Mixing elements of chemistry with world culture
and history, this delicious kit contains everything you'll need
to make 8 ounces of dark chocolate. Can be made on the stove or
with a microwave - adult supervision is recommended! Great for
class room activities, scout troops, birthday parties, home school,
or after school. Makes a great gift for kids (ages 8 & up)!
Inside each Make
Your Own Chocolate Kit you'll find: organic cocoa butter,
cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar, starter crystals, a temperature
indicator, paper candy liners, instructions, and the story of
chocolate.
All you have to do is melt the cocoa butter, add the cocoa powder
and sugar. Stir, stir, stir until it cools to the right temperature;
add the starter crystals so that the chocolate "tempers,"
and enjoy delicious home-made chocolate from scratch! By the way,
you also get some cacao beans - we thought you might like to taste
a few.
Each Chocolate Kit Makes 8 oz. of dark chocolate!
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Chocolate
comes from cacao beans which were originally found only in Central
and South America.
Cacao was
so special to the ancient Aztecs that they told this legend: Their
god, Quetzalcoatl, brought the cacao tree from Paradise to earth,
traveling on a beam of the Morning Star. He gave the tree as an
offering to the people, and they learned how to roast and grind
its beans into a paste. They added spices and mixed it with water
calling it "xocolatl" or "bitterwater". They
believed that it brought wisdom and knowledge to those who drank
it.
Today, cacao
is an important part of agriculture in the tropics all around
the world. The legend of chocolate lives on!
More information
on cocoa trees: www.cocoatree.org
or www.worldcocoafoundation.org
Lucía lives in a hot and rainy part of
Costa Rica. Her parents and neighbors grow their own food to eat,
and they also grow some crops to make money. In the tropics, many
crops are grown on large plantations with lots of chemical pesticides
and fertilizers, which can hurt other plants and animals in the
area.
But here, people are tending cacao trees
organically, without any chemicals, so that they can keep their
forest green and productive. A healthy forest has lots of different
levels, which makes it possible for many different animals and
plants to live together. Cacao has an important role to play because
it is an understory tree, which means that it grows in the shade
of taller trees.
Lucía helps to take care of the cacao
trees and harvest the pods. She breaks open the pods, and puts
the beans into big, burlap bags so that they can ferment for three
days. Then, she spreads the beans out onto a cloth on the ground,
and lets them dry in the hot sun for a week. When the beans are
ready, she goes with her father to sell them. They get paid extra
because they are growing organically.
Meanwhile, far across the ocean, the cacao
is made into chocolate. When we buy candy bars, part of the money
goes to pay for the shipping, part for processing, the candy wrappers,
the advertising, the store owner, and lots of other stuff. Lucía's
family really gets only a small part of the price we pay for chocolate.
Chocolate as we know it has only become
available in the last 100 years or so, even though cacao beans
had been growing in Central and South America for a long time.
When the Spanish explorers came to Mexico
in the 1500s, they found the Aztecs drinking "xocolatl"
(pronounced "ho-ko-la-tol"), made from cacao beans,
water, and sometimes, spicy peppers. Montezuma, the last king
of the Aztecs, was known to have drunk 50 pitchers a day! The
Spanish brought it back to Europe, but since they found it too
bitter, they added vanilla and sugar. They wouldn't let anyone
in Europe know how or where it grew, and guarded their secret
for about 100 years, growing it on plantations in their colonies.
You have to remember that there weren't
a lot of different drinks available then, as there are now. So
eventually, when other people did find out about it, drinking
chocolate became a very fashionable thing to do. Fancy clubs,
just for drinking hot chocolate were opened.
It really didn't taste that great, however,
because cacao beans are about 50% fat. Chocolate became much better
when, about 150 years ago, the Dutch chemist, Conrad Van Houten,
invented the chocolate press. Then people could separate cocoa
butter, the fatty part of cacao, from cocoa powder, and in turn,
make hot chocolate and chocolate candy, as we know it today.
Today, the huge demand for chocolate has
turned cacao into an important cash crop, world wide. We hope,
by including organic cacao in our Chocolate Kit, that we can help
make it possible for both Lucía's family and the forest to keep
flourishing.
Want to learn more?
