Homemade Artisan Bean to Bar Chocolate Making process 

Thanks Val. I tried to keep it as short as possible. Hard to do. Glad you enjoyed.

Sir where do u work

Totally unnecessary and more work than tempering by hand.

Thanks a lot Hiramya. Glad you enjoyed.

Thanks for the support Kristoffer. Let me know if you ever need any help in your attempts.

That is called us "Grinder" you can get one from India in where it is super cheap.

Thanks Janet. Glad you enjoyed.

No problem. :-)

Victoria, Thanks for the note. You don't need the juicer. And frankly you can have edible chocolate in about 6 hours in the melanger. It might be slightly gritty but still delicious. I am a little fanatical. After one day in the melanger you will have smooth chocolate. I go 3 days because I believe the difference in chocolate produced after 3 days is worth the increased value versus the cost of the electricity. And for the record I do enjoy Hershey chocolate, which is gritty and cheap. However, my motivation in producing my own chocolate is because I am convinced when I am done that the chocolate produced is of the highest standard humanly possible. I don't believe there is a better chocolate out there and I put a very high premium on my finished product. So long story short.....although I am wasting electricity I more than make up for it in the value of the end result. My chocolate is heavenly smooth when properly tempered is unmatched by any I've ever tried.

I'm also going to make another video at some point about what I consider the hallmarks of fine chocolate. In my opinion there are a lot of "artisan" chocolatiers out there commercially that produce garbage.

Aight then thank you.

Thanks for the praise Aruna. :-) Glad you enjoyed.

It isn’t more precise. No professionals use that method. Table method is so much easier and faster once you grasp the technique.

Thanks partner.

Thanks Marilyn.....I put a recent video out there addressing recipes. Check it out. Coconut oil sounds like it might work as a trace complement to chocolate but I wouldn't recommend trying to completely replace cocoa butter. It is the magical stuff with the right properties to allow tempering and hard state of cooled chocolate. Cocoa butter is also better matched to body temperature to melt in the mouth. So I am not opposed to trying something new but what you are talking is not actually chocolate. It will be a cocoa flavored fatty substance that is entirely new and may or may not be desirable on it's own merit.

I hear you Andrew..thank you.

Hayden bar is about 50-65% cocoa nibs based on my recipes. But the chocolate we all grew up on (you know the one) is only about 20%.

Ericka...thanks for the feedback. Online store hopefully in a couple of years. In Connecticut you can't sell chocolate made at home, you have to prepare it in a commercial kitchen so we are looking into it. More videos soon. :-) This is sooo much fun.

Thanks for the reply, I’ll keep watching your videos and hope you one day get a Commercial Kitchen so you can sell the chocolates online.... Best of luck ;-)

Sorry Guillermo. No blue prints. I built it up over time. See my videos though on winnowing to get some ideas and guidance.

Wow amazing man.... I always got the impression that time was a factor. Are you equally successful tempering if you do this same exact process over varying lengths of time? For example, do the results differ if the temp journey takes 4 hours versus 1?

Hi Lauren. Thanks for your praise. Lately I have been putting my nibs directly into the melanger to grind them up rather than using the champion juicer. If my recipe includes cocoa butter, I will melt my cocoa butter in a double broiler (just a steel bowl over a pot of simmering water) and put the melted cocoa butter into my melanger that I've warmed gently with a hot air gun or warm oven. This melted cocoa butter put in first helps provide some instant liquidity to the warm nibs that I eventually add. Without the added cocoa butter, the nibs will still break down to liquor but it just takes a while longer because the nibs take awhile to release cocoa butter. My way, I start with a more liquid mix and it mixes faster in the melanger as I add my nibs. Be careful if you use a double broiler to wipe bottom of bowl with a towel....any drops of water in your chocolate will seize and ruin it. I bought 50lbs of food grade cocoa butter from www.bulkapothecary.com. Make sure it is food grade and safe to eat.

Emily, I've been getting a lot of questions about the recipes and percentages. I will make a video shortly and get that up there shortly. Give that a chance to address your concerns and if that doesn't do the trick we will talk. Cool?

Jorge, Unfortunately you will never have smooth chocolate without a melanger. Some people are okay with gritty chocolate and argue it is more rustic and authentic, although I am not a fan. To make this chocolate you just need to coarsely grind the beans. This could be accomplished with a champion juicer, colloid mill, mortar and pestle, or various types of coffee grinders. The key here is you would have to at a minimum grind the beans until they release the cocoa butter. You will know this happens when the ground beans enter into a liquid state. Andrew

Caston coincidentally I am in the finishing steps of making a video detailing my winnowing design. Check back in a day or two and it will be up. In the video I will go over the critical components and design theory and then you can either copy my design or make your own. Stay tuned and reach out if you want measurements and I'll have no problem giving them to you. Thanks.

