Bakery & Confectionery Industry Newsletters Vol. 1
Bakery & Confectionery Industry Newsletters Vol. 1
Chocolate Production
Cocoa to Chocolate
Chocolate is a key ingredient in many foods such as milkshakes, candy bars, cookies and cereals. Despite its popularity, most people do not know the unique origin of this popular treat.
Chocolate is a product that requires complex procedures to produce and they include:
- Plucking and opening the pods: Cocoa beans grow in pods that sprout off of the trunk and branches of cocoa trees. The pods are about the size of a football. The pods start out green and turn orange when they’re ripe. When the pods are ripe, harvesters hack the pods gently off of the trees. After the cocoa pods are collected into baskets, the pods are taken to a processing house where they are split open and the cocoa beans are removed.
Fresh cocoa beans are not as brown and they do not taste at all like the sweet chocolate they will eventually produce.
- Fermenting the cocoa seeds: the beans undergo fermentation processing. They are either placed in large, shallow, heated trays or covered with large banana leaves. If the climate is right, they may be simply heated by the sun. The beans are stirred up so the beans can come out equally fermented. The beans turn brown when fermented. This process may take five to eight days.
- Drying the cocoa seeds: After fermentation, the cocoa seeds must be dried before they can be scooped into sacks and shipped to chocolate manufacturers. Farmers simply spread the fermented seeds on trays and leave them in the sun to dry. The drying process usually takes about a week and results in seeds that are about half of their original weight.
- Manufacturing Chocolate: Once the cocoa beans have reached the machinery of chocolate factories, they are ready to be refined into chocolate. Generally, manufacturing processes differ slightly due to the different species of cocoa trees. Firstly, fermented and dried cocoa beans will be refined to a roasted nib by winnowing and roasting. Then, they will be heated and will melt into chocolate liquor. Lastly, manufacturers blend chocolate liquor with sugar and milk to add flavour. After the blending process, the liquid chocolate is stored in tanks in the moulding factory and are moulded into different sizes and shapes ready for sale/consumption.
Finally, wrapping and packaging machines will pack the chocolates and then they will be ready to transport.
Interview:
Oche Oloche - Head of Hospitality, Westgate Lifecare Limited
Q. Please tell us about yourself and your company?
Ans. I’m Oche Oloche, a graduate of Chemical Engineering from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University. I’m the Strategic Business Division Head of Hospitality.
Westgate Lifecare Limited is a wholly indigenous organization. We are the best one-stop retail store for supermarkets, groceries, restaurants, cosmetics, pharmacies, and bakery’s products in Lagos. We offer customers the most friendly prices without sabotaging quality in any way.
Q. How did you get to know about Cormart?
Ans. I knew about Cormart through Toyosi, the company’s sales representative. She brought some product samples and we carried out production using the samples we got and the result yielded what we wanted.
Q. On a scale of 1-10, rate our customer service?
Ans. I would rate your customer service a 10 and if permitted will give an 11/10.
Q. What changed for you after you started using our product?
Ans. Long before I started using Mauripan Gold Yeast, many yeasts I had gotten took longer proofing time but your yeast’s proofing time is quite fast.
Q. What feature/option could we add to make your experience better?
Ans. I would advise if you could reduce your pricing and encourage customer loyalty by introducing more incentives.
Also, due to economic changes, I would implore Cormart to stick with giving the best quality because a lot of organizations due to this economical change go for quantity over quality.
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Read MoreProduct Spotlight: Whipping/Dual Cream
Meggle Crème Patisserie
Meggle range of Whipping/cooking crème is the ideal crème suitable for a variety of gourmet and cuisine applications. It is savory and sweet, thanks to its creamy properties and heat stability.
If you need a thick and solid decoration of irresistible taste or an addition to your sweet culinary works, reach for MEGGLE Crème Patisserie, our sweet cream for whipping, made from vegetable fat.
Some of its advantages include:
- nice full taste and creamy consistency to your meals.
- dual usage (for cooking and whipping).
- full taste of food.
- crème like consistence.
- excellent stability in an acid environment.
Product information
Store at temperature from 4 °C to 20 °C. After opening, store in a cool place (+ 2 °C to + 8 °C) and use within 5 days.
To achieve the optimum whipping result, we recommend cooling down the product prior to use temperature from + 6 °C to + 8 °C.
Contact our Bakery & Confectionery sales reps for more information.
Technical Advice & Tips
Whipped Cream Recipe
Whipping is the process of beating an ingredient vigorously to incorporate air, which makes the ingredient frothy. For example, egg whites are whipped until they form stiff peaks and heavy cream is transformed into whipped cream. An utensil used for mixing food ingredients being prepared for baking or serving.
Here in Cormart, we sell whipping cream and cooking cream.
Whipped cream recipe tips include;
- The cream should be chilled (not frozen) to whip properly.
- Make sure the cream has enough fat. It will need to contain at least 35% fat content in order to whip effectively.
- If you are concerned about over whipping the cream, you can use a manual whisk. This will give you more control over the cream.
- The type of cream you use will have an impact on the type of finished product you get.
- A stick blender will give you an even denser end result and is not recommended. It’s the same when whisking mayonnaise, the best results come from handwork with the hand whisk.
- Avoid over whipping else it won’t hold and won’t serve its purpose.
- Refrigerate but do not freeze else it will thaw.
- Whipping cream with good aeration whips faster and is more stable.
- Enjoy whatever dessert your want or just eat it straight out of the bowl.
Finally, remember that Meggle is your best choice when choosing a whipping cream.
