Homemade Chocolate!

[HopefulOTaKu]

okay, here's another of my posts of curiosity. I really want to make some homemade chocolate for Valentines day this year, but I have no idea how to go about it. At Michaels, they have chocolate that you can melt down into molds, but I would not call that homemade chocolate! I mean, you didnt DO anything. It mostly just made me mad D:<
but I looked up 'homemade choclate' and supposedly you need alot of odd equipment, but they dont need it in anime....(although anime tends to also defy gravity and the laws of physics, bend the space time-continuim, and all else, entertain me!)
Has anyone ever made any before? It doesnt have to be from complete scratch, but I dont want to just melt choclate :(
Please help!

[Sara]

[quote name='HopefulOTaKu']At Michaels, they have chocolate that you can melt down into molds, but I would not call that homemade chocolate! I mean, you didnt DO anything.[/QUOTE][font=helvetica]It sounds like you want to try something between "harvest my own cocoa beans" and "turn disk-shaped chocolate into heart-shaped chocolate."

As far as I can tell, making chocolate from scratch is a pretty labor-intensive process. There doesn't seem to be a way around it. But, if you want something easier that still lets you have some control, you could try this:

Buy some baker's chocolate. Chop/break it into pieces and melt it down [url=http://candy.about.com/od/workingwithchocolate/a/meltchocolate.htm](some directions here; the double boiler method is probably best)[/url]. What you'll have is a dark, melted, sticky, bitter gloop. Melted chocolate can be finicky, so be gentle with it: you [i]do not[/i] want it to come in contact with water.

Now add stuff. You'll want sugar, and probably a lot of it. If all you add is sugar, you'll have plain dark chocolate. But you can add other things, too. Dried fruit. Cinnamon. Cayenne pepper. Peppermint oil. (Probably not all at once! Pick one or two things to try per batch.)

Messing with chocolate like this is kind of a trial-and-error process, so you'll want to start out with more chocolate than you actually want to finish with. Try things in small batches, experiment, have fun.[/font]

[Rachmaninoff]

[FONT="Trebuchet MS"]Why not try the one where you melt it down and put it into molds? If anything it will help you get a feel for what dealing with chocolate is like. You can always learn from that and then take it another step further like Sara is suggesting. [/FONT]

[HopefulOTaKu]

[quote name='Sara'][FONT=helvetica]It sounds like you want to try something between "harvest my own cocoa beans" and "turn disk-shaped chocolate into heart-shaped chocolate."[/FONT]

[FONT=helvetica]As far as I can tell, making chocolate from scratch is a pretty labor-intensive process. There doesn't seem to be a way around it. But, if you want something easier that still lets you have some control, you could try this:[/FONT]

[FONT=helvetica]Buy some baker's chocolate. Chop/break it into pieces and melt it down [URL="http://candy.about.com/od/workingwithchocolate/a/meltchocolate.htm"](some directions here; the double boiler method is probably best)[/URL]. What you'll have is a dark, melted, sticky, bitter gloop. Melted chocolate can be finicky, so be gentle with it: you [I]do not[/I] want it to come in contact with water.[/FONT]

[FONT=helvetica]Now add stuff. You'll want sugar, and probably a lot of it. If all you add is sugar, you'll have plain dark chocolate. But you can add other things, too. Dried fruit. Cinnamon. Cayenne pepper. Peppermint oil. (Probably not all at once! Pick one or two things to try per batch.)[/FONT]

[FONT=helvetica]Messing with chocolate like this is kind of a trial-and-error process, so you'll want to start out with more chocolate than you actually want to finish with. Try things in small batches, experiment, have fun.[/FONT][/quote]


thats actually a great idea :) thanks!

[Delta]

[COLOR=#35425e]A friend had given me a cacao fruit and I saved the seeds because I wanted to make my own chocolate. I placed the seeds in the laboratory oven for a week and crossed my fingers (hope no one got high carbon signatures in their samples).

Once they were dry, I roasted them in our stove then cracked them open. Et voila! Cocoa nibs! A single nib already smelled like chocolate heaven.[/COLOR]

[HopefulOTaKu]

[quote name='Delta'][COLOR=#35425e]A friend had given me a cacao fruit and I saved the seeds because I wanted to make my own chocolate. I placed the seeds in the laboratory oven for a week and crossed my fingers (hope no one got high carbon signatures in their samples). [/COLOR]

[COLOR=#35425e]Once they were dry, I roasted them in our stove then cracked them open. Et voila! Cocoa nibs! A single nib already smelled like chocolate heaven.[/COLOR][/quote]

now way!!! that's so crazy lol

[Sara]

[font=helvetica]Any success stories yet?[/font]

[HopefulOTaKu]

[quote name='Sara'][FONT=helvetica]Any success stories yet?[/FONT][/quote]

not yet, but after looking at sevearl "how to" sites on chocolate, I am starting to think that just melting it, is not wussy in the least! LOL