hello Next Batchers,
Thank you for being here. If you’ve wandered in and just discovered the Next Batch but are not yet subscribed, I’d love to stuff your inbox with chocolate.
A maker recently sent some questions regarding milk chocolate. The questions help point out a common misunderstanding of viscosity, or what seems to often be a lack of understanding. I don’t mean this snarkily~~understanding is a gradual, long-range process, for all of us. I honestly didn’t think about fat content when I first started, until I had to: meaning, until I had questions about a batch that wasn’t what I expected.
Note that they’ve been using cocoa mass. I’ve only made bean to bar, meaning, I started with beans and did all the things :) It’s been my understanding that chocolatiers use cocoa mass or liquor or couverture, or work with a combination of products depending on their needs. I just received my order for the new Kokoa Kamili Tanzania cocoa liquor, and will be sharing my experience. In a conversation with Gino of Meridian Cacao, I was surprised to hear how prevalent the use of mass/liquor is, even it seems amongst some companies in the “craft” industry. It was also a reminder of just how massive industrial chocolate is: the entire 20+ tonnes load of the liquor was produced in a single day for them, from beans (cracked/winnowed) to nibs roasted (unlike craft where we roast then winnow) to crushing and partial refining.
And, a B Side of Chocolate thought sparked just now:
the more we do to craft our chocolate, every tiny intentional step, every deep step, the more we really should make this clear to folks who seek authentic chocolate.
I’ve added comments here for our purposes that I did not add in my reply/answers; my comments are in the orange brackets.
Their questions
“On our basic range, we make a Classic Milk 47% using dried cacao mass 11%, cacao butter 36%,full fat milk powder 25% and sugar 28%. I can put all ingredients in almost at once.
It mélanges really well, tempers really well using the silk method, and is very popular for its taste.
I wanted to now make it from nibs, so using roasted Peruvian nibs with a 6:1 nib to butter ratio to make up the 47% cacao, then the same milk powder 25% and sugar 28%. “
this 6:1 ratio math, not providing the % made my head hurt. Not sure why they didn’t stick with the same % nibs as the mass, as mass is just ground-up nibs. It’s standard definition is:
“Cocoa mass is yet another term for cocoa liquor (a combination of cocoa butter and cocoa solids resulting from the grinding of cocoa nibs).”
“Unfortunately when the milk powder goes in, it starts to go all gloopy and quite thick. Almost like it curdles? It has an unpleasant texture and taste too, even after 24-48 hrs in the melanger but if I use the nibs on their own it’s great. Same with the milk in one of our whites, so ingredient quality can be discounted hopefully. “
Gloopy and thick (with no water added, that would = seized chocolate) is the key indicator that the fat content is too low in relation to the solids. This can happen whether or not we’re making a milk batch: some origins are low in inherent fat, and can be very viscous as a two or three-ingredient dark.
The taste: I’m assuming they bought pre-roasted nibs. What goes in = the flavor that comes out, and if industrially roasted (nib roasting by the tonne) the protocals are less-than subtle, ie, there is no profile. Maybe their cocoa mass was a different origin, which would mean a different flavor.
“I have tried it with several combinations including our Madagascan nibs, goats milk etc all with the same result. This thick gloopy mess. It also isn’t seizing as it remains thick and gloopy. It’s like I just can’t use nibs and milk powder together!”
The issue is basic, but not always immediately grasped: flow, and “what” makes chocolate liquid (remember, it can be a solid) is, and only is, the cocoa fat.
“The only thing I have come up with after revisiting this issue yesterday is that I need to let the nibs mill for a lot longer before adding the milk.
Have you ever come across this issue before?
What would you suggest I try to get around it?”
My answers
"On our basic range, we make a Classic Milk 47% using dried cacao mass 11%, cacao butter36%,full fat milk powder 25% and sugar 28%. I can put all ingredients in almost at once."
My answer: From the start I'll say I have never used (or taught) a milk chocolate using such a low % of cacao; even my 45% milk chocolate is nearly double the cacao you've been using.
"I wanted to now make it from nibs, so using roasted Peruvian nibs with a 6:1 nib to butter ratio to make up the 47% cacao, then the same milk powder 25% and sugar 28%."
My answer: can you clarify what you mean by 6:1 nib to butter ratio with the exact %s you intend to use? (they never responded)
"Unfortunately when the milk powder goes in, it starts to go all gloopy and quite thick. Almost like it curdles? It has an unpleasant texture and taste too, even after 24-48 hrs in the melanger but if I use the nibs on their own it’s great. Same with the milk in one of our whites, so ingredient quality can be discounted hopefully."
My answer: goopy and thick indicates there is not enough fat, so your ratios are not working. Cacao nibs = approx 50% fat + the cocoa butter, + the fat% of whichever milk powder you are using.
