Blog Navigation

Blog categories

View all categories

Search in blog

Latest posts

Kinderriegel Rezept zum Nachmachen
Kinderriegel Rezept zum Nachmachen
Posted in: Sweet recipes, Chocolate and pralines, Chocolate specialities
2025-04-02
0 Liked

Welches Kind liebt schon nicht Kinderschokolade? Deshalb haben wir uns gedacht, dass wir Dir heute zeigen, wie...

Read more
Aperitif carrots filled with a salmon filling
Aperitif carrots filled with a salmon filling
Posted in: Salty recipes, Aperitif and appetizers, Savoury pastries, Seasonal recipe ideas, Spring & Easter
2025-03-26
4 Liked

Are you still looking for a great Easter roll appetiser idea for your Easter brunch? Then our carrot savoury snacks...

Read more
View all latest posts

Popular posts

Temper couverture and chocolate correctly
Temper couverture and chocolate correctly
Posted in: Things to know, Chocolate, Sweet recipes, Chocolate and pralines, Pralines, Chocolate specialities
2018-10-28
55 Liked
How to temper couverture and chocolate correctly so that it can be used for further processing. Here you will learn...
Read more
The most common mistakes when working with chocolate or couverture
The most common mistakes when working with chocolate or couverture
Posted in: Things to know, Chocolate
2023-02-28
6 Liked
The chocolate does not set, gets grey dots or a haze and so on and so forth. Many mistakes can occur when working...
Read more
Mould your own chocolate Easter bunnies
Mould your own chocolate Easter bunnies
Posted in: Things to know, Chocolate, Seasonal recipe ideas, Spring & Easter, Sweet recipes, Chocolate and pralines, Chocolate specialities
2019-03-10
33 Liked
You can easily make your own Easter bunnies at home! You can find out how to do it and what you need here. A sweet...
Read more
View all popular posts

How to make your own chocolate

15 Liked
 

Make your own chocolate

Does making your own chocolate sound like a dream to you? Then let's make it come true now! In this video or blog post, we explain how you can make your own chocolate at home from scratch. It's quite simple in principle, but you will need a few pieces of equipment to make it. The melangeur is probably the most important of these devices and without it, the chocolate would not be as melt-in-the-mouth smooth and fine as we know and love it. We explain how to use the melangeur correctly and what you need to pay attention to when making the couverture. Give it a try and surprise your friends and family with chocolate you've created yourself! You are really free to choose the composition of your chocolate and can even mix two types of beans or cocoa nibs. We have an exquisite selection of high-quality and flavourful beans and nibs in our online shop.

Most important key data

Quantity: 2 kg

Production time: 20 to 30 minutes

Conching time: 24 to 48 hours

Difficulty level: Easy

Shelf life: Up to one year

Ingredients for 60 % - Dark

Cocoa butter200 g
Cocoa nibs1 kg cocoa nibs
Granulated sugar800 g
Vanilla seeds | optional1 pinch of
Soya lecithin4-10 g

Ingredients for 35 % milk

Cocoa butter500 g
Cocoa nibs200 g
Whole milk powder400 g
Skimmed milk powder100 g
Granulated sugar760 g
Malt extract40 g
Vanilla seeds | optional1 pinch of
Soya lecithin | optional4-10 g

Manufacture

Carefully heat the cocoa butter over a bain-marie. Make sure that you do not heat it above 40 ºC. Then pour the liquid cocoa butter into your melangeur and switch it on. Now add a small amount of cocoa nibs. It is important that you do not add all the nibs at once, otherwise the Melangeur's grindstones may clog up. In general, it is important that you only add the nibs in portions over a period of approx. 10 minutes. You can always tell whether you can add new nibs or not by the sounds the Melangeur makes. If the noises are still quite loud and rattling, then the cocoa nibs are still being ground, but if the noises are quieter and smoother, then you can add more nibs.

It is also very important that you keep reheating the mixture using a hot air blower. By constantly adding new nibs, the cocoa mass cools down quite quickly and the melangeur has a little more work to do. To make his work easier, you need to heat the mass with the hot air blower. Either you heat the cocoa mass from above (don't get too close to the nibs, otherwise you will burn them) or you heat the metal bowl at the bottom.

Once all the nibs are in the machine, you can let them grind for about 10 minutes to make the mixture more uniform and smooth. Scrape the stone rollers and other elements from time to time with the rubber scraper supplied with the Melangeur. The more often you do this, the less you will lose later, as everything that is coarse-grained will be sorted out in the end. After the 10-minute meal, you can now add the sugar. However, if you are making milk couverture, you must first work in the milk powder and malt extract, leave to turn for 2 to 3 minutes and only then add the sugar. Even then, don't forget to reheat a little so that the mixture remains nice and warm and liquid.

Keep your eyes open when choosing sugar

You are completely free to choose your own sugar, but you should be aware that sugar can have a strong influence on the flavour of your chocolate. For an unadulterated cocoa bean flavour, we recommend using normal granulated sugar. However, if you want to use brown sugar, raw cane sugar/panela, this is of course also possible. Just make sure that the sugar is dry! Coconut blossom sugar is also suitable for production. We would advise against using sugar substitutes such as erythritol and xylitol, as they have a cooling effect, in the case of xylitol, which in turn has a negative impact on the flavour and creamy consistency. Of course, if you like this, it also works for production.

