How to make chocolate at home. Making chocolates

Chocolate as a gift? For Valentine's Day - a great idea, especially if you make your own chocolates. Interesting, exciting, simple. And both women and men will like such a gift, among them sweet teeth are even more common than among the fairer sex.

Homemade chocolate is, of course, much better than store-bought chocolate figures. Yes, everything will be perfectly smooth there, but the product will also contain preservatives and dyes. And in homemade chocolate, you can also add exactly those products and spices that you love, and such a gift will be remembered for a long time - so there are pluses all around.

Preparing for the process will not require much effort. That is, you can, of course, go to an eco-shop or find grated cocoa beans and cocoa butter in online stores, in this case you will get chocolate as close as possible to the store-bought one that we are all used to. But you can do without hard-to-reach ingredients, then it will turn out almost like a classic tile, but also very tasty.

What you need

The ingredients needed to make chocolate are very simple: cocoa powder, butter, milk, sugar. The only condition is to take all products of very good quality. That is, butter - not peasant, but traditional, high fat content, milk - whole, fresh. And cocoa ... A very good powder will do here, of course, without sugar and any additives. It is best to take cocoa of the well-known old Soviet brand.

And you will need molds. It can be just molds for ice, plastic or silicone. You can take molds for sweets or cookies (they are often curly, interesting). The main thing is that the molds can be put in the freezer. But those that are intended for the oven, and tolerate frost well.

What to add to chocolate

To make your chocolates bright and memorable, you can supplement them with different fillings. Just mix chopped nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts), small raisins and other dried fruits, dried cherries, cranberries, dogwoods, prunes and dried apricots into chocolate, soak and chop (chocolates will benefit if you soak fruits in brandy or rum for a couple hours), you can add pieces of cookies or crumble waffles - then the chocolates will crunch a little on your teeth.

Orange and lemon zest, a variety of spices are excellent with chocolate. Here everything is limited only by the imagination of the manufacturer and his own taste. Cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg are considered classics. Ginger and red pepper are great. You can try cardamom, star anise and even cumin - ground, of course. It goes well with cocoa ground coffee, it makes the taste of chocolate more intense and interesting.

You can also make a full-fledged filling, put a nut or prunes in each mold and pour chocolate over it.

How to do

bitter chocolate

4-5 art. l. cocoa powder
Sugar to taste
2 tbsp ghee (or just butter)

Step 1. Heat the butter in a water bath and add cocoa. It should be so much that the mixture becomes thicker than sour cream and is difficult to mix.
Step 2. Put sugar and cook for 5-7 minutes.
Step 3. Turn off, cool, add fillers (optional) and arrange in molds. Molds can be greased with a drop of melted butter to make the chocolate shine.
Step 4. Wait until the chocolate has cooled to room temperature and put it in the freezer for several hours.

Milk chocolate

100 g cocoa
50 ml milk
50 g melted butter
Sugar
Vanilla (optional)

Step 1. Melt the butter in a water bath.
Step 2. Warm milk and mix with cocoa and sugar.
Step 3. Then put the mixture into the oil. Mix thoroughly, add vanilla.
Step 4. Cook a little and pour into molds.
Step 5. Wait until the chocolate has cooled to room temperature and put it in the freezer for several hours.

Here I collect recipes for homemade chocolate, which is prepared "from scratch", that is, from the source - cocoa butter and cocoa mass. Because for the most part there are recipes for homemade chocolate, when you need to melt the finished bar, or take powders like Nesquik, this is not at all the same. It is very difficult to find recipes for real chocolatiers, I will collect them here, if anyone else knows - write in the comments, send through contacts, I will be very happy!

How I make chocolate: from cocoa butter and cocoa mass

My homemade chocolate from source.

I do not have cocoa beans, but I have cocoa mass and cocoa butter, and I use them.

