Chocolate and Honey

Comment

Comment by Colin Green on March 21, 2013 at 5:41pm

The honey from your bee keeper would be good I'd think unless he heats it to get rid of crystals. But if it's fresh he would not need to do that. Easy enough to ask him :-)  I think however that people are not eating your chocolate for the health aspects in the honey - they can eat honey on their bread for that! For my part your comments have been interesting and made me think about the process in a different way. But on reflection I think that I'll need to focus on how to make a product that stores well, looks good, is easiest to make and costs least.

Check it all out again when you have some "shelf life" on your invention - that is where I started to get some issues to address.

Colin :-)

Comment by Sarabeth Matilsky on March 21, 2013 at 9:21am

Well, I got some actually-raw honey, from a local beekeeper, who doesn't heat it above 100f--and I'd read that certain enzymes in the honey are destroyed at higher temps, and so I was experimenting with keeping it low for health reasons. Kinda sorta a non-issue when discussing candy, I know. :) But I was just wondering... Adding the honey like this does seem to make it sticky, but I was fairly pleased with the finished texture, so it might be a good compromise...

Comment by Colin Green on March 20, 2013 at 9:56pm

Interesting thought Sarabeth.

Why do you want to keep the honey temperature low? I panned my product so the tempering was not from lowering the temperature but via vibration. So I had melted it  to around 110F. 

I found this article that has good information - and the strong suggestion that your supermarket honey has probably already been subjected to way more than 100F.

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/heating-and-freezing-h... 

From my experience I would think that adding honey to tempered choclate would make it sticky. Certainly I experienced this after a time as the seal on my panned ginger got a bit tacky. Not REALLY bad but enough to be a concern.

I suppose that it would be worth experimenting with.

Colin :-)

Comment by Sarabeth Matilsky on March 20, 2013 at 6:58pm

I'm curious if it's completely impossible to add honey to tempered chocolate _after_ the tempering process? I'd like to make a honey-sweetened chocolate without heating the honey over 100f... My first attempts have been better than I'd hoped, but definitely not perfect (heated the chocolate, let it cool to 100f, stirred in the honey, heated to 88f, spread the seized mixture into molds!).

Comment by Colin Green on March 10, 2013 at 10:28pm

Thought that it could be helpful to report back on the honey project now that there is some time on the project.
I panned some dark and also some milk chocolate ginger and added liquid honey to the chocolate.
The dark was not really very "honey flavoured" so I increased for the milk - and it DOES taste of honey. Rather nice if a bit sweet for some palates.
Now with some four weeks or so packed in bags and offering in various markets I am finding that the honey seems to make the seal (shellac) bond and it binds between the pieces and rips off making "scuff marks" which look unsightly.
The whole bag goes quite solid with this binding and although it's easy enough to loosen them up you DO get the damage.
People seem to like the idea of "honey chocolate" as a point of differentiation and it sells quite well. Although there is an awful lot of "chocolate coated ginger" out there which depresses pricing somewhat.
Colin :-)

Comment by Colin Green on February 22, 2013 at 4:19pm

That is a REALLY interesting link Adriana! As you say it's not exactly making your own chocolate from scratch - but it is well on the way and a wonderful use of honey! Will be really interested to know how you go when you DO make that final step and roast your own cacao beans too.

Colin :-)

Comment by dri on February 22, 2013 at 2:10pm

I am not sure if you guys would consider this making chocolate from scratch, but I have been successful in making an 84% dark chocolate using honey as sweetener, cacao powder, cocoa butter and vanilla extract. The chocolate came out with a snappy consistency. I tempered the chocolate also and let it harden at room temperature. Here is the exact ration I used:

http://livinghealthywithchocolate.com/desserts/how-to-make-84-dark-...

Comment by Colin Green on February 19, 2013 at 7:14pm

Mark,

If you are contemplating importing honey into the USA do check your quarantine and importing regulations.

I was a bee keeper in New Zealand for some years and honey could NOT be imported - or at least, not without special expensive treatment. This is because honey can transmit various diseases between countries such as foul brood. 

I have NO idea as to the regulations bewteen Australia and the USA.

Can't help but feel that you'd have everything in the USA that you'd need to experiment and produce...

Good luck!

Colin :-)

Comment by Colin Green on February 19, 2013 at 6:39pm

Hi Mark,

I believe it came from Super Bee in Australia Their web site is http://www.superbee.com.au/

I take no offense to your explaining where New Mexico is - or that it exists! I am however pleased to tell you that I did know of it and that Santa Fe was in NM. I believe the captical is Albaquerque? Although that is probably it how it is spelt! I have traveled the USA extensively. We have the same problem with geography here in Australia.

Small typo in my last post. Honey has about 15-18% water. It can be rather higher though as it is hygroscopic (absorbs water - as does chocolate of course).

All the best

Colin :-)

Comment by Mark J Sciscenti on February 19, 2013 at 4:59pm

Hi Colin, Thanks. I was asking about the dried honey that you have used - what is the manufacturer of that.

I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico (the state right next door to the right of Arizona and to the left of Texas - don't take offense, no joke, quite a lot of people, at least here in the US, have no clue that there is a state in the US called 'New Mexico'). So, here in Northern NM there are a lot of local honey producers that make some outrageous honey as well. I will be using a local source as I try to have at least some of my ingredients from local farmers. Thanks for the tips on creamed and liquid honey.

Linda, as to the cocoa butter, whose are you using? And thank you for your experimentation and letting us know that honey can be used in tempered chocolate.

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