March 25, 2008

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Soft Chocolate

After six attempts at soft chocolate, extensive internet research, and conversations with Sam Mason and Alex Stupak (two rockstar pastry chefs with a soft chocolate as one of their signature dishes), I finally got it pretty much right. It still wasn't perfect, but I think it will be very close the next time. Having eaten both their versions, I prefer the slightly plasticky, unusual texture of Stupak's at WD-50 to the creamy, malleable version of Sam Mason. Both of them have great mouthfeel, turning into smooth mousse when chewed.

I started out experimenting with kappa carrageenan. It took me two failures to figure out that I wasn't hydrating the hydrocolloids properly. I also tried a combination of locust bean gum and kappa carrageenan (Mason's method). But once I tried pectin, I got the texture I was looking for. Pectin based firm gels are... well... firm, but also a bit stretchy, and bendy. But most of all, they are not very brittle at all. Kappa gels, as pointed out by "Bobby" on this post, are very brittle and so they break when deformed. But pectin gels can be twisted, bent, stretched, etc. The only problem with pectin is that using enough of it to hold the chocolate together when twisting and bending results in a texture that is a bit too hard, and with only fair flavor release. So I tried reducing the pectin quantity, and adding some iota carrageenan (which forms a creamier, more fluid gel that isn't brittle).

The soft chocolate with the pectin and iota carrageenan turned out wonderfully. It was fully bendable and twistable, but was still soft and creamy on the mouth (and to the eye, much more so than the pure pectin soft chocolate). I should note, by the way, that the pectin I was using is Genupectin LM-20AS (amidated low methoxyl, with some calcium reactivity). It's somewhat stronger than whatever seems to be called for in most recipes, which I figured out when making red pepper jelly and pineapple-lime pâte de fruit, but here's what I used:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 120 g bittersweet chocolate @ 60% cacao
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 1 g iota carrageenan
• 20 g Genu Pectin LM-20AS (about 1/8 cup--you don't have to be all that precise)

I sheared the iota into the water in the blender over several minutes. In a saucepan, I added the cream and sugar and stirred to dissolve the sugar, while heating up the cream to just below boiling. Then I poured the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a minute. Then I whisked the chocolate a bit to melt it fully, and when it was smooth, I added the iota water and whisked gently to combine, so as not to incorporate bubbles. Then I brought the whole mixture to a boil and, once boiling, gradually whisked in the pectin. I let it cook for thirty seconds or so until the mixture had thickened slightly (to indicate that the pectin was doing its thing), and immediately poured it through a fine-mesh sieve (to get rid of bubbles) into a plastic-wrap lined 8" x 8" pyrex dish. I let it cool for a while, then covered it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to set for a couple hours. Finally, when ready to plate, I sliced it into long, thin strips, then twisted them and placed them.

Everyone seemed to really like them, though they seemed less impressed than I was hoping for given the amount of effort that went into refining this recipe. Such is the life of a cook.

Posted by Barzelay at March 25, 2008 11:59 PM | Comments (5) | Desserts

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