Since the strange cocoa beans hit the European continent, confectioners have no peace.
All new and new refined sweets they invent from products derived from exotic fruits of chocolate trees.
Sweet teeth, too, does not sit still.
Each of them at least once was lucky enough to make a delicacy at home, using both specially purchased ingredients and various trifles from home stocks: nuts or vanilla, raisins or dried fruits.
The inventors of the new antidepressant forms (namely, chocolate is them) do not stop at what they have achieved, improving their culinary skills, inventing fresh sweet combinations and configurations. But for a start, a beginner in the home chocolate industry would do well to familiarize yourself with the basic recipes and general principles for making real chocolate at home.
Chocolate at home - general cooking principles:
• Do not save on products! The main ingredients of chocolate are cocoa powder, butter, sugar or honey, as well as nuts and raisins. By purchasing a few less ingredients, you risk getting a delicacy of inadequate quality and taste.
• When making chocolate at home, remember that the normal temperature when making quality chocolate is not too high: no higher than 32 degrees Celsius. It is easy to check manually: touch the mixture with your hand - and if it does not burn the skin, your chocolate is not yet ruined.
• Experts say that the mixture should not be put on open fire, although some recipes point to just this method. But better use a double boiler or a water bath.
• Do not start cooking chocolate from an industrial scale. Start with a small serving. If the taste and quality suit you, then you can make a larger portion of delicacy.
• To make the filling “inside” of your candies, add it alternately with chocolate.
Stuffing for making delicious chocolate at home:
Homemade chocolate filling can be any sweetness you like. Some sweet teeth are prettier than nuts (peanuts, walnuts, hazelnuts) and dried fruits (raisins, dried apricots, prunes), others are citrus peel, and the third is cracker or wafer crumbs. The filling is crushed and added to the hot mixture, then stirred and poured into forms.
Recipes to help you make delicious chocolate at home
Classic Chocolate: Nothing Extra
Do not even try to prepare an exact copy of the store tiles, if not stocked with cocoa butter. It is this rare ingredient that allows sweets to keep their shape. But if your hunt for rarities still crowned with success, you will get a delicious delicacy. This recipe is for lucky hunters.
Ingredients:
• cocoa liquor - 200 grams;
• cocoa butter - 40-50 grams;
• sugar or powdered sugar - 100 grams;
• butter - 20 grams.
In a water bath or in a double boiler, it is necessary to melt both types of butter (cocoa and butter), then add grated cocoa, sugar (powder) to the mixture and stir until the composition becomes homogeneous. Then cool the contents of the bowl, pour into prepared molds and place in the refrigerator.
Vanilla chocolate “Exquisite” with nuts and dried fruits
If you opt for vanilla chocolate, then you will need the following products:
• cocoa powder - 4 tbsp. l;
• milk - 100 ml;
• butter - 125 grams;
• sugar or powdered sugar - 1 cup;
• vanillin - half tsp;
• walnuts, raisins and dried fruits.
Milk should be poured into the container, then put on a slow fire and reheated. Add vanillin and sugar to the heated milk, without removing the bowl from the heat and constantly mixing the mixture. Then you need to make a separate water bath, melt the butter in it and pour the already melted butter into a container of milk and sugar. Cocoa powder is added there after mixing the previous ingredients. Then the container is simmered for about 25 minutes. Selected as a filling, dried fruits or nuts are added immediately before pouring the chocolate into forms. A few hours in the refrigerator, and your delicacy is ready.
Chocolate coffee “for true gourmets”
Ingredients:
• cocoa powder - 50 grams;
• powdered milk - 250 grams;
• sugar - 500 grams;
• butter - 250 grams;
• brewed ground coffee - 1 tsp;
• dried fruits, nuts, lemon zest, vanilla (to taste).
Prior to the start of the main process, the main “flavor” should be made - coffee. Of course, the dosage depends only on your taste, but in the basic recipe the following actions are assumed: 3/4 cup of water for one spoon of coffee. When the coffee is boiling, you need to add zest or vanilla and continue to boil for 4-5 minutes over low heat. Then drain the liquid removed from the stove from the coffee cake and put the container back on fire. When the coffee starts to “rise”, add cocoa and sugar to the mix, and then boil for another five minutes.
