vegan milk and white chocolate
Posted in:
Opinion
Hi all - I was going to make a new thread on this but decided to revive this one instead...seems to make more sense.
I am a relatively new chocolatier in the UK - I make my own chocolate (for bars and some of the molded chocs) and I've just started doing a vegan filled chocolate line. I have to say I'm apalled at the quality (or lack thereof) of vegan chocolates....just wow. I found an acceptable vegan milk chocolate made by Plamil foods in the UK; but the white chocolate was awful. They make it with rice powder and rice syrup in place of teh dairy. It is a nightmare to work with...it forms a crust in the bowl when melting (on the bottom of the bowl and no matter how careful I am with temperature) and sets up slightly sticky. Nice...not.
So I made my own using cocoa butter, sugar (from beets) and coconut milk powder. It does have a coconut flavour but it's not overpowering at all and the chocolate tempers beautifully...had great success moulding shells with it.
The key thing i've found is that most recipes for vegan chocolate do not include a proper grinder like the santha or (in my case) premier tabletop grinder. It is absolutely essential to grind it o get the proper consistency and avoid the graininess. I grind it for about 20 hours - works like a charm.
Anyway....figured I'd share in case anyone else read this and wanted to have a go 