Well thats great news! And I will

www.chocolatealchemy.com ..... just curious ....did you watch my video? I talk about this in first 20 seconds of my video...lol. I'm not mad at cha. :-)

Sami, Thanks for your praise. Liquor from beans = about 70% bean weight. 1kg beans will yield .7kg of liquor. This is a rough estimate....because beans vary in husk weight, moisture given off in roast, your winnowing efficiency, etc. Sami you can pretty much use any sweetener you want....but NEVER add moisture or water to chocolate. A single drop of water can ruin a batch of chocolate. Any moisture whatsoever will seize up a batch of chocolate. This is a very serious warning. I've learned this the hard way. Once I wasn't careful using a double broiler and a single drop of water dripped from the underside of my bowl into my chocolate. I had to throw the whole batch out. You would have to completely dehydrate honey if you wanted to use this. Exception to this water rule is heavy cream but then you no longer have chocolate....you'll have ganache that never sets hard into real chocolate.

Sami, This is the reason chocolate last sooooo long at room temperature. There is no moisture in the chocolate for any bacteria to grow. Andrew

thank you for your detailled response , technical details are welcom and by the way , one guy did actually try chocolate with honey , link of his experience below if you are curious to see his result , chocolatealchemy.com/blog/2017/8/17/ask-the-alchemist-216 Have a nice day

Sasha, For smaller batches I just throw the nibs in a warm stone wet grinder/melanger. This method works especially well if you are also using additional cocoa butter. In this instance I would melt the cocoa butter in a double broiler and then warm up the first portion of nibs right in the cocoa butter in the double broiler. This would be a good place to start by adding this warm mixture to the melanger and then slowly over time adding more nibs every 15 minutes or so until all the nibs are in. I just don't like this method if I am doing a large quantity of chocolate. When I am processing a lot of beans I like to take the load of crushing off my melanger and use the champion. If I ever start my business I will be using a colloid mill.....google it. Those are pretty amazing but run about a thousand dollars. Andrew

Thanks partner. Glad you liked.

The only semi-liquid substance that should ever be in chocolate is cocoa butter. Which, unfortunately for you means chocolate will always be solid at room temperature. What you are interested in is Ganache. Ganache is simply melted chocolate with heavy cream whisked into it. Heavy cream is the only fluid that mixes well with melted chocolate. You will no longer have chocolate though....you will have ganache. The more heavy cream you use the more fluid your ganache will be when it cools. Experiment and you will have a chocolate spread that is the consistency you seek. Good luck. Andrew

If you grind in different types of nuts, they have oils of lower melting point. This will give you a nut-chocolate spread that won't harden at room temperature. I've tried this with excellent results with almonds, coconut, and hazelnuts. Coconut chocolate will stay hard at a cool room temperature or in the fridge but melt at warm room temp. Awesome stuff. You can put these right in at the grinding process if you want it all to be a spread. You could also just add vegetable oil to the chocolate to keep it liquid at room temperature. That's how they make the shell chocolate that you dip ice cream in.

@@telejeff Thanks a lot, when i grind the nibs they tend to give a strong smell and flavor to my spread, I heard that adding sugar early on affects the chocolate taste, if this is true, when do you add sugar (after one day) ? and also do you grind nibs first then add hazelnut or do you start first with hazelnut and then grind the nibs ? thanks

@@saadamiens Good question, I haven't experimented with the timing of adding sugar and nuts. I have heard that the grinding of nibs and sugar together does change the flavor, it's a process called conching, and in professional applications it can take a very long time. I just mix stuff together and eat it and it tastes good enough for me!

Hey partner I was a little hesitant to post my recipes because honestly they change subtly quite frequently. I will say that currently I use cocoa liquor (which is just ground up cocoa nibs), cocoa butter, sugar, clarified butter, whole milk powder, heavy cream powder, salt(I know is this odd but a very slight amount), and sunflower lecithin. 8 Ingredients. And you can look at my chart midway through the video to get a rough idea of percentages for my recipes. A spreadsheet is really necessary.....I always aim to have a total cocoa butter percentage of 35% and a total fat content somewhere in the mid 40% range. You can simplify things by starting without lecithin, clarified butter, heavy cream powder and salt. This leaves cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and milk. To further simplify things you will be mixing a ratio of a dry ingredient mixture of sugar and milk (roughly half and half but varies to taste) and a melted cocoa mixture of nibs and cocoa butter. Honestly, I wish we could just use cocoa nibs and the dry mixture (of roughly half milk powder and cocoa butter) all the time but you will find that when you start making milk chocolate there will not be enough cocoa butter to make the mixture fluid. Thus the necessary addition of rather flavorless cocoa butter (it really has a neutral bland flavor) and I only add enough as necessary to get me to 35 % cocoa butter in my batch.

