How to Make Chocolates

Did you ever wonder that? In brief, they're made from bitter cacao beans and folded into chocolate bars. If you were a large chocolate company you'd need tons of them. Here's a guide to the production process.

First of all you have to harvest the cacao beans. Large companies either buy them from growers or they buy the farm and then harvest the beans. They place them into an oven at between 250 to 325 degrees F. for 5 to 35 minutes. You gradually lower the temperature and stop roasting when they start to crack. Their two reasons for the time variance.

The first is to prevent the beans from burning. The second is that the cooking time of cacao beans varies  according to bean type.

Companies produce chocolates in huge quantities and therefore, the beans are stored in drums and rotated over gas grills. Once they're roasted, they must be cracked into small bits, or 'nibs', removing those that can't be cracked.

Next is grinding them into a cacao liqueur. You need a machine to liquefy this while separating the remaining husks that weren't culled after roasting.

Then you conch and refine the chocolate so that you're able to give it a distinct taste. This is what makes the different tastes of product between the large chocolate producers.

First melt the chocolate and cocoa butter in an oven at around 120 degrees F. Then mix non fat dry milk powder, sugar, lecithin and a vanilla pod for about one hour. The mixture is then poured into a grinder with some heat, keeping the chocolate a liquid. Refine for at least 10 hours but no more than 36 hours.

When ready, temper the chocolate so it looks shiny and soft enough to easily melt in your hand.

We're almost finished. Mold the chocolate into your desired shape. Produce in large quantities by using molds. Pour in and after cooling, package it for delivery.

Some companies sell these in blocks so people can buy them, melt it and mold it to their own desired shapes.

Making chocolate is easy. You just have to have the equipment and all of the ingredients. Volume doesn't really matter because the principle is the same whether producing a huge batch or a small one. If you're really serious about making chocolate from scratch, try to find a class and sign up.

So what if you don't want to go to all that work and chocolate simply disappears too quickly anyway? There is another option to sort of satisfy you. How about a Chocolate Fudge scented jar candle? This candle fills your home with the scent of creamy milk chocolate, creating a satisfying ambiance and leaving your mouth watering. Plus, it comes with a jewelry surprise inside!