Make Chocolate From a Cacao Pod

In this Instructable, I will show you the process of taking a cacao fruit or cacao pod and turning it into chocolate. It is a very fascinating process to do at home, and extremely satisfying.

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Follow the steps below, watch the in-depth video tutorial, or do both!

Ingredients:

1. Cacao Pods (2 or 3) With 3 you get get about 170g of processed cacao nibs
2. Cacao butter
3. Sugar
4. Milk powder - if making milk chocolate

Tools:

1. Blender, food processor, or coffee grinder, unless you have a wetstone grinder mentioned below.
2. Spatula
3. Chocolate bar molds
4. Chocolate Melanger - Optional, but really the only way to get the chocolate super smooth like you get at the store.
5. Bowls
6. Sheet pan
7. Parchment paper

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First, we need to ferment the cacao beans. There are a few ways to open the cacao pods; the easiest way I find is to take a mallet or meat tenderizer and give it a good whack. The pod will crack, then you can open it up, revealing the fleshy beans/seeds. The flesh is really, really tasty. Learn more about the cacao fruit and what the white fleshy pulp tastes like in this video.

Remove all the beans and place them in a bowl. Then cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let the beans rest for 7 days. You can also place them in a mason jar with a lid. When fermented, there will be a strong fruity alcohol smell, and they will have changed colors. Fermentation adds flavor to the beans.

Now, the fermented cocoa beans need to be dried and roasted. You have a few options here: Traditionally, the beans will be laid out on a tarp in the sun to dry. Then they will be roasted. But I usually just dry and roast them at the same time in the oven, since it takes less time. You can also dry them first in a dehydrator before roasting them.

For the quick method, just add them to a sheet pan with parchment paper and place them in an oven set to 300°F (150 C). Roast them for 1 hour or so until the flesh turns dark and the beans are dry. They should crack easily. The roast kills bacteria, develops flavor, reduces moisture in the bean, and loosens the shell from the bean.

Also, the amount of time of the roast develops different flavors, and every chocolate maker has their own formula as far as temps and times go.

Keep in mind that the length of the roast is shorter if you dry the beans first in the sun or in the dehydrator. If you do that, set the oven to 300°F (150 C) and only roast them for 5 to 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 250°F (120 C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

To keep it simple, and for the first time, just follow the quick method that I did.

Once you have the roasted beans, allow them to cool for about 30 minutes. Then you can crack the shells and remove the beans. I usually just sit in front of the TV and do this. Break up the de-shelled beans into the chocolate nibs. The process of separating the shells from the beans is called winnowing.

Time to make some dark chocolate. I will show you a 70% dark chocolate bar. For that, we need 70g of cocoa nibs, 25g of sugar, and 5g of cocoa butter. For the sugar, I usually use powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar. I haven't found the little bit of cornstarch in the confectioner's sugar to make much of a difference. But normal sugar is typically used in making chocolate. If you want to use that, grind it up as fine as possible first.

Add the nibs and the sugar to a blender, food processor, or coffee grinder, and blend. Do it for 1 minute or so. The nibs will start to break down.

Next, melt the cocoa butter, and add that. Keep blending in stages, and use a spatula to push the sides down so it gets evenly blended. Keep doing that until you are left with a nice liquid paste or liquor. It's okay to add a little bit of cocoa butter if it still doesn't break down enough for you, which will happen sometimes.

NOTE: If you do have a chocolate melanger, add the nibs first and run the melanger for 1 hr or so. Then add the sugar and run it for at least 24 hrs. You probably won't need to add extra cocoa butter at all if using the melanger. It will give you an absolutely silky smooth chocolate liquor.

Pour the chocolate paste or chocolate liquor into your chocolate bar molds. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

TEMPERING:

If you want to temper the chocolate. Heat it to 115°F (46 °C) in a bowl resting on a pot with water. Don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl. Set the burner to medium heat. As the water heats up, the steam will warm the bowl and the chocolate. Once the chocolate reaches 115°F remove it from the heat and stir it until it cools to 86°F (30C). Then heat it back up to 90°F (32C). Then it will be tempered and ready to pour into the molds.

Remove the chocolate bar from the fridge and remove it from the mold, and give it a snap. Satisfying. Give it a taste. The chocolate flavor should be rich and pronounced, and there will be a gritty taste unless you use the melanger. There you go, homemade dark chocolate.

For the milk chocolate, I am using 70g of cocoa nibs, 70g of sugar, 45g of milk powder, and 45g of cocoa butter.

Add the sugar and the milk powder to a high-speed blender, food processor, or coffee grinder and blend for a minute or two until fine.

Remove the mixture and then blend just the cocoa nibs for a minute or two to break them up. Combine the nibs and the milk powder, and the sugar in the blender or food processor and blend for a few minutes.

Next, melt the cocoa butter and add that. Continue mixing for several minutes until you have a nice liquid chocolate.

NOTE: If using a melanger, add the cocoa nibs first, and grind for about an hr. Then add the sugar, milk powder, and cocoa butter, and continue grinding for at least 24 hrs or longer, until you get your desired smoothness.

TEMPERING:

If you want to temper the chocolate. Heat it to 105°F (41 °C) in a bowl resting on a pot with water. Don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl. Set the burner to medium heat. As the water heats up, the steam will warm the bowl and the chocolate. Once the chocolate reaches 105°F, remove it from the heat and stir it until it cools to 80°F (27C). Then heat it back up to 86°F (30C). Then it will be tempered and ready to pour into the molds. The temperatures are a little lower for milk chocolate than for dark chocolate.

Pour the chocolate into the chocolate bar molds and give them a tap to remove any air bubbles. It will sit at room temperature since it was tempered, but to speed the process, put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Remove the bars from the mold and enjoy.

Again, it will have a gritty texture unless you use a melanger, but the flavor should be excellent.

Hopefully you enjoyed this and learned something new! It is a long but satisfying process, with lots of nuances that you can develop as you make it more and more to get different flavors.

Oh, before I forget, where the cocoa pod is grown or comes from will make a difference in the flavor as well. :)

PRINT this how to make chocolate from cocoa beans recipe here if you want.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 10,000, haha. Check out the video tutorial to see those steps in action!