How to prevent a baker's chocolate mixture from resolidifying so that it can be used in beverages?
Is it possible to directly melt baker's chocolate (sliced from bar form), mix with sugar, then add an a sort of "inverting" chemical to prevent it for resolidifying?
I currently work with baker's unsweetened chocolate. I believe this is the product of cacao butter? Not sure.
What I do with the chocolate is emulsify it in water under slow heat whilst stirring rapidly. Typically a 1:2.5 ratio of baker's chocolate to water, then add 1:2.5 ratio of chocolate to brown sugar.
I add this to chocolate drinks, and I've always appreciated its ability to add thickness to the beverage. But if I can make it even thicker, that would be good right?
The bigger problem I suppose is that I've never trained with a chocolatier. I don't know what the pros do!
Best Answer
I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but what came to my mind was making a ganache - pouring heated cream over chopped chocolate and then stirring until the chocolate is melted. By adjusting the ratios of cream to chocolate, you can make a lovely thick chocolate syrup that works well for stirring into beverages.
There are 4 standard ratios of chocolate and cream, for different purposes:
2:1 (chocolate:cream) is very firm and holds its shape, good for uncoated truffles.
3:2 is firm but slightly softer; good for coated chocolates and cake icings.
1:1 is soft and smooth; good for tart and cake fillings, some cake icings, and spreads
1:2 is pourable and sauce-like - the obvious choice for sauces.
(from a Chowhound article on ganache)
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Answer 2
Inverted sugar (or any of its cousins: dextrose, honey, HFCS) won't help you, as what is happening is not recrystallization of the sugar, but that cocoa butter is solid at room temperature (it has a fusion point of 28-36 °C, 82-96 °F).
What a chocolatier would tell you is that chocolate and water are natural enemies, and they don't belong together.
If your objective is to add more "chocolatey" flavor to a water based drink, my suggestion is to use cocoa, and leave the fats out.
If your objective is to add thicken a drink, many options are available, depending on the composition of the drink: pectin, xanthan, carrageenan, what you would be looking for is a hydrocolloid.
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