I usually do this: I melt cocoa butter, after splitting it into smaller pieces. I add pieces of cocoa liquor to the same place, I often interfere. You can add a little cream. I add sugar (I use cane, and put relatively little, a few tablespoons per half liter of chocolate mixture). I heat the whole mixture, often interfere, it gets very hot (at minimum heat), almost boils. You can add a little butter, then the chocolate will eventually be a little softer, better to melt in your mouth. Sometimes I add powdered coconut milk, but I prefer without it.

I don’t add cocoa powder, it turns out powdered chocolate, as if it’s very cheap, the same with carob. So I do it only with cocoa butter and cocoa liquor with sugar.

After cooking, I take a mixer and beat the mixture well. It is especially important if butter was added - then the mixture is heterogeneous, you need to beat well. It usually takes 5-7 minutes, the mixture will become thick and homogeneous, it doesn’t really pour out, but rather falls out into a mold (I pour it into silicone ones, it’s very easy to pull it out later), and it hardens very quickly.

It freezes in a cool place, and then it does not become liquid even when warm, that is, it behaves in the same way as a purchased one. With butter - a little softer, without it - quite hard. But always AWESOME! tasty.

FORMS FOR CHOCOLATE.

There are molds for chocolate on sale (there are just excellent ones in Ozone, like this one for example - in the photo on the right), there are silicone ones, but metal ones are more preferable. Can be lubricated with cocoa butter or butter. It is very convenient to use, and just the portions are small. And beautiful.

Making homemade hard chocolate from cocoa beans

For 1 kg of chocolate we need:
350 g cocoa beans (dried)
200g cocoa butter
500 g powdered sugar or granulated sugar

1. Roast and grind cocoa beans.

Roast the beans, stirring occasionally, on the stove until the skin cracks and begins to pull away from the grain. Shake the pan occasionally to heat the beans evenly. As soon as the beans are so warm that a crackling sound is heard, carefully (very hot!) Separate the grains from the skins with your hands. Grind the grains into a fine powder, preferably in an electric mill. The finer the grinding, the higher the quality of the chocolate (in industrial grinding, the particles reach 25 thousandths of a millimeter).

2. Mix and heat the ingredients.

Mix the roasted and ground cocoa beans with 200 g of cocoa butter, 500 g of powdered sugar and, with constant stirring, heat to 50 degrees Celsius (NOT ABOVE! otherwise the powdered sugar will clump).

Stir long and diligently; in industrial production, the mass remains in motion (conching) for up to 36 hours. Do not add water or other liquid: if the mass turns out to be thick, then you can add 1 teaspoon of cocoa butter.

3. Pour into molds.

Cool the chocolate to 29 degrees and pour the still warm mass into molds, condemn in the refrigerator, after 30 minutes you can get ready-made solid chocolate from the molds.

Sugar - 1 glass.

Milk - 0.5 cups
Vanillin -0.5 tsp
Butter (you can margarine, but of course good butter is better) -125 gr.
Powdered milk - 2 cups
Cocoa - 4 tablespoons

Boil milk with sugar and vanilla. Add butter to the mixture. When it dissolves, pour in the milk powder and cocoa, stirring constantly, put the mixture back on a slow fire and cook for 15 minutes. When the mass thickens, pour it onto plates moistened with cold water. The layer of chocolate should be no thicker than 1 cm. Cut the cooled mass into squares or rectangles. You can add nuts, raisins, and finely chopped dried fruits to chocolate.

There is somehow very little cocoa in this recipe ... I have not tried to cook this way yet.

5 st. spoons of milk;
50 g butter;
6-8 art. spoons of sugar;
5 st. spoons of cocoa;
1 teaspoon of flour;
ice molds or some other molds into which we pour hot chocolate, I use silicone ones, it is very convenient to get the tiles out of them.

We take a saucepan, pour milk, cocoa, sugar into it, mix everything and put on fire. Next, bring to a boil and add 50 g of butter. Whisking constantly and slowly, gradually add the flour and bring to a boil again. As soon as the flour is completely and evenly mixed, remove the pan from the stove.