Andrew Frongello brother if you don't mind to give me your email i will ask some questions in email its quite personal regarding chocolate only ...

Shoaib.....I put my graphic up there as a rough guideline. I hope you understand I don't want people necessarily "copying" my recipe....I'd rather they use it as a guide and discover their personal blend which will be most likely just as good but different. I will be putting a video together about crafting a recipe to give you guys more guidance. Stay tuned....give that a chance and if that doesnt' work for you send me an email and we can discuss further. Andrew@Frongello.com

www.chocolat-chocolat.com/home/

@@frongello tks ;)

Order a wet grinder on amazon.

Sebastian you can email me anytime at andrew@frongello.com. I'm not selling bars currently...but that's changing shortly. Stay tuned. Thanks for the comment.

Andrew Frongello thanks! I will msg you.

Another question what's the output (chocolate) in lbs for 1lb of cocoa beans ?

Hey partner I was a little hesitant to post my recipes because honestly they change subtly quite frequently. I will say that currently I use cocoa liquor (which is just ground up cocoa nibs), cocoa butter, sugar, clarified butter, whole milk powder, heavy cream powder, salt(I know is this odd but a very slight amount), and sunflower lecithin. 8 Ingredients. And you can look at my chart midway through the video to get a rough idea of percentages for my recipes. A spreadsheet is really necessary.....I always aim to have a total cocoa butter percentage of 35% and a total fat content somewhere in the mid 40% range. You can simplify things by starting without lecithin, clarified butter, heavy cream powder and salt. This leaves cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and milk. To further simplify things you will be mixing a ratio of a dry ingredient mixture of sugar and milk (roughly half and half but varies to taste) and a melted cocoa mixture of nibs and cocoa butter. Honestly, I wish we could just use cocoa nibs and the dry mixture (of roughly half milk powder and cocoa butter) all the time but you will find that when you start making milk chocolate there will not be enough cocoa butter to make the mixture fluid. Thus the necessary addition of rather flavorless cocoa butter (it really has a neutral bland flavor) and I only add enough as necessary to get me to 35 % cocoa butter in my batch.

Thanks a lot for your detailed response, really appreciate it

I started making bars with liquor my cousin sent me from Ecuador. Your process and temperatures helped me to nail it on the first try. Thank you! 🙏🏼

Sunny....this is basically a simplified presentation of my recipes. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Jy6Q_UIETrg.html I also put a trace percent (not more than 2% each) of clarified butter, salt, lecithin, and heavy cream powder.

Thanks Andrew. I did watch that video. I am very new to this. I became interested in trying to make my own chocolate after I had bought a bag of cacao nibs during a chocolate tour in Costa Rica. It's been a steep learning curve.

Don't give up. I came very close to giving up and sooooo glad I stuck with it. Use me as a resource for any troubles you have. My pleasure. Andrew@frongello.com

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Jy6Q_UIETrg.html

Thomas, I hope you understand.....I gave the charts so that those interested can get a rough idea of the proportions. I do want to keep my recipes somewhat of a secret. I will say that the most fun I've had with chocolate is coming up with my own recipes. This is a step I really wouldn't want to discourage anyone from. I can give you some pointers. 1) Start with Cocoa beans and sugar. You want always at least 35% cocoa butter in your recipe.....and considering beans are half cocoa butter....this means 70% by weight beans and 30% by weight sugar. 2)To make a milk chocolate you will want to reduce the cocoa beans and incorporate enough cocoa butter to get you back up to 35% cocoa butter. You will need a spreadsheet. The remaining % weight will be a dehydrated milk /sugar blend. 3) The sugar milk blend should be roughly half and half. But to your taste you can make this more sugar or more milk. You pick the right balance of creaminess to sweetness. 4)Later on you can add some lecithin, salt, vanilla in small percentages. I add a little clarified butter and dehydrated heavy cream powder. I aim to have my total fat over 40%. There you have it. Three ratios to play with 1)the Cocoa bean/cocoa butter blend , 2)the sugar milk blend and 3)The ratio of 1 to 2. Aiming to have total cocoa butter over 35% by weight. From these rules you can come up with infinitely many and acceptable recipes. If you want to send me your recipe....I can verify for you whether it will work or not. Andrew Andrew@frongello.com

Hi Andrew, I understand your thought. And I am very thankful about your starting-up-first-step-tips. I will calculate my recipe and try to get the right mix for my needs. I am very impressed, that you took your time for the Infos. Thank you very much. Thomas

Ben, My room temp is usually somewhere between 70-73. Do not put molds in the fridge. It is too cold and will invite condensation. I've never used a fridge. Yes your choc liquor should be smooth and ground in a melanger...this releases the cocoa butter. Your problem is most likely in tempering. Can you please give me more details on your tempering process and temperatures? WIth this info I can identify your problem.