“I have tried it with several combinations including our Madagascan nibs, goats milk etc all with the same result. This thick gloopy mess. It also isn’t seizing as it remains thick and gloopy. It’s like I just can’t use nibs and milk powder together!”
My answer: the batch is telling you (you've tried changing the variables--type of milk powder etc) that the fat % is too low.
“The only thing I have come up with after revisiting this issue yesterday is that I need to let the nibs mill for a lot longer before adding the milk.”
My answer: Actually, that’s not the solution. In a milk chocolate I have always been able, and you should too, to add everything all at once. I add the cb in ¼ increments, alternating with the nibs, then add all the sugar, then the milk.
“Have you ever come across this issue before?”
My answer: no, I haven't, but I've had makers reach out to me with thick batches and it's always the issue of balancing fat to solids.
And here’s why
Let’s say we want to make a 100% dark chocolate: all cacao, no sugar. We have a bowl of nibs; if we pour the nibs into our bar moulds, do they turn into chocolate? If we pour the nibs onto our work table, will they spread and drip off the side? If we stir a spatula into them, will “chocolate” drip off? nope.
But when we take those nibs and crush them with enough force (the tool/machine we use isn’t what matters here) we’re getting a step closer. By crushing the nibs the cocoa fat they contain is released. How much is released depends on how we crush the nibs, the amount of friction used, and depending on the friction—and if our tool/machine generates its own source—how much heat is applied in the process of the crushing, and the origin we’re crushing.
The amount of inherent fat in a cocoa bean (the natural fat inside the bean) is tied to:
post-harvest + fermentation,
drying approach, age of the cacao,
how it was roasted,
or if it was roasted.
For our purposes here we’re focusing on the basics of what chocolate is: we crush nibs and fat is released, chocolate is created.
Given the global perception of what chocolate is “supposed” to be, we craft makers take this further, by refining to reduce the grittiness, conching to round out flavor and create creaminess, tempering to create shine, snap, and uniformity.
You may think, “I know what chocolate is.”
And you may answer, if asked, that it’s cacao + cocoa butter + sugar (3-ingredient) or, cacao + sugar (2-ingredient), or, just cacao, nothing else (100% chocolate).
If you’re a maker delving into milk chocolate, then chocolate includes batches made with cacao + cocoa butter + sugar + milk powder (cow or goat or buffalo, or alt-milk options like soy or coconut or oat or cassava, etc etc etc).
If you make white chocolate, your “I know what chocolate is” answer is cocoa butter + sugar + milk powder (see all the options above).
(And yes: sugar can be cane, maple, panels, coconut, monkfruit, mulberries dried + ground, date sugar, on and on.)
Chocolate is a suspension of solid particles in fat.
When we crush “just nibs” to make a 100% dark bar: cocoa fat released from the cacao melts, the cacao solids (fiber and proteins etc) are reduced down to teensy imperceptible (on our tongue at 15 microns) particles, and these particles float amidst the melted fat.
If we make a two-ingredient 70% dark bar with cane sugar: nibs are crushed, fat is released, solids (cacao fiber + sugar crystals) are refined and reduced, and float in the melted fat.
If it’s a three-ingredient bar, same thing as the other two examples, but with added fat.
Refining cacao + any other ingredients is how we release the inherent fat (what’s inside the nib), reduce particle size of any/all solids so our tongues can’t sense their presence (fiber/proteins in the nibs, sugar if we add it, and milk powder, oat flour, etc etc etc) in order to create this suspension, aka, chocolate.
No matter what type of chocolate we craft, cocoa butter is how we create everything about chocolate that matters.
It’s responsible for flow (in the melanger, and in industrial manufacturing, it keeps the flow going through the pipes), unlocking or maintaining aromatic volatiles (fat locks volatiles onto/into the solids), transporting flavor (as the cb melts on our tongue), smooth texture vs sticky (as the particles are refined the cocoa fat surrounds the particles), tempering (it’s the fat that crystalizes and locks in the suspension), shine + snap (cocoa butter crystals), and makes chocolate stable at room temperature: cocoa fat has zero AW (water availability), and doesn’t spoil or go rancid. This is why chocolate bars don’t require the refrigeration that ganache-filled bonbons need in order to stay fresh. Cocoa fat is a solid at “room temperature,” = why, after we make our liquidy, molten, drip-every-where, splatter sky-high batches, once the heat is removed and the batch cools the chocolate solidifies.
To sum it up, we need to respect the fat that IS such a critical component of chocolate, and by respect it, I mean try to think about it, get to know it, understand it.
You can find more info here:
And, under the Basics tab there’s a download
If you have questions or insights to share, feel free to pop them in the comments!
Happy (chocolate season of frenzy) making,
Mackenzie