As with all art forms, making chocolate requires as much imagination as it does science.
It’s impossible to draw stunning scenarios without understanding the basic rules of proportions. But you’ll never be able to achieve your dream job without the proper amount of creativity, vision, and creativity.
How do chocolate makers craft and make chocolate last?
While it’s stuffed with rigors derived from science, from the roasting temperature to tempering chemistry, the bean-to-bar method still includes complicated steps that are difficult to explain and comprehend. They can be interpreted and are influenced by personal experiences and practices that can be construed as legends that are passed between professionals with not no scientific proof to back the claims.
Chocolate that is aging (which is really just waiting until something changes in chocolate) is a component of what is mysterious about it.
Some bean-to-bar producers would like to make their chocolate age with other ingredients to add flavor and nuances, ranging from putting the finished chocolate in barrels of spirit or soaking cacao nibs for weeks in special teas. Though it is a wonderful way of giving chocolate more complexity, in the present, we’re not discussing such cases. What we’re talking about is chocolate that is left to deteriorate by itself with the expectation that its flavor profile will develop over time.
Craft chocolate makers are utterly dispersed on this issue. There’s no middle ground between one of two options: either time gives the chocolate the perfect taste, stable, and intricate taste, or you view the aging process as a foolish, unnecessary waste. But the argument doesn’t end there! Certain experts consider that the chocolate you consume should be as fresh as it is possible, and what you experience is its most authentic flavor. Some believe that chocolate needs to be seasoned at some point to give it the best aroma flavor.
AGING CACAO BEANS
Aging cacao beans aren’t particularly well-liked by chocolate makers who make craft chocolate.
The primary reason to prefer to hold off on using cacao beans freshly delivered is if you had a “bad batch” and need to eliminate (or at the very least, tone down) undesirable flavors. This can happen when the cacao beans aren’t of excellent quality, particularly in the case of being underfermented.
Craft chocolate makers carefully pick their suppliers, and it’s unlikely that they’ll receive a poor lot of cacao beans. The process of aging cacao beans can be a method that is more prevalent among larger manufacturers who buy less-quality cacao beans and have to eliminate some undesirable volatiles. If they did get the right amount of beans, as they would have expected, producers of high-end chocolate won’t let them age deliberately (unless they’re planning to do some interesting tests).
The sole reason the cacao beans are left at the back of the storeroom is waiting for their turn to be turned into chocolate, given that the majority of chocolate makers process only one cacao source at a time (with the rare occasion of mixing). It’s important to note that the longer cacao beans remain in the facility, the more prone they are to mold, contamination, and the loss of intriguing aromatic compounds.
If cacao beans have been grown in good condition, there’s usually no reason for chocolate craft makers to make them ripe.
AGING UNTEMPERED CHOCOLATE
If chocolate makers choose to alter their chocolate at this point, that is what they’re going to do.
Fresh chocolate that has come out of the melangeur or conching machine is formed into huge blocks of a few pounds each, then wrapped in plastic and kept in a dry, cool area before the process is able to continue. There are images of chocolatiers showing huge blocks of chocolate that are untempered and stacked on the shelves of their kitchens, left to sit for a period ranging from several weeks up to up to six months before they are ready to be tempered and then molded into bars. The effects of aging untempered chocolate are thought to
When a chocolatier isn’t able to eliminate production methods and equipment that remove undesirable flavorings and volatiles, it might be a good idea to take time to rid itself of these. While waiting, the cacao’s natural aromas continue to develop and meld together to create a more flavorful and fuller profile.
Although untempered chocolate that has aged makes an impression on paper, a few doubters argue that all of the effort made during this phase will be lost after the chocolate has been melted again and tempered.
AGING TEMPERED CHOCOLATE
Other craft makers believe in aging chocolate.
They would then temper the chocolate, form it into big blocks, store it, and then use it once it was time to create bars. The reason they’d choose to do this isn’t to remove unpleasant flavors (it could be already too late). However, they would do it to:
Secure the finest flavors
Through tempering, the cocoa butter in the chocolate is able to attain the desirable crystal structure. However, after the molding process, most of the cocoa butter contained in the chocolate remains liquid. The chocolate appears solid and solid, but the cocoa butter inside is continuing to crystallize. It is best to wait a few weeks before molding the chocolate to its final form, which gives the flavors time to become encased in the chocolate’s cocoa butter melts.
The main criticism of this technique is that it “won’t do much.” Tempered chocolate is more than porous as well as “tighter” than untempered chocolate, which means that there are fewer chances that internal modifications will occur. Furthermore, the chocolate can be tempered in any manner by resetting the clock, negating the efforts when it comes to untempered chocolate.