Now it is the turn of powdered milk - it should be added here, mix well, turn off the heat and dissolve the butter, previously cut into pieces, in the resulting chocolate. Stuffing - nuts, candied fruits, raisins, dried apricots or prunes - are added to an almost gothic delicacy at your discretion just before spilling on the tins.
Milk Chocolate “Gentle”
For those who during the advertising of milk chocolate are drooling, craftsmen also recommend a simple homemade recipe.
Ingredients:
• cocoa powder 4 tbsp. l;
• butter - 50 grams;
• sugar - 1 tsp;
• milk - 100 grams.
In a suitable bowl, you first need to pour the milk and heat it, put it on medium heat. Next, pour sugar and cocoa powder into the same place. Meanwhile, the oil is melted in a separate container in a water bath, and then poured into a bowl with the main mixture, which, after adding the oil, should be brought to a boil. After the fire should be reduced and cook the chocolate for another 2-3 minutes.
The prepared composition is then poured into forms and put in the refrigerator.
Chocolate “a bit of everything”
Cooks who have tried the following recipe claim that the taste of this product is not much different from store tiles. But in its composition - the available ingredients, for which the zealous hostess and the store do not need to run - they will always be in the kitchen cabinet and refrigerator. Ingredients:
• cocoa powder 150 grams;
• butter - 70 grams;
• sugar or powdered sugar - 100 grams;
• milk - 5 tbsp. l .;
• flour - 1.5-2 tsp.
Milk should be heated over low heat, gradually pouring sugar (or caster sugar) and cocoa into it. Separately, in a water bath, you need to melt the oil, and then pour it into the milk mixture and mix. Continuing to stir, you need to bring the mass to a boil, and then turn off the heat.
Flour for chocolate is first sifted through a fine sieve, added to the mixture and thoroughly mixed - so that no lumps remain, as if you were preparing a pancake dough. Now you need to turn on the fire again and hold the mixture on it for about 2 minutes - until boiling.
As a result, the mixture will resemble sour cream in density. A little cooled chocolate should be poured into molds, oiled, and then - put in the freezer for hardening. After 3-4 hours the treat will be ready.
Bitter chocolate “Elementary, Watson!”
This recipe does not provide any tricks or an abundance of components.
Ingredients:
• cocoa powder - 100 grams;
• butter - about 50 grams;
• granulated sugar - 1 tsp.
As it can be easily understood from the list of ingredients, there will be the most cocoa powder in this chocolate. Because chocolate will turn bitter or bitter. More experienced confectioners will change the ratio of sugar and cocoa. But one detail should be taken into account: it is on the basis of these proportions that more complex chocolate desserts are prepared.
The process itself is very simple: the butter cut into pieces must be melted in a water bath, then add a mixture of cocoa and sugar. The result is a mass with a consistency of thick cream. The composition is required to bring to a boil, and then cook for approximately 2 minutes, stirring evenly. Then everything is the same as in other recipes: chocolate should be somewhat cooled, poured into molds and put in the refrigerator or freezer.
Homemade Honey Chocolate
The simple process of making real honey chocolate is fully compensated by the rarity of the two main ingredients and the long wait for the final product to be ready. Ingredients:
• cocoa liquor - 400 grams;
• cocoa butter - 200 grams;
• liquid honey - 100 ml.
In a water bath, as it should be in cases with the “right” chocolate, you need to melt the cocoa butter, then pour the cocoa juice in small portions and pour in the honey. Heat the mixture to a temperature of about 40 degrees (not higher, because in this case the properties of honey deteriorate), and then pour it into forms. To be ready, honey chocolate should “stand” at room temperature from 8 to 12 hours, until it completely hardens.
What you need to know when making real chocolate at home - secrets, tricks, and helpful tips
• The more cocoa is added, the more bitter it will be. But the hardness of the treat also depends on the amount of cocoa!
• If the chocolate, made with flour, does not freeze in the freezer, next time add more flour.
• If instead of white sugar you make chocolate with brown cane, the delicacy will become much more useful. Cane sugar contains valuable minerals, and it also makes chocolate tastier.
• Chocolate cooled in the freezer will be harder, in the refrigerator it will be softer.
• The milk provided by the recipe can be replaced with water, although some experienced confectioners do not recommend this.
• Chocolate is easier to remove from silicone molds.
