The Chocolate Process

Chocolate is one of the most favourable delicacies in the world. It is originated from the cocoa plant and also one of the most cultivated commercial crops in Malaysia. There are several stages involved in making chocolate manufacturing, which begins with the cocoa harvesting until the end product. The process begins with the primer process which involves fermentation and drying and then the secondary process takes place where blending, cleaning and roasting is done. However, based on Stane (2005), to produce chocolate from cocoa, only three processes involve that is mixing and kneading, refining and conching (Refer to Figure 1 in appendix 1). The first process is by mixture and kneading all the needed ingredients. There are two steps involving

One is the dark chocolate and the other one is the white chocolate. According to Rumbaut and Weetjens (2012), by mix the cocoa powders and sugar, it would produce dark chocolate. Whereas, the combination of cocoa powders, milk powders and sugar would produce white chocolate. After the mixing process is done, it then proceeds to the next step which is kneading. During this process, the mix ingredients are stirring until it forms chocolate dough by using a kneading machine.

Chocolate is emulsified with lecithin and small amount of additives. Soeda and Yamazaki (2000) claimed that lecithin and other additive ingredients are mixed together during the kneading process. At the same time, the transglutaminese and fats, which are also known as butter equivalents (CBE) is added together in the mix with the suitable temperature and holding time. Soeda and Yamazaki (2000) also stated that the mixture would be react from 10°C to 65°C in temperature and around 20 – 120 minutes for the holding time. Once the enzymatic reaction is complete, the product will be proceeds to the next

Conching is a mixing step to produce smoothness of the chocolate by volatilizing the fatty acid and aldehydes (Prawira and Barringer, 2008). Prawira and Barringer (2008) also stated that that method is to produce typical chocolate flavour thus reduce the bitterness of the chocolate. The process of conching started by constantly agitating the chocolate mixture for about 24 hours and around 50°C to 65°C (Malaysia Cocoa Board, 1997). This is so to melt the mixture. Then, cocoa butter is added to the mixture to produce couverture chocolate (Stanes, 2005). Besides, there are also several ingredients being added aside from cocoa butter such as sucrose, lecithin and milk