Making Chocolate....sort of...
Our neighbour has cocoa trees in his yard, and last week we were given a couple of cocoa fruits. We were told to put it in the blender as it makes a very good drink...however we thought chocolate.... Google has a ton of information readily available, and all kinds of instructions.
Way up at the top of the tree you can see the fruit.
It amazes me that this is growing right outside our front door.
They are not really very big.
This is about a 6" paring knife. Really glad we brought sharp knives from home... and a sharpener.
Daryl was able to get them apart without too much difficulty. Probably about the same as cutting through a watermelon.
The inside was just full of seeds that are covered with a pulp. There was not much to eat but oh so sweet.
After sucking all the goodness of a few, we went back to google and revisited the chocolate making recipes.
Not so easy with basically no equipment, but what the heck, may as well give it a try....been pouring rain all day so not going anywhere!
A few days ago we pulled all of the seeds out of the fruit.
Even thought very little fruit, hard to keep from sucking on the little sweet morsels!
And certainly not a lot of seeds in two cacao fruit!
Then we were supposed to let them ferment in the sun for a couple of days.... supposed to enhance the flavour of the chocolate. As we have had very little sunshine since last week that was not going to work, so we let them sit on the counter and in a slightly warm oven.
Today Daryl roasted the seeds in a frying pan.
Had to watch them carefully as they turned dark brown very quickly, and we sure did not want burnt chocolate.
Such a beautiful chocolate aroma.
Next came the shelling, we thought that would be tedious, but you just had to crack the shells between your fingers and it came off easily
And this is our roasted, shelled cocoa seeds.
Tastes like chocolate but kind of bitter.
If we had a grinder we could have made real chocolate. We do have a blender....sadly not a Vitamix....
We ended up with maybe two ounces of ground up chocolate.We also do not have any sugar so the end product for today was hot chocolate sweetened with honey. We cooked it in a pot on the stove.
I was definitely a great hot chocolate....on this cool day, only 22C. I am wearing pants, socks and a sweater.....go figure.
Although not good to the last drop as just a ton a chocolate pieces in the bottom of the cup.... felt like coffee grounds in my mouth.
Just something to work on!
Cheers
Ruth
PS...does not feel like Christmas yet!
Way up at the top of the tree you can see the fruit.
It amazes me that this is growing right outside our front door.
They are not really very big.
This is about a 6" paring knife. Really glad we brought sharp knives from home... and a sharpener.
Daryl was able to get them apart without too much difficulty. Probably about the same as cutting through a watermelon.
The inside was just full of seeds that are covered with a pulp. There was not much to eat but oh so sweet.
After sucking all the goodness of a few, we went back to google and revisited the chocolate making recipes.
Not so easy with basically no equipment, but what the heck, may as well give it a try....been pouring rain all day so not going anywhere!
A few days ago we pulled all of the seeds out of the fruit.
Even thought very little fruit, hard to keep from sucking on the little sweet morsels!
And certainly not a lot of seeds in two cacao fruit!
Then we were supposed to let them ferment in the sun for a couple of days.... supposed to enhance the flavour of the chocolate. As we have had very little sunshine since last week that was not going to work, so we let them sit on the counter and in a slightly warm oven.
Today Daryl roasted the seeds in a frying pan.
Had to watch them carefully as they turned dark brown very quickly, and we sure did not want burnt chocolate.
Such a beautiful chocolate aroma.
Next came the shelling, we thought that would be tedious, but you just had to crack the shells between your fingers and it came off easily
And this is our roasted, shelled cocoa seeds.
If we had a grinder we could have made real chocolate. We do have a blender....sadly not a Vitamix....
 |
| The blending process |
We ended up with maybe two ounces of ground up chocolate.We also do not have any sugar so the end product for today was hot chocolate sweetened with honey. We cooked it in a pot on the stove.
I was definitely a great hot chocolate....on this cool day, only 22C. I am wearing pants, socks and a sweater.....go figure.
Although not good to the last drop as just a ton a chocolate pieces in the bottom of the cup.... felt like coffee grounds in my mouth.
Just something to work on!
Cheers
Ruth
PS...does not feel like Christmas yet!
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