Chocolate: Making your own percentages

[chocofoodie]

Hi all! 

 

I had a question... Could I use 100% chocolate to create a chocolate bar (or chips) with my own desired sugar level? And could I use a different sweetener like for example honey? 

 

Thanks! 

[Lisa Shock]

You could, but not with honey unless you buy a crystallized honey product. Regular honey is about 15% water, which will, of course, cause the chocolate to seize.

[pastrygirl]

I agree with Lisa, honey is a bad idea.  Do you have a way to grind sugar very fine?  Since chocolate is fat-based, there is no liquid to dissolve granulated sugar, so you have to either use something very fine to begin with, or be OK with detectable sugar crystals.  Or conch/grind it until smooth, but that takes special equipment.

[Lisa Shock]

Agreed. A good example of sugar crystals in chocolate is the Mexican chocolate (like Ibarra) which is usually used to make hot chocolate. I have friends who nibble on it, it creeps me out. Overall, this would be a big project. Another, more minor note is that sugar is hygroscopic, so you have to watch the humidity levels in your production facility.

 

Most manufacturers of wholesale chocolate have a variety of products available and some will custom blend -as long as a large enough order is placed.

[Edward J]

I dunno about chocolate siezing when you add honey to it....

 

For about the last two years I have been making honey bon-bons, with a 50/50 mix of honey and couverture.  What I get is a "plastic" type of, well, ganache, you could call it, that doesn't sieze up, but will eventually dry out if if isn't enrobed in chocolate.

 

I also make my own 90% bars that is a blend of, you guessed it, 100% cocoa mass and 70% couveture. No reasn you couldn't do a 82 3/8%  or a 91 5/16 % blend.     Been doing it for about 3 years now, tempering is no problem, molding and storage are no problem.  You might have to add some cocoa butter to thin it out a bit if you want to mold, but a lot depends on the fluidity of your "mixing couverture", although the cocoa mass is pretty darn thick, even at 45 C.....

[Lisa Shock]

Oh! I just remembered modelling chocolate. Your 50/50 mix is like modelling chocolate, with honey instead of corn syrup. -I learned to make modelling chocolate by cold mixing tempered chunks of chocolate with corn syrup in a RobotCoupe, but, I see recipes online where the ingredients are heated like ganache making.

 

I still do not think that the OP would get a 'snappy' chocolate bar by mixing 100% cocoa mass with even a small % of honey.

[Edward J]

Naw, you couldn't get a firm, "snappy" chocolate by adding honey to cocoa mass.  Don't know if dehydrated honey exists, (dehydrated corn syrup exists, and is used by the "big boys")  but that might work 

 

The option I did want to suggest was blending your own.  And while I do not use malitol sweetened chocolate, I see no reason why you couldn't blend this with cocoa mass for your own 90% or whatever that isn't sweetened with sugar.  Come to think of it there are chocolates in supermarkets that are sweetened with other natural sugar alternatives that could easily be blended with cocoa mass.

[chocofoodie]

Wow you are all so knowledgeable! I don't even know where to begin to wrap my head around the things you're saying lol... I need to google before I can post back! 

[pastrygirl]

Edward, I bet your 50/50 honey/couverture mix works because there is enough liquid in that much honey.  As you know, chocolate seizing is about the proportion of water, so adding a smaller proportion of honey like 70/30 might not provide enough liquid and cause issues.  As you said, its more of a ganache, not solid chocolate.

[Kerry Beal]

Naw, you couldn't get a firm, "snappy" chocolate by adding honey to cocoa mass.  Don't know if dehydrated honey exists, (dehydrated corn syrup exists, and is used by the "big boys")  but that might work 

 

The option I did want to suggest was blending your own.  And while I do not use malitol sweetened chocolate, I see no reason why you couldn't blend this with cocoa mass for your own 90% or whatever that isn't sweetened with sugar.  Come to think of it there are chocolates in supermarkets that are sweetened with other natural sugar alternatives that could easily be blended with cocoa mass.

Dehydrated honey does exist - Tate and Lyle, Domino Specialty Ingredients both make it. I've had samples to play with - again hygroscopic but better than liquid honey when added to chocolate.

[tikidoc]

Dehydrated honey does exist - Tate and Lyle, Domino Specialty Ingredients both make it. I've had samples to play with - again hygroscopic but better than liquid honey when added to chocolate.

 

I have also seen it at some Indian groceries. I keep it in my office for tea since it's less messy.