Coffee beans in chocolate

[Chmekas]

Dears,

I would like to ask if somebody had some sort of experience in covering coffee beans with chocolate?

I got this order by the important client that I have and it got me thinking.

I have experience with nut dragee.. but coffee?

Do you cover them in chocolate and thats it? Or maybe it is wise to pre-cover them with something.. butter, cocoa butter? Dark or milk choc? Or maybe some good spices

to mix in as well?

I use decobassina.

Greetings,

Domantas

[Edward J]

Yup, do it with coffee beans and whole nuts.

First you have to "seal" your centers. Coffee and nuts contain oil, which will migrate and cause fat bloom. I use gum arabic solution, but you can also use carmelized sugar.

You also need a panning device, basically a rotating drum. There are smaller versions that use a KitchenAid mixer as the power source which work quite well.

Hope this helps

[Chmekas]

thanks for the input.

when you say do it with coffee and nuts you mean combining them in some way? Or mixing?

How would you apply the caramelized sugar or gum arabic onto the beans if the beans are pre-roasted. Heat the "sealing" material separately and then apply onto the cold spinning beans? I mean if you heat the spinning drum of the panning machine the beans would be double roasted (which is what I want to avoid).

D.

[Edward J]

No, the size difference between the two is quite a bit.

Gum arabic comes in powder form, is soluable in water and is added to the roasted beans in the panning drum when rotating. This is done cold. Nuts can be caramelized with the addition of butter in a cooking pot, then separated when cold and further processed.

Hope this helps

[mostlylana]

I'm wondering if it is imperitive that nuts are 'sealed' before panning? I make nut bark and do not process the nuts in any way other than roasting. I've held bark for months with no signs of blooming. Do you think there is a difference between nuts in bark and panned nuts? Can you expand on how to use the gum arabic Edward? - I've never used it. ie. amount in water? amount to use per ?? grams of nuts? I would prefer this to the additional sugar of caramelizing. Thanks!

[Baylee Chocolate Lady]

I have the KitchenAide attachment, but it pans very small amounts at a time. I use it to pan coffee beans to use as a decoration for a truffle. I believe that you should have some sort of barrier between the bean and the chocolate, some sort of starch or gum arabic. I use a 50/50 mix of corn starch and confectioners sugar, then untempered chocolate, then cocoa powder. The client likes them; I'm happy.

[Edward J]

Fat migration. All nuts contain oils, and with time the oil will migrate to the outside of the confection--past the chocolate shell. This happens mainly with dark chocolate, for some reason the milk powder in milk and white chocolates prevent or slow down the oil migration.

Gum arabic is available in "tears" or the natural droplet form (basically dried plant sap) or in ground form. It is graded by colour, with the lightest colours being the most expensive. It's usually mixed 50/50 with water, and allowed to stand and dissolve overnight.

I usualy give 1 kg (2 lbs) hazelnuts about 1 tsp of this, and while still wet, a handfull of cocoa powder while rotating in the panning drum. This also helps the chocolate to stick better. Afer that, succesive applications of untempered couverture.

I haven't found a good glaze for panned items. I was using a recipie of gum arabic and corn syrup, but this only works with couvertures lower than 45% cocoa butter--and it is not perfect. Maybe CHefRubber has some stuff, I'll have to check

[mostlylana]

Thanks for the info Edward. 1 tsp. isn't much. And it sounds like you do this right in the panning attachment...

Would cocoa butter also work as a sealer? If I recall, it does.