How to make chocolate at home bean to bar

Bean to bar chocolate is taking the world by storm. Follow the video to see how you can make your very own chocolate at home. The best part is that you can control just how much sugar to add as well as any extra ingredients.

Just as there are many different flavours of coffee as a result of the beans used, there are also loads of variations with cocoa beans. However it’s likely that most of the chocolate you’ve ever tasted will have come from only one variety. Bean to bar chocolate makers use different beans from all over the world to help independent growers and to bring those flavours to you. If you want to make your own chocolate then you can also contact a bean to bar chocolate maker to source a small quantity of cocoa beans and cocoa butter. There’s a growing list of bean to bar chocolate makers here. If you’re thinking about ordering some beans, then as a general rule 115g (4.06 ounces) of beans produces around 90g (3.17 ounces) of roasted, peeled cocoa nibs.

And even if you can’t get hold of cocoa beans, you can swap out the nibs in each recipe for half cocoa butter and half cocoa powder by weight.

STEP 1. ROASTING
Spread the beans out in a single layer onto a lined baking tray. Take out any shriveled beans
Preheat your oven to 129ºF (54ºC) , put the beans in and turn the heat up to 250ºF (121ºC) for 15 minutes.
Turn the oven back down to 122ºF (50ºC) and open the oven door for a minute to let it rapidly cool down. Then close the oven door and leave the beans in there for another 12 minutes.

Take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes.

STEP 2: PEEL THE BEANS
The easiest way to do this for small quantities is by hand. Gently twist the bean and then remove the shell.

The other way you can do this is to crush the beans using a rolling pin. Tip them onto a bowl and gently blow with a hairdryer to remove the lighter shells.

STEP 3. MILL THE BEANS Use a blender or food processor to make the beans as fine as you can.

STEP 4. GRIND THE BEANS
You can use a mortar and pestle or grind the beans as finely as you can. If you want them really fine like in commercial chocolate then you’ll need to buy a chocolate melanger, but they are not cheap.

Warm the mixture to melt the cocoa butter in it and continue to grind. If you are using a mortar and pestle you will need to add the additional melted cocoa butter now.

STEP 5. TEMPER the chocolate. Make sure you temper your chocolate before you mold it or it will not set at room temperature. You will find my video on tempering chocolate at home here.

bean to bar chocolate recipes

Dark Chocolate Recipe Makes two 75g (2.65 ounces) bars
90g (3.17 ounces) cocoa nibs
40g (1.41 ounces) or 1/3 cup (icing) powdered sugar
26g (0.92 ounces) cocoa butter – optional but needed if you are making by hand without a chocolate melanger

Milk Chocolate Recipe (similar to the proportions in a bar of Cadburys milk chocolate)
46g (1.62 ounces) or 3 Tbsp plus 2 tsp sugar
16g (0.56 ounces) or 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp cocoa butter
14g (0.49 ounces) or 1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp cocoa nibs
24g (0.85 ounces) or 1/4 cup milk powder
Additional 8g (0.28 ounces) or 2 tsp cocoa butter if making by hand without a chocolate melanger

80% Dark Chocolate Recipe (similar to proportions in a Lindt 80% dark chocolate bar)
35g (1.23 ounces) or 1/4 cup cocoa nibs
30g (1.06 ounces) or 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
25g (0.88 ounces) or 2 Tbsp cocoa butter
13g (0.46 ounces) or 1 Tbsp sugar
2g (0.07 ounces) or 1/2 tsp vanilla seeds scraped form a vanilla pod

Resource: howtocookthat.net