Making Chocolate

Just down the street from our casa is The Beach Chocolate Factory.  It's really a class by Henrik - he's a chocolate expert. We went to his house at 3:00 and we started by looking at a chocolate plant, learning about its history and origin. Chocolate literally means bitter water. Old world cultures made the chocolate into a cold (bitter) drink. It gave them energy and had many health benefits.

Henrik started roasting the beans before we arrived so when we walked into his house, it smelled wonderful. First we had to shell the beans. After we did most of them by hand, he showed us how it's typically done in bulk.

Next we went back outside to grind the chocolate into a paste. If I remember correctly, it's about 60% coca butter and 40% chocolate, so it came out wet and paste like (I would have thought it'd be a dry powder).

Back inside, he divided the paste into bowls for everyone. 1 part paste, 1 part sugar (raw form) and 1 part powdered milk. As we mixed by hand, he added a little vanilla and some condensed milk.

This made unrefined chocolate to eat. (YUM!) As we rolled our chocolate into single serve balls, we could also choose to add: coconut, almond slivers, sea salt, or roasted red peppers.

The whole class too about an hour and a half and we each brought home our baggie of home made goodies. What delicious fun! I have a feeling we'll be trying this again at home.