Single origin pate de cacao (cocoa paste)

[escry]

Valrhona have just introduced four new single origin pate de cacao (aka cocoa paste, unsweetened chocolate, ...):

Araguani (Venezuela);

Manjari (Madagascar);

Tainori (Dominican Republic) NEW;

Alpaco (Ecuador) NEW.

So naturally I have got hold of some samples and am experimenting.

Ganache

Until recently, I had never attempted to make a ganache starting with pate de cacao, but this is where my experimenting has begun. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel entirely I did some extensive searches on google and egullet and was surprised by the lack of comment on this subject.

My fellow chocolate enthusiasts, any and all thoughts and experiences welcome ...

[Desiderio]

No experience, but interested as well .I am wondering if these cocoa paste are available to the public?

And I am wondering if they are suitable to make "cioccolato di modica" wich is a rough chocolate made with the chocolate paste before it gets conchad( Sp ).Or probably they are alreayd refined but no sugar added so that would be interesting to try.I will to try to find something on the matter .Keep us posted.

Thank you

[reenicake]

I have done this with Valrhona's regular pure pate de cacao... actually to be honest I was trying to save some students' mistakes, they had used the wrong chocolate to make spreading ganache. So I did the math for sugar content using the box label of the 64% and added the appropriate amount of granulated sugar.

It worked out okay for truffles, but in hindsight the ganache would have been smoother had I used superfine sugar, or possibly a percentage of trimoline for some of the sugar. Regular granulated sugar was a bit grainy even after running it through a Cuisinart... possibly it could be smoother if run through a commercial Robot coupe. On refrigeration the fat separated out of the unformed ganache but the truffles did not show this.

I am doing some experimenting too, because a lot of the bittersweet chocolate on the market has traces of milk products and I am working on projects for my dairy-allergic son. Would love to see results of your experiments too.

[John DePaula]

I have done this with Valrhona's regular pure pate de cacao... actually to be honest I was trying to save some students' mistakes, they had used the wrong chocolate to make spreading ganache. So I did the math for sugar content using the box label of the 64% and added the appropriate amount of granulated sugar.

It worked out okay for truffles, but in hindsight the ganache would have been smoother had I used superfine sugar, or possibly a percentage of trimoline for some of the sugar. Regular granulated sugar was a bit grainy even after running it through a Cuisinart... possibly it could be smoother if run through a commercial Robot coupe. On refrigeration the fat separated out of the unformed ganache but the truffles did not show this.

I am doing some experimenting too, because a lot of the bittersweet chocolate on the market has traces of milk products and I am working on projects for my dairy-allergic son. Would love to see results of your experiments too.

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I've never tried this myself, but you might try Fondant Sugar which, as I understand it, is pulverized to 100 times smaller than normal powdered sugar grains. Might give a better mouth feel.

[escry]

probably they are alreayd refined but no sugar added

Yes, they arrived in 1kg blocks, just like their existing pate de cacao and their couvertures, ie they have been conched.

On refrigeration the fat separated out of the unformed ganache but the truffles did not show this.

I have made just the one ganache so far. I left this to crystalize on a sheet, and I too noticed that the fat had separated out ever so slightly. Perhaps because of the nature of the product, ie needs extra care; and perhaps because I made such a small sample amount, always tricky.

you might try Fondant Sugar which, as I understand it, is pulverized to 100 times smaller than normal powdered sugar grains. Might give a better mouth feel.

Excellent idea. My first attempt added 20g fructose (sweetness equivalent to 28g sucrose) to 72g araguani pate de fruit, (ie to replicate the sweetness level of Valrhona's Araguani couverture - 72%, though not the same cocoa butter:cocoa solids ratio).

Fructose has greater humectant properties than sucrose, and a much lower glycemic index than glucose, sucrose and invert sugar. My first ganache does not feel grainy, though the taste and texture are still some way off a simple araguani couverture and cream ganache. Perhaps it is the altered proportion of cocoa butter?

More experiments to follow, thank you for your comments.

[Art]

[Deleted since my network connection crashed causing it to be submitted twice.]

-Art

Edited October 15, 2006 by Art (log)

[Art]

I think that there is an easier way to go about this. Take the appropriate amount of sugar to make your ganache meet the sweetness you desire and then disolve that in your hot cream before you add it to your chocolate. In this way, your sugar should be totally disolved and you should not have any grainyness. You This avoids having to deal with trying to make your own fondant / caster / superfine sugar as well.

Since I haven't tried this, your mileage may vary but IMHO it should work. After all if you used regular chocolate, the sugar in your chocolate is going to disolve in your cream anyway.

-Art

[escry]

I think that there is an easier way to go about this. Take the appropriate amount of sugar to make your ganache meet the sweetness you desire and then disolve that in your hot cream before you add it to your chocolate.

Personally I do add my sugar (when I do add sugar) to the cream before boiling, though I know of chocolatiers with recommend adding sugars cold (though in syrup/solution). For me these new pate de cacao present the opportunity to create extra bitter bonbons with respectable shelf-life by using monosaccharides.

Your point does lead to another use of these pate de cacao. The mixing of Valrhona's new single origin pates de cacao with their associate couvertures (rather than with sucrose) and perhaps extra cocoa butter to create single origin chocolates to the sweetness and texture of your choice.