NUTRITION
FACTS:
| Serving Size 1/6 kit |
(38g) |
| Servings Per Container |
6 |
| Amount
Per Serving |
|
| Calories
200 |
|
| |
%
Daily Value* |
| Total
Fat 13 g |
20% |
-
Saturated Fat 8 g |
|
| Cholesterol
0 mg |
0% |
| Sodium
0 mg |
0% |
| Total
Carbohydrate 22 g |
7% |
| Dietary
Fiber 2 g |
7% |
| Sugars
19 g |
|
| Protein
1 g |
|
| Vitamin
A |
0% |
Vitamin
C |
0% |
| Calcium
|
2% |
Iron |
4% |
*Percent
Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your
daily values may be higher or lower based on your calorie
needs. |
INGREDIENTS:
SUGAR, COCOA BUTTER, COCOA POWDER, COCOA POWDER
(ALKALIZED), AND DARK CHOCOLATE (CONTAINING SUGAR, COCOA
LIQUOR, COCOA LIQUOR (ALKALIZED), COCOA BUTTER, MILK FAT). |
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Before
you start, read through all of the instructions and take a quick
look in your kit to find the following ingredients:
cocoa
butter (it's yellowish and hard)
confectioner's
sugar (it's white)
paper
candy liners (they're paper)
temperature
indicator (it's black)
cocoa
powder (the most finely ground particles)
starter
crystals (medium ground particles)
whole
cacao beans (biggest particles)
You will also
need: a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, and one quarter teaspoon
of vanilla, if you have it.
You will need to melt the cocoa butter in either a 1 or 2 quart
microwave safe, glass, NOT PLASTIC, bowl, or a double boiler.
1) MELT - If
you're using a microwave: Put the cocoa butter into the microwavable
bowl and heat it in the microwave until it is completely melted.
This will take at least 3 minutes, and perhaps a few minutes longer
if your microwave is of low wattage. Be careful, the bowl will be
hot when you take it out! If you're using a double boiler: put the
cocoa butter into the top pan of the double boiler, and melt it
completely over hot water.
2)COMBINE -
Now, remove from either the microwave or the stove, and empty the
cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar into the bowl with the melted
cocoa butter. Stir very vigorously about 50 times, until all the
lumps have disappeared.
3)HEAT - Microwave:
Put the mixture back into the microwave and heat it at 100% power
for 40 seconds, but no longer! Double boiler: Put the mixture back
over the boiling water and heat for 6 minutes, stirring frequently.
When you take it out, stir the mixture again, 5 times vigorously.
Note: As you
know, oil and water don't mix well, and by all of this vigorous
stirring, what you're trying to do is to help get rid of some of
the moisture in the chocolate. That way, the chocolate is smoother
and better. You really can't stir too much!
4)COOL - Remove
the backing from the the black temperature indicator, and stick
it on the outside of the pan or bowl, near the bottom, so that it
will measure the temperature of the chocolate. (You could also attach
the temperature indicator to one of your knives and keep dipping
it into the chocolate to take its temperature.) Wait about 10-15
minutes, stirring for about 20 seconds every 2-3 minutes. That ensures
that the chocolate stays all more or less the same temperature as
it cools.
Note: Making
chocolate is really easy, but you do need to pay attention to the
chocolate's temperature as you work. This recipe may look a bit
like a scientific experiment, and in a way it is. Chocolate needs
to be "tempered," which means that it is treated with
heat so that it forms regular crystals. Tempering is what makes
candy bars "crack" when you break them in half, and what
makes them have shiny surfaces. The starter crystals we've included
in this Kit are powdered chocolate bars, and since they're already
crystallized, they "start" the rest of your chocolate
crystallizing, when it hits 94° Fahrenheit. However, if it is too
warm when you add them, they'll melt, and lose their tempering ability,
and if it's too cold, your chocolate will already have begun to
harden, without crystallizing regularly. So, watch the temperature
indicator to make the best chocolate! And, by the way, if it doesn't
seem like your chocolate tempered properly, don't worry, it should
still taste great!
5) While you're
waiting, find the cacao beans, rub them between your fingers to
remove the shells. Then, taste some. Chocolate is just finely ground
beans, along with some sugar. We've just made it a little easier
for you to make your own by having the grinding and separating done
in advance.
6) STARTER CRYSTALS
- When the temperature indicator illuminates "94°F" with
a green background, add the starter crystals. Mix well with the
spatula, pressing any lumps against the side of the mixing bowl.
Add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, for extra flavor, (if you want) and pour
or stir it into the little candy paper liners. Note: this is the
point where you can be really creative- experiment with adding things,
like nuts or marshmallows to your chocolate!
7) REFRIGERATE
- for about 15 minutes until it's cold. (Note: If the mixture somehow
got too thick to spoon out, you can place the bowl in a pan of warm
water until it is workable, and then spoon it out. Be careful, however.
Don't heat it too much, or you will lose the "temper,"
and then, you might lose your temper, too!)
8) EAT!!! Enjoy
your very own home-made chocolate! Share with your friends.
In Latin, the
name of the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao, which means "food
of the gods." It really is, isn't it?
Now that you know how easy it is to Make
Your Own Chocolate from scratch, we know that you're going
to want to make more!
Order a new kit for your friends, class, scout
troop or your next birthday party: Order
Now for only $13!
They also make great gifts for kids (ages 8 and up)!
And, if you liked our Chocolate Kit, you'll also
like the Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit
and the Make Your Own Gummies Kit.
We'd love to hear about your Make Your Own Kit
adventures. Email your stories, photos or questions to: info@gleegum.com
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