Nuts (chopped walnuts, peanuts or hazelnuts), as well as raisins, can be added to chocolate as a filling. You can also fill our chocolate with waffle crumbs. If you are going to make chocolate with a "filling", then it is better to do it in layers at the stage of pouring into molds. Pour half of the mold with chocolate, then pour nuts or other fillings, then pour the rest of the mold.

We take out the molds for chocolate and pour the contents of the pan into the molds, put them in the freezer. After a few hours, the chocolate will become solid and ready to eat.

Here is the same as in the previous recipe - not enough cocoa ...

From the comments on this recipe:

And if you cook according to the written recipe, you get the usual homemade glaze with flour. My mom used to cook this all my childhood. It is very good for her to water the cakes, and so as not to stick, you can sprinkle something on top (coconut, nuts, etc.). Cocoa also has such a property, which I noticed while working as a confectioner, when it is added to a biscuit or shortbread dough, more flour is required. So if you add more cocoa, then the "chocolate" will not harden at all.

And another recipe for homemade chocolate from cocoa powder.

You will need: powdered milk - 250 g, cocoa - 70 g, sugar - 500 g, water - 150 g, butter - 100 g. ( Attention! According to this recipe, chocolate is difficult to cook solid, there is too much water; if you want solid chocolate, then greatly reduce the amount of water, to a minimum, so that the sugar just dissolves).

Mix milk powder with cocoa, pour into hot syrup (sugar plus water), beat thoroughly. Add butter, stir until butter is melted.

Lubricate the form with butter, pour the chocolate mass into it and with a knife greased with butter, level the surface. If desired, you can draw various patterns on the surface of the mass with the tip of a knife.

After cooling the mass, place it in the refrigerator for final solidification.

Ready sweets

For those who prefer to buy ready-made, rather than cook on their own, is on sale very original sets of goodies and sweets, in gift boxes.

This is exactly a gift option: sweets are tasty and of high quality, and the packaging is funny, for a gift to relatives and friends.

An easy way to make a cute gift even if you don't know how to cook. You can, of course, buy just an ordinary chocolate bar or a box of chocolates, but this is not as interesting as the original sweets.

It's impossible not to love chocolate! This deliciously delicious dessert won the hearts of not only the little sweet tooth. Even people who have taken place in this life cannot deny themselves this small weakness. The technology for making chocolate is quite complicated, but this is not a hindrance for home cooks who are eager to make chocolate with their own hands in their own kitchen. Cooking this delicacy in the home kitchen allows you to experiment with the filling, the firmness of the dessert, the shape and even the taste. But first things first.

How to make chocolate from cocoa?

Culinary experts have created a huge number of recipes for making homemade sweets. Here is one of them. The main ingredients for making this delicious treat are:

  • cocoa powder;
  • butter;
  • sugar.

Making chocolate with your own hands according to this recipe is quite simple. There is no specific weight for each component. The laying of products is carried out by eye, but it should be remembered that the consistency of still liquid chocolate should resemble thick sour cream. The hardness of the product, as well as its sweetness, depends on the amount of cocoa powder added: the more cocoa is added, the more hard and bitter the finished dessert will be.

Most often, when making chocolate with your own hands, they use classic butter, and sometimes a spread. Ideally, you should purchase cocoa butter, which can be found on the shelves of large supermarkets. If this is not possible, then it is best to use butter, as the spread gives an unpleasant aftertaste to the finished treat.

do-it-yourself: cooking process

The basis of homemade delicacy is the greater its initial weight, the more tasty mass will be obtained at the output. The butter should be chopped into small pieces, and then melted in a saucepan. When it boils, sugar and cocoa powder should be added to it. Having obtained the desired consistency, let the chocolate mixture boil a little (2-3 minutes is enough). Then remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool slightly. After cooling, it is placed in the refrigerator for several hours, where it will solidify completely.

How to make chocolate from cocoa, we figured it out. But not everyone likes the bitter taste of this delicacy, so let's try to cook a milk dessert.

milk chocolate recipe

It has a more delicate taste than the classic. The ingredient composition of this delicacy practically does not differ from the classic recipe. Additionally, milk is introduced into the composition of the mixture, and certain proportions must be observed.

