Coating nuts in cocoa butter

[tammylc]

In one of the candy bars I'm working on, I found that my nice crunchy toasted almonds got soft by the next day, presumably from moisture migration. I want to try coating them in cocoa butter to help prevent that.

Has anyone done this? Should I do it when the nuts are warm, or after they've cooled to room temperature? Any tips regarding ratio of cocoa butter to nuts, or mixing technique?

Thanks!

[Kerry Beal]

In one of the candy bars I'm working on, I found that my nice crunchy toasted almonds got soft by the next day, presumably from moisture migration. I want to try coating them in cocoa butter to help prevent that.

Has anyone done this? Should I do it when the nuts are warm, or after they've cooled to room temperature? Any tips regarding ratio of cocoa butter to nuts, or mixing technique?

Thanks!

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Not sure about the cocoa butter coating, I suppose I'd coat them warm - tossing lots to coat as thinly as possible, probably with gloved hands. Spraying with the airbrush would probably give the thinnest coat.

The traditional way would be to use a gum arabic solution to coat them.

[tammylc]

Thanks, Kerry. That's basically what I did - tossed them well while warm, then spread out on a silpat to cool.

Now we'll see if it makes a difference.

What can you tell me about gum arabic coating?

[Kerry Beal]

Looking through my notes it says a 50% solution of gum arabic - so 50 grams dissolved in 100 grams of water. You would drizzle and toss I would guess - then dry with your heat gun.

[John DePaula]

So I was just logging on to post a similar question...

I assume that if you add caramelized cocoa nibs to a cream or butter ganache, they'd eventually get soft and mealy. ETA: Is this correct?

Do you think that coating them in cocoa butter or dark chocolate would prevent this?

Thanks.

Edited April 16, 2008 by John DePaula (log)

[tammylc]

I got the idea of coating with cocoa butter from David J, who reports that it's what Wybauw recommends doing with pop rocks before putting them into ganache.

I'll be cutting and dipping my bars tonight. Last time, they'd started going soggy by 24 hours, so I should be able to tell by then if it made any difference at all, and i'll report back.

[John DePaula]

I got the idea of coating with cocoa butter from David J, who reports that it's what Wybauw recommends doing with pop rocks before putting them into ganache.

I'll be cutting and dipping my bars tonight. Last time, they'd started going soggy by 24 hours, so I should be able to tell by then if it made any difference at all, and i'll report back.

←

Thanks, Tammy!

[tammylc]

The nuts were still nice and crunchy last night, so the experiment seems to have been successful. I'll be using them for an event on the weekend, so we'll see how they stand up after a few days.

Edited April 17, 2008 by tammylc (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Wybauw recommends doing with pop rocks before putting them into ganache.

←

Interesting. I must have missed that one. So far I've never had problems with pop rocks not holding up in a ganache but that's probably due to the fact that I'm only using it for desserts, not chocolates, and usually don't need them to hold up for more than 24 hrs. I'm going to have to give that a try though. Thanks!