Make Chocolate at Home with No Fancy Tools

Chef Nick Gavin shows us how chocolate is made, and a hack to whisking some up yourself at home with just three ingredients.

There are some sizeable barriers to making chocolate from scratch at home. Professional chocolatiers use a conche (and other high-end specialty equipment) to transform roasted cacao nibs into smooth chocolate. While there are conches available for at-home use (we even put one to work turning coffee beans into chocolate in our Dark Matter recipe), we wanted to find a way to make chocolate without expensive specialty equipment.

When it comes to chocolate, size does matter—micron size, that is. A micron is one-millionth of a meter, and it’s what determines/affects the overall mouthfeel of chocolate. Too big (about 35 μm) and that chocolate will be perceived as gritty on the palate. But if it’s too fine (around 10 μm), that perception switches to sticky. (This is where the conche shines, grinding cacao nibs to the perfect micron.)

We wondered if we could win the grinding game by skipping the conche and using already prepared professionally ground ingredients. The results were surprising. It turns out, you don’t need high-end specialty equipment to make a kick-ass chocolate bar at home that’s shiny, smooth, snappy, and super delicious.

0:00 Introduction
1:27 what's in chocolate?
2:09 the fine grind
2:46 conche vs blender
3:29 our ingredients
4:20 let's make chocolate
7:06 tempering
8:01 making the bars
9:51 a taste test

[tom_something]

I'd recommend tasting the powdered sugar, either by itself or by making a simple icing, before using it to make chocolate. Some brands have some really unpleasant flavors that remind me of the smell a space heater makes when it hasn't been used in a while and starts burning dust. While the chocolate and the coca butter might mask it a little bit, it's best to just start with ingredients that already taste good.

[lightfighter]

I learned something from this, I didn't realize you only need 3 ingredients to make chocolate ! I'm also really glad that Nick is back, I really enjoy the way he presents.

[edelyndungca]

This video is great, thanks for sharing! Appreciate sharing the ratio of cocoa powder, cocoa butter and sugar please..

[TROY-MCCLURE-]

I'm glad Nick is back. Been a while!

[LifebyMikeG]

so damn cool! love simplicity of the science animations. I finally understand tempering haha

[marvinsiemon]

Can somebody please help me with the ratio? :)
Do you use the same amount of sugar and the cocoa powder?

[MrLokilis]

Let your editor know they can scale the sound effects back a bit.

[BadYossa]

Great vid. As a Chef myself, I'm always come away with some little tidbits of knowledge from your vids. Explaining the science behind something, is synonymous with your channel and is a great educational tool. They're also beautifully shot/edited, with cool tuneage. Been lovin' these badboys for about six years. Keep 'em coming Nick!

You guys rock 👍

[TashJansson]

Chef Nick is baaack! I thought I'd never see the day <3

[bigbrain]

Hope Nick makes it into more videos. I love him.

[Ragnarok]

this is actually prefect timing, my friend gave me a caocao pod and this home hack really helps

[inuyashaspet]

Really like Nick because of how meticulous and perfectionist he is. He nails every small step down to a science and that makes reproducing it much easier to follow.

[Godfather]

Im thinking of starting my own craft chocolate business so this video was definitely helpful!

[rachel.guillermo]

Nick! I’m so happy to see you back on Chef’s Steps! I’ve missed your face🥰🥰

[mash]

I never knew .... The heavy machine in my home used to make dosa and idli batter is literally also used to make chocolate DAMN!!! 😭😭❤️❤️🤯🤯🤯

[Ari-ElPullen]

Sir you are a hero to home chocolate makers everywhere

[lenochka]

Can you provide a video on how you temper this type of chocolate during your process of making it from scratch? Website isn't very helpful.

[youtooyoutoo]

re 7:50 You seemed to say, "We use jule to temper', but what does that mean?

[covandenham]

Where is the recepi how much of each ingredient?

[JordanSlash]

This is what ChefSteps is all about, more of THIS content please.