Labor of Love

Getting back to those cacao pods in the freezer on Valentine’s Day

Chocolate making from cacao pods is a challenge!

If you remember, we received a Box of the Tropics from Al and Mary in December and made the most of the ripe fruits and veggies around the holiday.

“The cacao pods from Ecuador were a challenge—and there were many of them. The box included a chocolate recipe made from the nibs and a silicone mold of tiny heart shapes. The pods were much easier to slice in half than I anticipated, and the beans therein were most interesting, encased in a cozy fibrous network. I cleaned them according to the instructions but had difficulty fermenting them at 100-110°F in Wyoming in the winter. I rigged up a crockpot on warm and vented the top, but it wasn’t ideal. After two days of nursing them along and smelling a most delicious chocolate aroma, I roasted them in the oven at 250°F for half an hour—and then I let them cool, stashed them in the freezer, and left town. The rest of the chocolate-making will be our Valentine’s Day project with the kids.”

Well, we needed an indoor activity for the children on Valentine's Day since a blizzard was raging outside. I remembered the cacao pods in the freezer and retrieved them to continue the chocolate-making experiment. My hopes were not too high; it seemed an impossible task, but I enlisted the help of Kirk and John to get the roasted nibs out of their hard shells, which kept them busy for a long while.

Kirk did a great job cracking out the nibs from the shells and John did a great job of quality control to ensure no shell fragments were included.

Once that tedious task was done, the rest was relatively easy. We ended up with about 1 cup of cacao nibs, so I put them in the little cup attachment for the blender.

Kirk stirred up the pulverized cacao nibs before we added sugar and grapeseed oil for the long buzz that melted the mixture.

We added three tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of grapeseed oil, and then we let it rip for 10 minutes. Kirk hates the sound of the blender, so that activity occurred in the bathroom behind several closed doors. I checked on it a few times, but it was still grainy. After 10 minutes at high speed, we found a smooth, thick semi-liquid—CHOCOLATE! The heat from the blending was enough to turn it into a spreadable paste that we used to fill the tiny hearts on the pink silicone mold.

The kids enjoyed filling the silicone mold--and licking the spoons.

We put the mold into the fridge and I made a Valentine’s Dinner that we enjoyed by the fire in the living room while the snowstorm raged outdoors. John’s request for dinner was Chicken Fried Steak, so I gave it a go, though it did not seem the healthiest entrée option. Really? Breaded and fried red meat? Served with a white gravy made from the pan drippings?!

Chicken Fried Steak is a cube steak, a tough cut of meat tenderized by pounding, that is breaded and fried and served with a white gravy made from pan drippings.

Kirk and Iris will try anything with ketchup.

But I gave it a go, and Iris and Kirk liked it with ketchup, so it was all good. Our special Valentine’s Dinner ended, after their bath, with one chocolate each. It was delicious!

Our tiny heart-shaped chocolates were delicious!

The little confections were fruity and mellow, with a bright chocolate taste and a creamy mouthfeel. Suddenly, the 16 or so hours put into the project over two months was worth it. We were chocolatiers. We are ready for a trip to Ecuador to see how it is really done.

Happy Valentine’s Day/Week/Month! We are still celebrating, one tiny heart-shaped chocolate after another.

Valentine's Day was fun with two Sweethearts!