LeastExpectedGrower
Well-Known Member
Getting off my duff and doing a bit more 'making' this week. I have another crop of autos (Tangerine Dream x2 and Northern Lights x2) that will be harvested in the next week, so it's time to clear out some of the older stuff so I can keep going!
In this case, I made two batches of alcohol based tincture back a few months ago, one of which I evaporated down to FECO. That was done with 196 proof Polish vodka in a 'golden dragon' style... 4oz of booze with 7g of cannabis (times two). The cannabis was decarbed in ball jars in the oven, no mystery there. It was then frozen and the alcohol also sat at -5f for a week or so. They were combined, and I let them 'infuse' for way too long...3 days. Pretty much would have been fine at 1 hour, but whatev.
Here's both jars, one half evaporated:
That was in December or January. By the end of the evap, there was a small amount of thick sludgy oil remaining. I capped it and let it sit until last night, when I put in about a teaspoon of the 196p alcohol to make it easier to work with and mix. It took a few hours to dissolve the FECO, but a couple shakes and a 12 hour rest and all good:
Boy does that look delicious! (ugh!)
...now here's the thing, melting/making chocolate you can't have any water hit your chocolate or it will seize up and become a grainy glumpy mess. I was betting that because my teaspoon of alcohol was 98% and only 2% I was betting that it wouldn't be enough water to kill the process...and it wasn't.
Doing chocolate can be fussy. Raise temp on a double boiler to ~115f, melt the chocolate, cool, then re-raise the temp up to 90 to temper, give it time for the crystal structure to build and expand, etc. The good news is that I can do it sous vide. For me that was dump all my source chocolate into a gallon ziploc freezer bag, pour my dilute FECO in, remove all the air, and submerge in the water bath. As it melts, squish it around in the bag (also remove any remaining air along the way) to help melt evenly and also distribute the cannabis oil.
Bought four of these chocolate bar molds from Michaels, though I think most craft/food places have 'em and also places like Amazon. The problem with them was that they don't have ANY info about the volume of the mold. I used measured amounts of water to fill one of the molds and found that it was roughly 5 fluid ounces. I figured I'd use 3 of them, so really just over 15oz of chocolate. Calculated at 24 squares per bar times 3 for 72 servings. 19% THC in the total batch and if you do the math you end up around 15mg give or take (guessing 'take', meaning they're probably closer to 12mg all said and done).
I got some decent baking chocolate and a handful of dark chocolate with raspberries to work with. The chocolate bars are already 'tempered' so that will make re-tempering easier.
Sous Vide ready to go:
Chocolate and FECO into the bag!
Starting to melt (115f degrees until fully melted)!
Once melted, I squished the bag a bunch, put it back in the bath, resquished, etc. a few times. Probably about 45 minutes. At this point to temper properly, I needed to bring the temp in the water down to 81f degrees. I did this by resetting the temp on the sous vide and also removing a bit of water and adding a few handfuls of ice. Each time the ice melted, I checked the temp and added a few more until we hit 81. My chocolate recipe didn't say much about how long to keep it there, just that it needed to be cooled to 81 before the next step. I figured I'd give it about half an hour and also again squishy squishy a bunch of times. To get the choc. to pool in the bottom of the bag, I squeegee'ed it down using a dish towel and a french style rolling pin on the countertop.
Next up, raise the temp up to 90f degrees to build the 'correct' shape chocolate crystals for tempering. The good news is that you can keep the chocolate melted/tempered for 12 hours or more at this stage. I just left it for about 2 hours, but also squished the bag a bunch during that time. Any time I was walking by I'd pull the bag and give it a work over.
In this case, I made two batches of alcohol based tincture back a few months ago, one of which I evaporated down to FECO. That was done with 196 proof Polish vodka in a 'golden dragon' style... 4oz of booze with 7g of cannabis (times two). The cannabis was decarbed in ball jars in the oven, no mystery there. It was then frozen and the alcohol also sat at -5f for a week or so. They were combined, and I let them 'infuse' for way too long...3 days. Pretty much would have been fine at 1 hour, but whatev.
Here's both jars, one half evaporated:
That was in December or January. By the end of the evap, there was a small amount of thick sludgy oil remaining. I capped it and let it sit until last night, when I put in about a teaspoon of the 196p alcohol to make it easier to work with and mix. It took a few hours to dissolve the FECO, but a couple shakes and a 12 hour rest and all good:
Boy does that look delicious! (ugh!)
...now here's the thing, melting/making chocolate you can't have any water hit your chocolate or it will seize up and become a grainy glumpy mess. I was betting that because my teaspoon of alcohol was 98% and only 2% I was betting that it wouldn't be enough water to kill the process...and it wasn't.
Doing chocolate can be fussy. Raise temp on a double boiler to ~115f, melt the chocolate, cool, then re-raise the temp up to 90 to temper, give it time for the crystal structure to build and expand, etc. The good news is that I can do it sous vide. For me that was dump all my source chocolate into a gallon ziploc freezer bag, pour my dilute FECO in, remove all the air, and submerge in the water bath. As it melts, squish it around in the bag (also remove any remaining air along the way) to help melt evenly and also distribute the cannabis oil.
Bought four of these chocolate bar molds from Michaels, though I think most craft/food places have 'em and also places like Amazon. The problem with them was that they don't have ANY info about the volume of the mold. I used measured amounts of water to fill one of the molds and found that it was roughly 5 fluid ounces. I figured I'd use 3 of them, so really just over 15oz of chocolate. Calculated at 24 squares per bar times 3 for 72 servings. 19% THC in the total batch and if you do the math you end up around 15mg give or take (guessing 'take', meaning they're probably closer to 12mg all said and done).
I got some decent baking chocolate and a handful of dark chocolate with raspberries to work with. The chocolate bars are already 'tempered' so that will make re-tempering easier.
Sous Vide ready to go:
Chocolate and FECO into the bag!
Starting to melt (115f degrees until fully melted)!
Once melted, I squished the bag a bunch, put it back in the bath, resquished, etc. a few times. Probably about 45 minutes. At this point to temper properly, I needed to bring the temp in the water down to 81f degrees. I did this by resetting the temp on the sous vide and also removing a bit of water and adding a few handfuls of ice. Each time the ice melted, I checked the temp and added a few more until we hit 81. My chocolate recipe didn't say much about how long to keep it there, just that it needed to be cooled to 81 before the next step. I figured I'd give it about half an hour and also again squishy squishy a bunch of times. To get the choc. to pool in the bottom of the bag, I squeegee'ed it down using a dish towel and a french style rolling pin on the countertop.
Next up, raise the temp up to 90f degrees to build the 'correct' shape chocolate crystals for tempering. The good news is that you can keep the chocolate melted/tempered for 12 hours or more at this stage. I just left it for about 2 hours, but also squished the bag a bunch during that time. Any time I was walking by I'd pull the bag and give it a work over.
