Chocolatier

Thanks to my sister, EP, I got a wonderful chocolate recipe and I have been busy in the kitchen aaaaall week long creating some yummy(if I do say so myself) confections! I have made eight batches of chocolate (only six successful ones) and the texture has been spot on! I purchased some Special Dark cocoa powder from Hershey's instead of regular(milk) because I really like dark chocolate! I made my first batch of milk chocolate today and it was a hit! I've also made several batches with coffee in them, and those are absolutely decadent. My latest endevour was raspberry flavored dark chocolate, and it isn't turning out so well. I think because there was so much liquid in it, that it's not firming up the way the others have been. We'll see. Its been fun experimenting! I'll post what I call the "skeleton" recipe below. (And also the recipe for raw sugar solution, which is what I use as my sweetener. The recipe I use comes from the "Skinny Chocolate" recipe by Trim Healthy Mama.

Smooth and melty chocolate:

What you'll need:
1/2 C. measuring cup
1/4 C. measuring cup
Table spoon
metal whisk
small sauce pot
*parchment paper
*small petal pan (I've been using toaster size)
metal soup spoon

*You only need these if you chose to do a sheet of chocolate. I've also been using candy molds. If you have candy molds, use them. I found that a more uniform looking piece of chocolate is more enticing and presentable.

Ingredients:
1/2 C. coconut oil
1/4 C. cocoa powder
3 T. raw sugar solution
1/2 T. vanilla
Flavoring of your choice (I've done coffee, coffee raspberry, and my sister has done toffee flavoring, and caramel.)

1)Melt down the coconut oil in sauce pan. (It melts quickly, so stay right with it.)

2) Remove from heat promptly and wisk in sugar solution, vanilla, and liquid flavoring(this is when I added my coffee concentrate; only about a tablespoon or so. Judge the amounts for yourself, I like mine with more flavor, but found that more liquid alters the texture making it difficult to freeze.)

3) Whisk in cocoa powder. The texture should be liquidy and smooth. If you still have clumps, whisk them out.

4) If you're using candy molds, spoon or pipe(if you have piping bottles) the chocolate mixture in. If you're using a pan, line it with parchment paper and pour the chocolate in. The bigger the pan, the thinner the chocolate. I don't like my too thick, but too thing is just unsatisfying. Again, judge this for your own personal preference.

5) Freeze it. The time depends entirely on the overall texture and thickness of your chocolate. Some of my chocolate has taken as little as 10 minutes to freeze completely, and some has taken upwards of an hour. If they sink at all to touch, or seem tacky with you touch them, keep freezing. If they're still tacky or sticky after an hour, the batch is, sadly, scrapped. I've done this twice now :(

6) Once your chocolate is frozen through, pop it out.

For candy molds:
turn them over, and bang the back of each candy with soup spoon. The should pop out fairly easily; if not try freezing them a tad longer.

For a pan:
Lift the parchment paper out and simply bang the chocolate with the soup spoon. The pieces will be unevenly shaped and sized, but oooo so tasty!

I store my chocolate in Rubbermaid containers in the freezer, but it can also be kept in the fridge. Because of the coconut oil, it needs to be kept cool.

Raw Sugar Solution:

What you'll need:
1 C. measuring cup
Glass 2 C. measuring cup

Ingredients:
1 C. boiling water
1 C. sugar in the raw(found with normal white sugar)

1) Simply put both ingredients in the glass container, and stir with a fork. The sugar won't dissolve completely, so I pop it into the microwave for 1 1/2-2 minutes and the sugar is usually fully dissolved. I keep mine in a Rubbermaid(no...I'm not actually obsessed...) container that has a small pour hole on the lid and store it in the fridge. My sister uses it in cold coffee, my mom uses it in plain yogurt, and I use it in my chocolate. It's a great little sweetener to use! 


Hope someone finds this and enjoys it! :)