover.
When you added the milk powder the mixture became too thick.
There is not enough pressure being exerted on the stones - evenly - against the bottom of the bowl - so one or more of the stones stops turning.
If you take out some (or most) of the chocolate does this solve your problem? If you can get the chocolate started and fluid you may be able to add the rest back in in small amounts.
Do you think so? Maybe already it is too much.
The thing is all the chocolate was in since 12h,I added the sugar and butter and let it run for 4h and it is only when I added the powder milk, the stone before the scraper stopped after 1h.
And since then the stone spin when I turn the drum by hand but stay fix when I start the grinder!?
I have 2.1kg in the drum in total, is it to much maybe?
you must control adding cocoa belong. do not put all the cocoa together, first start adding some, and then a few more, and few more.
I dont have the machine, and I ask regards because my english is not well. And its late i am tired.
david
Hi,
I'm just starting making chocolate at home and use my "Ultra Grinder+" for the second time and I have a small problem about the stones, when I had ingredients, one or the other stop spinning. It is always only one who stop. I cannot see any sugar stock somewhere or anything else, the chocolate isfluidso I don't understand, why one stone doesn't spinne.
Should I worries about that or not and is there anything I can do to fix that? Even if this doesn't damage anything, I imagine this slow down the process as only one stone do the work!
Any advice will be welcome, thanks by advance.
Best regards,
Thomas
The Little Dipper is a seed machine - you shouldn't have to go to 80F to form stable crystals. Remove any crystal memory by pre-heating the chocolate and then start to seed as the chocolate approaches 91 (or so) on the cool down.
brian
I haven't successfully made chocolate from cocoa beans, but why do you have to get it to 80 degrees?
http://chocolatealchemy.com/illustrated-tempering/ has a great illustrated tutorial on tempering without seed and they suggest taking the chocolate to 80 degrees to get more types of cocoa crystals then bringing the temperature back up to melt the type I - IV crystals.
However, if you chocolate will only go down to 84, then what is wrong with letting it run there for awhile to build some lower class crystals & bringing it back up to 89?
As far as the chocolate not getting any colder, what is the temperature of your room?
Do the lights come on when the machine is trying to cool to 80? If they do, then that is a machine problem and may be solved by calling Hilliard.
We have a little dipper and it's simple but fantastic.
I cannot imagine the machine would distinguish the difference between percentage cacao chocolates.
