Chocolates and chocolate cakes are synonyms with celebrations and parties. There are only a few of our celebrations that go without them. For making chocolates at home you not need any industrial machinery and the resources required are available at your nearby market very easily. You can also join the chocolate and wedding cake classes to get a knowhow at the hands of real experts in chocolate making.

Chocolate and wedding chocolate preparation may be a bit messy affair at the start but the overall feeling you get is memorable. The 2 most popular varieties of chocolates that are available today include the white, milk and dark chocolates. Chocolate varieties vary because of the amount of cocoa that they contain.

White chocolate: This is the sweetest of all the chocolates and it does not have any cocoa powder or liquid in it.

Milk chocolate: This chocolate has optimum or medium cocoa amount and a bit of bitterness.

Dark chocolate: This chocolate has maximum permissible amount of cocoa in it. The chocolate is rich in cocoa and has  more bitterness when compared to the other variants of chocolate.

Depending on what variety of chocolate you want to make you can use cocoa powder in varying amounts.

How to make chocolate at home

There are 2 ways through which you can make chocolate at your home.

1 – Cocoa Powder Method

For this method, you need ingredients including:

• Approx. 590 grams or 1 and ¾ cups of cocoa powder.
• 100 gm or ½ cup of sugar.
• 30 gm or ¼ cup of powdered sugar.
• 170 gram or ¾ cup of sugar.
• 250 ml or 1 cup of water.
• 150 ml or ⅔ cup of milk at normal room temperature.

The easiest and convenient method for making chocolate at your home starts with the mixing of softened butter and cocoa powder in a kitchen utensil or bowl. The steps for completing the cocoa powder method towards successful chocolate preparation at home is given below.

1. 1. Place the set amount of water in a kitchen pot or utensil and heat it on a gas burner. See to it that it does not comes to boiling temperature.
   2. As said earlier, the softened butter and cocoa powder are needed to be mixed in a kitchen bowl. You will get a smooth paste when they have been creamed to the required limit. If there are any lumps present, you will you have to remove them by using your immersion blender, food processor, or a fork.
   3. This mixture has to be added to hot water and the whole preparation is to be stirred.
   4. You can again raise the temperature, but the mixture should only be heated and not boiled. Pour into another bowel later.
   5. The powdered sugar needs to be sifted so that there is no clump present in it.
   6. Add the powder sugar and the milk to the mixture of cocoa powder and butter and blend again until complete smoothness is achieved.  You can now pour the mixture into any container you want. The chocolate will take the shape of the container in which you put it. For instance, if you want a rectangular bar you can use the rectangular casserole dishes.

2 – The Cocoa Bean Method

This is another method that can be used for making chocolate at your home itself. Ingredients required

• 0.5 kg cocoa beans (you can also try the Cocoa Nibs)
• Sugar
• Cocoa powder (nonfat)
• Lecithin
• Optional- Vanilla Pod

Steps of cocoa bean method of chocolate preparation

1. Roast the beans so that they can crank easily and are sterilized while possessing more flavor.
2. Put the beans in a form of one single layer in the baking sheet. Preheat the oven at around 120-degree celsius or 250 degree Fahrenheit, and put the beans to roast for around 18 minutes.
3. Once the beans get roasted, crack and winnow them to form nibs.
4. The chaff or husks will be removed this way. You can use a hammer for cracking the beans. Winnowing can be done with spray dryer, through blowing of hair.
5. The cocoa beans are to be ground so that they can form cocoa liquor. The Champion Juicer is good for this process as another general kind of food processors or coffee grinders will not work. Put the cocoa beans into your grinder, only one handful at one time and put them gently, so that the motor of the grinder does not overheat.
6. Collect the cocoa liquor from the grinder and weigh it, which is necessary to know what amount of other ingredients would be required. The ratio in which the other ingredients are required for making chocolate are as follows:

Sugar: Around 20% to 80 % of the cocoa liquid weight depending on the amount of sweetness you want in your chocolate. Cocoa butter: Up to 20% of the weight of Cocoa liquor. Milk powder (nonfat): This would have the same weight as amount as the cocoa liquor. Vanilla: This one is optional. You can split the vanilla pod and soak it in the cocoa butter (for 1 hour) if you want the flavor.

Counching and Refining

You can use a high power Wet Grinder for conching and refining your chocolate preparation. The Spectra 10 Melangar can be used for good results.

1. Melt the cocoa butter and the chocolate by putting it within the oven at around 120 degree Fahrenheit or 50 degree Celsius .
2. Combine lecithin sugar and powder milk powder.
3. Now pour this mixture within the grinder. You can also use your hair dryer periodically for keeping the chocolate In melted form

Refining can be done for a minimum of 10 hours so that the chocolate has a balanced and smooth composition and taste good. Do not refine it for more than approx. 36 hours. You can also take the break from refining by putting off the grinder.

Tempering

The next stage and process of chocolate preparation is tempering which will provide a snap and shine to your chocolate preparation. Melt the chocolate at around 50-degree Celsius of temperature, transfer into a bowl and keep stirring until the temperature drops to around 38 degree Celsius. Please this melted chocolate on a surface that can absorb heat (for example a stone slab or countertop). Subsequent thickening of the chocolate will show that the sufficient amounts of crystal seeds are present. Use a spatula for spreading the chocolate on the surface. Put the chocolate back into the bowel. You can also purchase a tempering machine for this process.

Molding

Now mold the chocolate, by pouring it into any desired container of the required shape. This should be done at a temperature of around 32-degree centigrade. The chocolate can be frozen, refrigerated or it can harden itself at the room temperature. You can also enroll yourself in professional chocolate making classes in Delhi and advanced chocolate making courses in Delhi and get to know more about the process of chocolate and cake preparation.