To make milk chocolate, we need the following products:

  • butter - 50 grams;
  • milk - 2 tablespoons;
  • cocoa powder - 100 grams;
  • granulated sugar - 1 tablespoon.

First, you should heat the milk to a temperature of approximately 60-70 degrees, add the prescribed amount of sugar to it and stir. Then melt the butter. You can do this on the stove or use a water bath. As soon as the butter has completely melted, add the sweetened milk and carefully pour in the cocoa, stirring the mixture constantly so that no lumps form. Thoroughly mix all the ingredients, cook the mixture over low heat for several minutes. As practice shows, 2-3 minutes are enough. Then the finished product should be removed in the refrigerator, after cooling the mixture.

Now you know how to make it and you can treat all your friends to this delicious dessert.

To make the delicacy more tasty, it is worth adopting a few useful tips:

1. The finished chocolate mixture can be cooled not only in the freezer, but simply on the top shelf of the refrigerator. In this case, the finished delicacy will be softer in texture.

2. To diversify the taste of homemade chocolate, you can add vanilla to it.

3. To make the product more useful, sometimes sugar is replaced with honey. But since honey cannot be heated too much, otherwise it loses its beneficial properties, it is introduced into the mixture after the boiling process. Once the chocolate mixture has cooled sufficiently, you can add honey and mix the resulting mass thoroughly.

4. To make the mixture more homogeneous, it is best to use a blender to mix the products.

Form and filling

Even if you make chocolate with your own hands, this does not mean at all that your delicacy will be a ridiculous flat pancake or just a nondescript lump. Do not give up the beautiful design of your culinary delights. You can use regular ice cube trays.

Now on the shelves of supermarkets there are many different molds that allow you to cook

The filling for homemade treats is completely up to your imagination. If you rely on standard fillers, then these are, of course, nuts. You can use classic almonds or hazelnuts, cashews or peanuts. Lots of options. Nuts can be laid whole, or they can be crushed.

If you plan to serve a treat in the form of bricks, then such a candy can be filled with coconut or waffle chips. An unusual option for filling homemade chocolate will be the use of dried fruits. Chopped prunes or dried apricots help neutralize the overly sweet taste of the dessert, and also make it healthier.

Not only tasty, but also healthy

Now that you know how to make chocolate out of cocoa, you don’t have to run to the store to buy a bar of your favorite treat. In addition, the home version of this sweet tooth dream is more useful than the store counterpart. Why? All the ingredients used in the preparation of the dessert are natural, there are no various stabilizers and flavor enhancers.

Experiment, surprise your friends and loved ones with unusual tastes of homemade chocolate. Bon appetit!

In the minds of most people, chocolate is bars wrapped in foil and colorful labels on store shelves. But chocolate is not so difficult to make yourself. In addition to the fact that this is a fascinating process (every housewife is curious to try herself as a confectioner-chocolatier), you will be absolutely sure of your chocolate, its composition and ingredients that do not contain preservatives, thickeners, hardeners and other chemicals.

To the question: “How to make chocolate at home? "- there is a simple answer:" Elementary! » Ten to fifteen minutes for preparation and for the entire production process - and you are the proud owner of a plate of hot chocolate. We form it and put it in the freezer - further your participation is not required. After a couple of hours, you are not afraid of suddenly arriving guests - at any moment you are ready to treat them to tea with homemade chocolate.

The basis of the foundations of any real chocolate

Responsible and scrupulous housewives often face a difficult choice for them. How to make homemade chocolate - from cocoa powder or ready-made cocoa mixtures, or is it better to look for cocoa beans? If you take the finished mixture as a basis, you need to be firmly confident in its high quality.

In other cases, as they say, if in doubt - do not take it. Grinding cocoa beans like the ancient Mayans is, of course, original, but very laborious. And the process should be fun. Time-tested cocoa powder without unnecessary additives is all that is needed to solve the question of how to make chocolate with your own hands.

