All About Chocolates

[dasalo]

jce:

Dark choc should not be more than 70% otherwise it becomes too bitter.


I like Royce for nama, dark goes to Beschle (Swiss brand) for their bars. There's also Brit brand Hotel Chocolat, but sadly, not available here and the French Maison Du Chocolat, again, not available here. But if you guys are at East Coast Road, head to Pave. Their chocolates are really nice. The shop is located opp Roxy, near overhead bridge. Pastry there is good too.

PAVE wrapped up their business already.. I've tried their chocolates, not bad but I find it alittle too salty to my liking. They are generous with their hazelnut.

I bought quite alot of their raw ingredients/stuffs during their closing sale. eg. Easel board, chestnut paste/nuts. Coffee beans,lingot beans, sugars etc...
Surprisingly, I was told they added 花椒 in their chocolates.

[dasalo]

I am not a real eater of chocolates but when I have cravings, I would go to the counter buy a 100g and start chomping away within mins. I don't usually stock chocolates in my fridge as I find them loses it's freshness and becomes too hard in our fridge temp.

gladyschan:

Ritter Sport omg, my favourite!!!

It used to be my fav too but my tastebuds has upgraded to Teuscher, Godiva, Leonidas, Royce but now they also have taken a backseat. The latest is I've tried is Valrhona.

Teuscher is only available in Palais Renaissance.

Valrhona is best if you like bitter chocolates as their high cocoa content chocolate still taste real smooth.

Godiva's is cheaper elsewhere other than in SG. Even in HKG, the beautiful padded box set is always cheaper. In London, you'll get the metal box type.

[jce]

Yes, Pave, sadly, has closed down. Something to do with the rental, so I heard. Such a pity cos I did like their choc and truffles, and more so, their pastry and cakes.

[osim]

Mychildren:

osim,


http://candy.about.com/od/candybasics/ht/temperchoc.htm

about tempering chocolates.

Thanks MyChildren, I move my query to this thread as it is more appropriate.

Quite troublesome and also must find special chocolate thermometer. Will consider tempering. Now my chocolate goes from my fridge to my mouth. Strangely, my chocolate already look very glossy without tempering but they melt too fast for me to give as gifts to my friends. They taste really good. Mine is 100% raw cacao powder and butter with Agave syrup. Once I used Manuka Honey instead and it was heavenly. I don't use commercial chocolate block. That seem like remoulding chocolate more than making chocolate. Making chocolate from scratch allows me to control the sweetness.

Anyone with experience making raw chocolate, please share any other way to increase melting point.

[Mychildren]

osim,


I just guess only. You can try increasing the proportion of cocoa powder to increase the melting point.
If you're going to try, can you let me know whether it works this way?

[osim]

Mychildren,


I’ll try increasing the cacao powder proportion. I wonder if that will make the end product feels chalky in the mouth. I don’t add any milk. Anyway, I’ll let you know after I do the next batch.

[Mychildren]

osim:

Mychildren,


I'll try increasing the cacao powder proportion. I wonder if that will make the end product feels chalky in the mouth. I don't add any milk. Anyway, I'll let you know after I do the next batch.

Hey, u've not let me know the result yet?
Butter & the syrup are soft & liquid texture. That's why I asked u to add more cocoa powder, the solid form so they won't melt so fast. This is applying Science. Kekeke

[osim]

Mychildren:

osim:

Mychildren,


I'll try increasing the cacao powder proportion. I wonder if that will make the end product feels chalky in the mouth. I don't add any milk. Anyway, I'll let you know after I do the next batch.

Hey, u've not let me know the result yet?
Butter & the syrup are soft & liquid texture. That's why I asked u to add more cocoa powder, the solid form so they won't melt so fast. This is applying Science. Kekeke

Thousand apologies! Haven't come into KSP almost a month.

Yes, I tried as per your suggestion. Didn't help much. Cannot experiment any further because I ran out of raw cacao powder. Waiting for iherb.com to send. I read somewhere that commercial chocolate uses lecithin and something else to increase the melting pt of the chocolates but suggested that you don't try because it is not so straight forward. I was told raw chocolates is just like that, to transport it, you need to use ice-pack. The chocolate is so pure just cannot take our heat. Yum..(I add goji berries, various seed types to get some crunch to my chocolates, also decrease sugar amount to cut down calories). Frankly, I don't buy commercial chocolate anymore :rahrah: .

[tankee]

Tried Cadbury old gold dark chocolate for the first time today


far too sweet for my liking.

[osim]

tankee:

Tried Cadbury old gold dark chocolate for the first time today


far too sweet for my liking.

Can try Cote Dor dark chocolate with hazelnut, it's good.
I also like Whittaker dark chocolate with mint. Comes in a pack of small nuggets.

I see Candy Empire carries quite a few European chocolates. There is one called Ovamaline which is actually the ovaltine brand. My ds wallop so many bars. Never left any for me :spank: so I didn't have a chance to try. He said it's good, there is something special inside. Bought when in Switzerland last year, now it's available here. Was highly recommended by the tour guide.