When my sister and I were teenagers, we went through a candy-making phase, making many flavors of chocolate truffles, lemon drops, taffy, fondants, peppermint patties and more.
In the many years since, I’ve continued making candies for special occasions.
Truffles are my go-to, as they are easy and never fail. I warm cream, add chocolate or chocolate chips, and once melted add some butter. I also add flavors, usually in the form of alcohol extracts.
Once the mix solidifies, I roll it into balls and then in cocoa powder or melted chocolate, coconut shreds or nuts, depending on the flavors.
A few months ago, I decided I wanted to take my chocolate and truffle making to the next level for Easter. So I did a little research and ordered two types of raw cocoa beans online.
I ordered from a company that farmers supply directly, and it sounded like farming practices were sustainable and workers controlled their own operations. I read reviews as well, which indicated that these were high-quality beans.
I learned through my research that cocoa beans grow in a large pod. They are the seeds, and once removed from the fleshy fruit are fermented.
After fermentation, chocolate makers (or random curious people like me) roast them, remove the shells from each bean, grind them up along with sugar and anything else, then pour the liquid mix into molds.
Sounds simple, right? I thought so!
My beans arrived through the mail, and I immediately tore the bags open to smell them.
I had my fragrant beans. I was ready to roast, and I started reading about the roasting process. I learned that each chocolate maker has their own method, all beans are different (even if they are the same type from the same farm, different batches may need different roasting).
Reading many sets of instructions, the sum of what I learned was that roasting could be done in a specialized roasting machine, in the oven or on the stovetop, at some temperature for some amount of time.
Some chocolate makers like to start at a high heat and lower it, some like to start low and go up. Some beans can roast for just five minutes, while others may taste better if roasted for 40 minutes.
In general, I read, beans are done when your kitchen smells strongly of brownies and some beans make a popping sound. I found all of this not very helpful.
I thought roasting on the stovetop would give me the most control, so I put some beans in a pan, turned it on to medium and stirred. After a while, my kitchen did smell like brownies and some beans popped.
After the beans cooled, I removed the light husks from each and put them in the blender with enough sugar to make a 60% chocolate.
Using a better grinder, or maybe following up the blender with some elbow grease and a mortar and pestle would have yielded a smoother texture. As it was, the final product did have some graininess — not terrible, but not perfect.
The chocolates I made from scratch had a bitter and acidic taste, much like many artisanal dark chocolate bars I’ve bought. I’m in a phase of preferring smoother and sweeter chocolate, so I’ll continue experimenting with process and recipes to make a mellower flavor.
I’m not quite ready yet to stop buying chocolate and restrict myself to homemade. But I am ready to keep playing with cocoa beans — worst case, I make my kitchen smell fantastic.