Step by step instruction

Gathering the Ingredients

What should a beginner (and an experienced one too) have a chocolatier at hand? The three main ingredients are cocoa powder, butter (cocoa butter is ideal) and sugar. All other additives are already variations on the chocolate theme.

The process itself - how to make homemade chocolate - recipe

The essence of all chocolate recipes comes down to one thing. By experimenting, you will find your ideal proportions.

Recipe one

How to make homemade chocolate - dark chocolate recipe. Melt the butter in a suitable container. When it boils, add sugar (can be replaced with honey) and cocoa to taste. Approximately measure out the amount of cocoa powder until you are satisfied with the density and consistency of your chocolate. An extreme option is the consistency of thick sour cream. This is the limit - a more viscous structure will only harm your chocolate.

Consider the fact that the more cocoa, the harder and bitterer the dark chocolate. Pour into molds (you can not bother and pour into a regular deep plate), let cool and hide in the freezer. A couple of hours - and you can evaluate the result.

Recipe two

This recipe answers the question of how to make homemade milk chocolate. You will need:

  • cocoa powder;
  • sugar;
  • milk;
  • Butter.

The proportions will be as follows - respectively - 4 tablespoons, 1 teaspoon, 2 tablespoons. Oils - 50 g. Then boldly proceed according to the standard scheme described above.

Little chocolate tricks

  • In the freezer, the chocolate is harder, but in the refrigerator, the opposite is true.
  • Instead of milk, water will do.
  • If you put honey in chocolate instead of sugar, then try not to heat it above 40 degrees, which will preserve all the beneficial properties of honey. Honey can be added after the chocolate has cooled down a bit.
  • For variety, add toppings - dried fruits, nuts, wafer crumbs, vanilla for flavor - everything will go into business when making homemade chocolate.

Making chocolate at home is easy. Don't be afraid to experiment and add your own flavor to standard recipes!

It would be hard to find a person who has never tasted chocolate. But someone who does not know the recipe for chocolate is much easier to find. But the time has come to increase the number of people who know how to cook this delicacy.

Chocolate. When thinking about this sweetness, many remember the most famous brands that produce it in whole batches. It will not be difficult for anyone to name at least some of them. And all because everyone has long been accustomed to buying tiles from leading manufacturers, and making delicious chocolate that would be no worse than in a store has long become something impossible.

Surely there will be those who at least once tried to surprise friends or relatives with this cocoa product. And, for sure, not everyone (to be precise, a minority) immediately succeeded. Is the recipe for making chocolate really that complicated? In no case! The whole secret lies in the right components and technology. That's all.

You should also consider your financial capabilities. Mainly for the reason that the preparation of real chocolate, which is no different from the store, will cost more than the process of making treats from ordinary products that are always at hand. Accordingly, the result may differ. Below are two recipes that can be used to make both dark and milk chocolate. It's time to get started!

Delicious, easy and fast

Chocolate, the recipe of which is given here, can really be called homemade. Already the appearance of the finished product brings a special atmosphere and warmth into the house. And even if its taste cannot be called a restaurant one, there is still a desire to try it and plunge into the unforgettable atmosphere of childhood, joy and comfort. And nothing can replace this. In addition, its simplicity does not give even the slightest chance to pass by and not try to create such a miracle in your kitchen.

To prepare it, you will need products that can be found in every kitchen, namely:

  • cocoa powder - 4-5 tablespoons;
  • sugar (it is better to use powdered sugar, as it dissolves faster) - 2 tablespoons (you can adjust according to your taste);
  • milk - half a glass, that is, approximately 125 milliliters (the more it is, the more milky the chocolate will be, and vice versa);
  • butter - 50 grams.

You also need to stock up on molds (it is very convenient to use silicone ones). You can take absolutely any form. An ice cube tray might even come in handy.

