Most chocolate makers and chocolatiers live in fear of water. Water can cause chocolate to seize, a state that will not allow chocolate be tempered or used for bars and bonbons. I remember the astonishment I felt when I watched a video of master chocolatier Kirsten Tiballs add a few drops of water to chocolate on purpose. Now I get it: she needed more viscous chocolate for her creation and understood exactly how the chocolate would react.
The following experiment from my Tempering Zen online course is a step toward being that masterful. Here we explore one of the complexities of chocolate, noticing that it reacts differently with a little water or a lot. To understand chocolate, we need to play!
Preparation
Choose chocolate with only cocoa beans, cocoa butter, sugar, and/or vanilla as ingredients. Additives like lecithin, milk, vegetable oil, etc, may change the behavior of the chocolate.
Measure 50 grams of chocolate in a bowl. Heat until completely melted, do not burn.
Have a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon and warm water ready.
Experiment
Notice the viscosity of the chocolate as you stir. Taste a bit and notice the flavor and texture.
Ready? Add 1/4 teaspoon of water. Mix well. Feel any difference?
Add 1/4 teaspoon of water, stir. Repeat. Around 3/4 to 1 teaspoon, it may feel a bit thicker and harder to stir?
Keep adding more water 1/4 teaspoon at a time.
At around 2 1/2 teaspoons of water, you may have firm and silky chocolate. A water ganache. Taste this and note the flavor and texture.
Keep adding water slowly. Eventually the chocolate will seize, meaning that it won’t absorb water, and its texture will become grainy.
Note: The approximate amounts of water suggested for each stage are based on my 85% chocolate. You may find slight or large deviations from my observations. That’s to be expected; you didn’t get a wrong answer!
What’s going on here?
At first the water interacts with sugars. A water ganache is a suspended emulsion. When too much water is added, the cocoa butter starts to rebel and separate.
In hot and humid rooms, chocolate may take on some water from the air and become thicker to work with. I’ve found that adding more cocoa butter to thick chocolate makes it workable. More cocoa butter will not save seized/broken chocolate.
I highly recommend you try this experiment to get a more intuitive feel for chocolate.
Spoiler alert: find photos of my observations at the end.
Our March Chocolate Club is this weekend! We are trying 10 awesome bars, including one that is a legend among chocolate educators. Don’t miss connecting with other chocolate fans and enjoying amazing homemade snacks. Choose either Saturday or Sunday. See upcoming dates here.
Are you interested in tiny batch cacao fermentation but haven’t quite gotten around to trying it? Or maybe you tried it but didn’t have much success? Our Tree to Bean class is for you! Over the course of three weekends, we will hold your hand through the fermenting process. I will share more about this workshop soon, but in the meantime reserve May 16, 23, and 30.
Save the dates!
April 24-26 Big Island Chocolate Festival
May 9 Hilo Chocolate Festival
July 10-12 Hawaii Chocolate & Cacao Association annual conference on Oahu
If you work or play with chocolate, do try the chocolate & water experiment yourself. Here are photos with my observations:
50 grams of chocolate before melting.
Melted chocolate, easy to stir. (Apologies for the different lighting in this photo.)
After about 3/4 teaspoon of water, getting thicker.
After about 2.5 teaspoons of water, a delicious and smooth water ganache. This is a delicious way to eat chocolate - the flavors come through clearly.
After about 4 teaspoons, the chocolate has seized. The texture is lumpy/thick/grainy and it is difficult to stir. Seized chocolate cannot be recovered, best to turn it into drinking chocolate! You can also use seized chocolate to separate the cocoa butter.
Questions? Comments? I’m here 😊
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