Inclusioncraft nitty-gritty, part one
the basics for (anything but basic!) bars, creating a plan for inspiration to take shape, a guide to inclusioncraft structure
a quick FYI: this is a long post. If it’s cut off in your email browser just click “view entire message”. ok! on to the yummy stuff.
If I say “inclusion bar!” what do you think of?
For many makers (and chocolate fans), inclusions may imply “something sprinkled on the back of a bar,” but Inclusioncrafting is a bit more than that.
Inclusioncrafting is inspiration (why we want to make the bar) + structure (how we’ll bring our idea to reality) + the ingredients we choose. These intentional choices are what make it uniquely "ours," how we craft memorable chocolate, and why inclusioncrafting has gained loyal fans (and more makers attempting it) in a huge way in the past eight years.
It may seem hard to believe, but in 2014 when I made my first batches of chocolate, “adding things to bars” was not as widely accepted or practiced in craft chocolate as it is in 2023. My earliest bars had inclusions probably because I see chocolate as a food (as well as an ingredient, from my pastry chef days), and not just relegated to be a candy or confection. Let’s face it, if more people enjoyed chocolate with breakfast (drizzled on toast, swirled through yogurt), chocolate for lunch (yes I eat nibs in salad and in my tacos), and for dinner (white chocolate glazed sea bass is amazing!) the world would be a happier place.
There are methods, techniques, how-to’s, and best practices, but there is only one true rule for an Inclusioncrafter to craft by: each choice we make must be intentional. This is why Inclusioncrafting can require multiple steps and multiple batches and maybe multiple inclusions, but it’s equally okay to craft something rather straightforward and sprinkle nibs on the back of a bar, even though that’s not a new idea. What’s unique to us is our choice of batch, our choice of origin, whether we toasted the nibs or brittles them, anything we choose to do because it’s what we think will best convey our idea.
The point isn’t to create new for the sake of new, or off the wall attention-grabbing bars. Our goal is to understand the principles and structure of inclusioncrafting, so we have the know-how to create whatever we want when inspiration strikes.
What it is, what it’s not
Inclusioncraft is how we go from a brilliant lightbulb idea for a bar to the finished bar; Inclusioncraft is not a set of recipes to follow.
Inclusioncraft is equal parts structure~~the approaches, methods + techniques we use the, ingredients (and how we prep the ingredients), and the inspiration behind the bar. It can be, but isn’t just sprinkling an ingredient onto the back of a bar.
The ingredients we use in Inclusioncraft = possibilities:
Snackcrafting inclusions is a body of methods and recipes uses to make the inclusions for a bar. Examples include candying citrus peel, toasting sourdough into crumbs, baking meringue for shards, cooking brittles.
Traditional inclusions (nibs, salt) work well for a reason (nibs add crunch, salt plays against bitterness or sweetness) and might be beloved enough to us to create our own bar.
Cuisine-inspired inclusions can be representative of “who” we are, community, local food, travels, or because the flavors inspire.
Memory-inspired inclusions can find their way to the inclusioncrafting drawing table when we create a bar design based on a personal food memory.
Riff on a known idea, put a spin on a trend, craft a unique-to-you rendition
seasonal/holiday inspired inclusions range far beyond chipped bits of peppermint in December
What you’ll get from these Inclusioncraft lessons
You’ll learn how to turn an idea into a plan
You’ll learn the batchcrafting techniques, methods, and options for building your bar
And, gain, not just a new way of thinking about making chocolate, but a new understanding (and maybe courage) of how to make it your own, in a unique-to-you signature style.
An example.
The inspiration: a dedicated tea lover wants to create a bar made with their favorite tea, but since tea has water they need to figure out how to get tea flavor into chocolate.
The How (Plan)
They decided to capture drinking their favorite tea by crafting a two-chocolate swirl bar that would mimic the swirl of steam or milk in a cup of tea.