Cooking is no more complicated than the components that are needed for it. Having collected all the ingredients, you can start cooking:

  1. Melt butter. You can do this directly in a bowl placed on a tile, or you can use a water bath. The second option is safer, since the steamed oil will not burn, which cannot be said about the first method. For a water bath, you need to put a small pot or bowl (enamelled or any other suitable) with water on the fire and bring to a boil. Such a vessel should be placed on top so that it is stable, but does not touch the surface of the water. You need to put a small piece of butter in it and wait until it is completely melted.
  2. Place 4 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder in a container. It is important to remember that the more it is added, the harder the chocolate will be. In this case, the result will be dark chocolate.
  3. Immediately pour 4 tablespoons of milk into the container and start stirring the mixture. Pour all the sugar (better, of course, grind it first in a blender). While stirring the resulting mass, you need to add a little more milk (but not all). The mass should become smoother.
  4. Add more milk, continuing to stir the mixture. All this is done on the stove.
  5. If desired, you can also add sugar and milk to make milk chocolate. This needs to be adjusted based on the color of the mixture. You can carefully try it to understand what needs to be changed in it.
  6. When the consistency of the chocolate mass becomes liquid (but not too liquid), smooth and shiny, it must be brought to a boil and removed from the stove.
  7. Next, you need to pour it into pre-prepared molds. A little bit of each so that the chocolate hardens well. If desired, you can add some fillers to it, but it is better to do this as you gain experience, and not the first time.
  8. Send blanks to the freezer for 2 hours. If the molds are put in the refrigerator, the mass may not thicken very well, but if desired, you can use this option.
  9. Take the finished chocolate out of the molds. Ready!

The result, as mentioned above, may differ from ordinary chocolate. For example, small milk stains may appear on the surface. This is normal, since ordinary butter was used, which stood out during the freezing process. But this will in no way affect the taste, so you should not be afraid. In addition, such chocolate will not last long in the refrigerator. And it's not about the expiration date, but about relatives who will immediately eat everything to the last piece.

More adventurous solution

The word "adventure" is often associated with adventure. But this does not mean that the second Chocolate recipe will be like an experiment in the kitchen. No need to reinvent the wheel: it has already been done in advance. In this case, a gamble is making chocolate that is as good, if not better, than the one bought or made by the chocolate maker. At the same time, it will be more expensive than such chocolate, since all its components are absolutely natural.

Below is a recipe for making real chocolate. For this you will need the following ingredients:

  • cocoa butter - 50 grams;
  • grated cocoa (this is not cocoa powder, but hand-rubbed lumpy cocoa, which is less common) - 100 grams;
  • icing sugar (regular sugar may not dissolve and crunch unpleasantly on the teeth, since heat treatment is almost never used in this recipe) - 4 tablespoons (you can take a little more or a little less);
  • vanillin (for taste) - 1 sachet;
  • any of the proposed fillers: raisins, dried apricots (chopped), nuts (crushed into crumbs), cinnamon, ginger, coconut (optional).

Products such as cocoa butter or cocoa lumps made from cocoa beans are quite expensive, but the result that can be obtained in the end exceeds all expectations. Like the previous recipe, you will need molds.

To make chocolate according to this recipe, you need to follow these instructions:

  1. Melt cocoa butter. To do this, it is convenient to use both a water bath and a microwave oven (turned on to the lowest mode). When it melts, you need to add grated cocoa to it and mix it thoroughly with butter.
  2. Add powdered sugar to the same container. To make the chocolate milky, you can add a little more milk or replace the sugar with condensed milk. The amount is adjusted according to taste preferences. The whole mass should be mixed well so that there are no lumps in it.
  3. Add the desired amount of vanilla and mix until smooth. There is no need to be afraid if the mixture seems too thin. Thanks to the cocoa butter, it will harden well.
  4. And now it's time to pour it into molds, a little bit into each. On top you can pour nuts, dried fruits, coconut flakes and so on. With the help of a spoon, this filling can be easily dipped into the chocolate mixture.
  5. Place the molds in the freezer until completely frozen. This may take about two hours or more.
  6. Take out the frozen item. Ready!