We only use sugar from Swiss sugar beet for our bean-to-bar couverture. This means we avoid long transport routes and support our local farmers at the same time.

Use the rubber scraper to scrape the edges, rollers and other elements of the melangeur again so that everything is ground evenly. You now have a coarse, grainy cocoa paste. You can now leave the melangeur to run for at least 24 hours.

Depending on the type of bean, you can now decide whether to leave the lid off the melangeur or leave it on. The idea behind this is to get the bitter substances out of the chocolate. For example, if you have used a bean that is quite sour and bitter and you don't want these flavours in your chocolate, then conch the chocolate with the lid off. Have you ever driven past a large chocolate factory and smelled the wonderful aroma of chocolate and cocoa in the air? Well, these factories do nothing other than conching the couverture with an "open lid". Even if it's bitter, it's still the scent of chocolate.

If you have used a fairly fruity and mild bean, you can leave the lid on without any problems.

After 24 hours (you can leave the couverture for longer, but 24 hours is enough for a velvety soft couverture), the chocolate should now look like the photo. The couverture is nice and runny and smooth. Make sure you try the liquid couverture. Now you can decide for yourself whether you want to add vanilla seeds or not. The vanilla flavour can sometimes support and strengthen the chocolate flavour, but you have to decide for yourself. For a dark couverture with a high bean quality, we advise against it, but for a milk chocolate we find that it complements each other very well. If the couverture is too thick, you can add a small amount of soya lecithin. Start with approx. 4 g and add a little more if necessary. You can add up to 15 g to the couverture. Then leave the chocolate to mix for a further 2 to 3 minutes and then switch off the melangeur.

Completion

Press down the levers on the side of the melangeur and tilt it to pour the liquid couverture into a bowl. Carefully scrape the chocolate residue out of the melangeur. You may still have small pieces of sand around the grinding tools. Make sure that you do not pour this part of the chocolate into the bowl, but only the part that is completely liquid and finely ground. You can put the leftovers that are still slightly sandy in an extra container and use them perfectly for baking or for hot chocolate.

Then remove the cover of the grinding tools, lift them out and scrape off the chocolate. Pour this part of the chocolate into the additional container. You can now also remove the metal bowl of the melangeur and then, once it is well scraped out, wash it out with hot water and a little washing-up liquid.

You now need to process the liquid couverture further. To do this, you need to temper the couverture. In the case of homemade chocolate, this can only be done using the tabbing method, as there are no perfectly tempered drops with which you can inoculate it. You can find out how to temper in our couverture tempering course or in our bean to bar course. There you will also learn a lot of useful and exciting knowledge about cocoa. We highly recommend this course for anyone who is interested in making their own chocolate.

You can then use the tempered couverture to mould small and large bars, make your own pralines or make broken chocolate. Refine it with high-quality ingredients or leave it as it is. It's your own chocolate and you decide what to do with it. The main thing is that you enjoy it!

Storage & shelf life

The finished couverture can be kept for up to one year. Dark couverture can easily be kept for up to two years or even longer if stored in the best conditions.

It is best to store the couverture in a cool place away from sunlight. The chocolate should be packed as airtight as possible.

 
Posted in: Things to know, Chocolate, Sweet recipes, Chocolate and pralines, Chocolate specialities, Sweet basic recipes

Leave a comment

★
★
★
★
★
Security code

Related posts

Mould your own chocolate Easter bunnies
Mould your own chocolate Easter bunnies
Posted in: Things to know, Chocolate, Seasonal recipe ideas, Spring & Easter, Sweet recipes, Chocolate and pralines, Chocolate specialities
2019-03-10
33 Liked
You can easily make your own Easter bunnies at home! You can find out how to do it and what you need here. A sweet...
Read more
Make your own decorative roulade
Make your own decorative roulade
Posted in: Things to know, Cakes, Sweet recipes, Sweet basic recipes
2019-01-17
12 Liked
Make your own decor roulade - we'll explain exactly how in this blog, with lots of tips and tricks from our...
Read more
Cinnamon stars recipe
Cinnamon stars recipe
Posted in: Seasonal recipe ideas, Sweet recipes, Cakes and pastries, Winter & Christmas, Cookies and biscuits
2018-11-22
24 Liked 1 comment
Make your own cinnamon stars with the help of our professionals, with lots of tips & tricks to bake the best...
Read more
Temper couverture and chocolate correctly
Temper couverture and chocolate correctly
Posted in: Things to know, Chocolate, Sweet recipes, Chocolate and pralines, Pralines, Chocolate specialities
2018-10-28
55 Liked
How to temper couverture and chocolate correctly so that it can be used for further processing. Here you will learn...
Read more
Make your own chocolate pumpkin pralines
Make your own chocolate pumpkin pralines
Posted in: Seasonal recipe ideas, Autumn & Halloween, Chocolate and pralines, Pralines
2018-10-20
35 Liked
Make your own 3D chocolate pumpkin pralines - here you get detailed instructions with lots of tips and tricks...
Read more