They decided the main bar would be a plant-based oat milk
that they would steep smoky lapsang souchong tea leaves in the batch’s cocoa butter before putting the cocoa butter in the grinder
and they would stir whole dried lapsang souchong leaves into the batch just before tempering
the swirl would be made with a creamy almond milk white batch added onto the back of the bar (using a marblizing effect) at tempering,
with candied orange peel strips sprinkled on top of the swirl because they adore having a slice of orange with their tea.
And here’s their plan, outlined
Source the ingredients needed
batch #1: cacao, cocoa butter, sugar, oats, tea, crafted as a 58% dark milk so there would be enough cocoa butter to carry in the tea flavor. They chose Vietnam Ben Tre cacao in a nod to a tea-growing region, deodorized cocoa butter so the tea flavor could come through, cane sugar, oat flour. whole lapsang souchong tea leaves
batch #2: The same deodorized cocoa butter and cane sugar, with almond flour, lapsang souchong tea leaves
other inclusion: whole organic oranges to be peeled and the peels candied
pre-batch prep: After roasting/winnowing steep the nibs in tea then dehyrdrate. Infuse the cocoa butter for batch #2 before batchcrafting with ¾ of the whole tea leaves, candy the orange peels + chop into small bits
make the batches: Batch #1: roast the cacao + winnow, refine in melanger with the infused cocoa butter, sugar, oat flour until texture is right. Batch #2: refine all ingredients until texture is right.
at tempering: the dark milk batch gets ladled into moulds first, then a swirl of the white is added. A skewer is used to “swirl” the white into the dark milk, and a sprinkle of the candied peel bits are added.
If the notion of “coming up with” or designing a new bar is new to you, it helps to practice. The pdf below is an exercise I’ve used at every inclusioncraft camp or class I’ve taught, since the first intrepid soon-to-be Inclusioncrafters walked through my kitchen door.
Inclusioncraft Structure
When we ask “how the inclusions enter the picture” we are actually asking when we add them.
Once we have our idea or inspiration we begin to decide—and design—how we’ll craft the bar. Even having a vague notion of the “I love creamsicles! maybe I can make an orange bar…with something creamy?” gives us a starting point. The plan for HOW begins to take shape as soon as we begin deciding when the inclusions enter the bar.
Remember, our inspiration or idea will come together to add flavor(s), texture(s), and often, appealing visuals to our bar.
to recap: our plan is deciding what our inclusions will be, as well as when the inclusions will be added. For some bars these choices may be very simple, as basic as sprinkling salt onto the back of a salted caramel white chocolate. But why a caramel white? and how will we make a caramel white? toast the milk powder? toast the sugar? add browned butter? make a batch of white chocolate then toast it? It’s helpful to understand that what we want to create can take many different forms, the ingredients can come in at different stages of our proces, and we can sometimes tweak our ingredients if it will add a flavor/texture/eye appeal we decide we want.
There are four approaches to adding inclusions: we add them when we make the chocolate, we add inclusions if we choose to grind extra flavor into a finished batch, we add an inclusion(s) if we stir them into the chocolate at temper, and we can layer them onto the batch at temper.
Batchcrafting is when we “build” our base chocolate.
Chocolatiers are accustomed to adding flavor to ready-made chocolate, but for many bean to bar makers it’s a new concept. If we have a batch of chocolate though, we can stir in added flavor (a flavored oil, for example), or we can melt and return the batch to a melanger and grind in flavor. An example is adding a fruit powder to a batch of white chocolate.
Stirring an ingredient, or more than one, at temper before we mould up the bars is the third approach.
Adding a swirl (or a few!) or patterns of a different chocolate at temper, sprinkling an ingredient onto the back, laminating a layer of chocolate on top of another, are examples of Approach 4.
Ready for Part Two of the Inclusioncraft Workshop?
Feel free to drop questions or thoughts in the comments!
Happy crafting,
Mackenzie
I'm really excited to be here Mackenzie. I appreciate how you have layed out the structure here, and have developed some language around the 4 different processes.