Hi Andrew, thanks for the response. We grind in melanguer for about 12 hours. It's not liquidy. We temper up 45oC then down 28oC and then up to 31oC using bowl baths. Cold bath around 20oC and hot bath around 40-45oC. We try to stir. Room temperature is around 27oC without AC. I live in East Timor. We added 11g of margarine and that basically stopped the bloom. Choc is still fairly hard. Can we use cow butter?

Do not use anything that has moisture in it. Water in small amounts will kill chocolate. Margarine? Yuck...lol. No comment. Gross. Butter is an emulsion of water and fat and sugars. You can use butter but you must clarify it which means to separate the fats from the water. I love my method best. See video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OhOB_c-5zKw.html

Hi Andrew. Yes. Wasn't really wanting to use it but it did cut out the bloom. Can we use Ghee (clarified butter) ? Also when you add clarified butter does this help harden the chocolate? Im trying to figure out what to add to help make it stronger. After you make the clarified butter, does it solidfy over time? How to store it? Thanks Andrew.

Hi Andrew. We're phasing out margarine for clarified butter (ghee). What % of butter should we add in? Also i want to add vanilla extract to this chocolate. How much would you recommend? We're trying a 63% cocoa beans mix. Sugar is the rest with a bit of vanilla and ghee. But probably only add a small amount of those things. Also why add soy lecithin in chocolate?

www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=wet+grinder Good luck

Chocolate has almost no moisture....a requirement for bacteria to grow. I easily think my chocolate would last a year or more but I've never had any avoid getting eaten that long....lol. I've eaten some 8 months old and it was fine. Interestingly I really think chocolate that has sat for 2 months after molding is ideal. At that point the rare type 6 crystals have formed and chocolate is extra firm.

perfect, I hope I will be able to make my own chocolate like you, regarding tempering, is that necessarry to do it on a marble plan, if I can set my fridge at the right themperature, would that work too ? thanks

There are three critical elements I've found to tempering : Temperature, time and mixing. Just using your fridge will not work. Here are the critical tempering steps 1)Heating - Chocolate has to be melted to at least something a little over 100 degrees. This will destroy all crystal types and give you a blank slate. 2)Cooling - You have to cool some portion or all of the chocolate to about 80 degrees while stirring. This will create the best chocolate crystals aggressively (Called type 5 crystals). You'll notice you are successfull because the chocolate will start to thicken. These are the type 5 crystals in action. 3)Seeding - You have to add this Type 5 rich chocolate back to the melted chocolate. But you have to be careful here. if your melted chocolate is sooooo hot that the average seed chocolate / melted chocolate temperature is still above 93 degrees....all the type 5 crystals will be killed off. Typically you will just remarble the chocolate and seed again and remix to melted chocolate until the temperature of the total mixture is well below 93. For example, my milk chocolate I will melt to 115 degrees. Then I will cool portions of it on the marble to 80 degrees. I will mix this cooler seed chocolate back into my melted chocolate and measure the temperature of this mix. Let's say the temperature is now an average of the two temps ...roughly 97 degrees. I've cooled the chocolate but also killed off all the good type 5 crystals. Then, I repeat the process and table roughly half the chocolate to 80 degrees. Now the average temperature when mixed back in will be about 88 degrees. This is good but I will typically go one more time and get the overall mixture to about 84 degrees. 4)Reheating - So our mix will have some type 5 crystals growing aggressively but also will have some Type 4 crystals. We carefullly heat to 90 degrees to kill off the type 4 crystals but keep the type 5 crystals healthy. Very important not to go over 90 degrees....if you do you might not have bloom but you will certainly get some dusting. Keep it to 88 or 89 degrees if you can. Chocolate will be thick but fluid. To answer your question ... you don't need marble but you do need these steps. The last batch I did I skipped the marble but took the bowl of melted chocolate and put into a ice water bath (be very careful...a drop of water will kill an entire batch of chocolate). I stirred by chocolate constantly until the whole bowl of chocolate approached 82-84 degrees (I'm sure the chocolate on the outside of the bowl cooled first and was successfully seeded to 80). Chocolate was noticably thick. Then I reheated over a pot of simmering water until I got to 89. I had a perfect temper but was a lot of work. Not a lot of equipment but required a lot of stirring.

Dino, We can chat anytime. Andrew@frongello.com Andrew