Important factors affecting the flavour of chocolate: fermentation and drying of mature cocoa beans. The variety of cocoa beans is essential, but the best beans will be wasted without proper fermentation and drying.
Ferment
Cocoa beans coated with pulp are obtained from mature cocoa fruits and fermented together.
In a low pH environment, the polyphenols, carbohydrates, amino acids, acids, and alkaloids in cocoa beans are the precursors that finally bring various flavours to chocolate.
In the first two days of fermentation, most of it is the effect of alcohol fermentation.
Anaerobic organisms begin to decompose sugars in the pulp to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide.
As the pulp is consumed, the appearance of voids allows air to enter and start aerobic fermentation, producing acetic acid and raising the temperature to about 45 degrees. Unfortunately, this environment gradually makes the cocoa beans lose their ability to germinate.
In the continuous fermentation process of the pulp, the constant consumption of oxygen makes the cocoa beans a persistent anaerobic state. This condition continued until the 4-5th day of fermentation. Then, the pulp was destroyed, and the overall temperature dropped. The most important result of the exposure of cocoa beans to air was that the hydrolyzed polyphenols were converted to non-hydrolyzed polymers, and the astringency of cocoa beans reduce.
Excessive fermentation will cause aerobic microorganisms to destroy the flavour of cocoa beans fermented just right.
Dry
Cocoa beans are dried after fermentation.
A good drying process can preserve the flavour produced during fermentation and prevent the beans from becoming mouldy. Drying can be through the sun, air drying, shade drying or baking drying.
Studies have shown that the preserved flavour of sun-dried beans is the most complete.
Taking the sun as an example, 5-7 days of exposure and protection from rain can reduce the moisture in the beans to 7% and the appropriate amount of acetic acid to volatilize.
Beans roasted by wood fire will be affected by the phenol produced by burning wood, resulting in a char-roasted taste of cocoa beans. The quality of cocoa beans is also affected because of the faster drying and low acetic acid volatilization.
Unbaked cocoa beans contain glycosamine compounds. Therefore, during the drying process, the glucosamine rearrangement reaction is a fundamental reason for the taste of chocolate.
And get the dried cocoa beans, and you can start baking the cocoa beans!
Roasted Cocoa Beans
Although every chocolate making process is fundamental, some can change the flavour of cocoa beans.
At first, the flavour is determined by the variety and growing environment of the cocoa beans, followed by fermentation/drying (most of the cocoa beans currently on the market are baked, and even merchants can bake them on behalf of them), and then the next step is baking.
Baking makes the taste of cocoa beans balanced and smooth, and different baking methods, changes in temperature, time, etc., are all factors that can affect cocoa beans.
Beans need to be baked to 120-140 degrees, and the time can stretch from 15 minutes to 30 minutes or longer. You can also see (can be adjusted according to different bean types and desired taste). The roasting temperature is much lower than coffee roasting, about half the heat of coffee roasting.
Most of the equipment for roasting cocoa beans can share coffee beans roasting equipment: oven, coffee bean burning machine, even hot air blower or roasting directly on the charcoal fire!
Cocoa beans are baked at a high temperature first and then slowly cooled down.
Use the oven for baking, and the following is the process you can refer to:
1. Put a baking pan with a certain thickness into the oven and preheat it to 175 degrees.
2. Place 1 kg of raw cocoa beans in a heated baking tray and bake at 175 degrees for 20 minutes (pick the beans every 5 minutes). After 10 minutes of flipping, if the temperature of the cocoa beans reaches 85 degrees, this benchmark represents stable heating. The goal is to get 100 degrees (the temperature at which water turns into steam to evaporate) in 12-15 minutes. After about 15 minutes of baking, you should start to smell a faint aroma of chocolate.
3. Lower the temperature to 150 degrees and bake for 5 minutes (turn the beans every 5 minutes). In about 20 minutes, you should be able to smell the brownies when they are baked.
4. The temperature drops to 135 degrees, about 5 minutes. If you wait another 5-10, or even 15 minutes, the cocoa beans will not be over-baked.
At 25 minutes, the temperature in the cocoa beans has reached about 135 degrees, and adjusting the oven to 135 degrees can avoid the problem of over-or under-baking. Then take it out and let it cool (about 6 hours), then crush it to remove the shell or put it in a bag for storage. Even if the cocoa beans have reached room temperature, moisture is still evaporating. If they are collected too early in the plastic bag, water will generate.
Baked beans
Description:
Before baking, look at the bottom of the baking pan. If it is bright and clean, it is a good baking pan.
If it has turned black, be aware that whether it is burned to black or left the factory, the heat absorption speed will be faster than a bright baking pan, and the cocoa beans will burn quickly.
Why do cocoa beans need to be hulled?
During the drying process, the shell is exposed to the wind and the sun, and the body is dirty when it comes in contact with the external bacterial dust during the transportation process. Furthermore, adding the shell to make the chocolate will not make the chocolate taste more affluent. The high fibre content will cause the surface to be hard, which will damage the grinder, so it is necessary to remove the shell before making the chocolate.
Usually, chocolate manufacturers control the crust content in the chocolate production at 0.05%-1%, and the legal cocoa crust content stipulated by the US FDA is within 1.75% of the total weight of the cocoa nibs.
In industrial manufacturing, because the equipment is relatively complete, cocoa beans will be hulled first and roasted. However, the DIY chocolate making at home is to bake it before shelling!
During roasting, the heat evaporates the moisture in the raw cocoa beans, causing the beans to separate from the shell. Therefore, when the cocoa beans are crushed next, the body can be easily separated.
Cocoa shells account for about 12-16% of the weight of raw cocoa beans. Therefore, after baking and shelling, the recovery rate of cocoa nibs should be 80-82% as the best state.
Finally, you may ask, what can the 15-20% cocoa shell do?
The cocoa shell is rich in nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous, which can be used for composting. Therefore, some people have heard that some people use it as a mulch to cover the flower bed soil, which has the effect of retaining moisture.
In addition, cocoa beans are crushed in industry and pressed to produce cocoa butter! Therefore, the pressed cake can make cocoa powder!
