So I managed to go buy my groceries right after the test, instead of going back to sleep. And managed to do it without any trouble. But that was only because I was almost paranoid then, watching every single move I made. I did make one little mistake though - I forgot to buy beancurd.
I'm having another mini-steamboat tonight lol. Very simple broth using a chicken stock and salt. And I'm using fish, pork, some mushrooms and bok choys again. Less than what was used in the last meal. But no beancurds! :(
I think I may have found out why my chocolate isn't as smooth and creamy as the commercial bitter chocolate. I need to add cocoa butter or plain butter in addition to the condensed milk and sugar. Yesterday I tried adding nothing but sugar to pure unsweetened chocolate. It didn't mix, forming a pool of brown with a sandy texture. Then I experimented with adding water. Suddenly, my pool of brown became a chunk of brown. Not shit, because shit isn't black unless you're bleeding in your colon.
So chocolate coagulates when in contact with water. They say you learn from every mistake. This was a good lesson. Good thing I didn't use too much, only 2 oz.
So now after this meal, I'm going to add butter, sugar and condensed milk to another 2 oz of chocolate and see what happens. Slightly heated, of course.
Did 2 tests with 1 oz of choc each.
First test was done using chocolate, about 3 tbs of condensed milk, 1 tbs sugar and one of those tiny packets of butter that they provide in inflight meals. Result was not much different from my previous attempts. The milk and chocolate do not mix. Good for dipping bread in but not what I want.
In my second attempt, I learnt something new again. I used 1 oz choc, 1 tbs sugar, 1 packet butter and 1 tsp milk. It became a thick mixture. The milk and chocolate mixed! From one of my previous tries, adding water to a mixture of choc and sugar gave me a very thick paste, making the water seem like a thickening agent.
So I added 1 tsp of water. But it didn't make it thicker, only thinner which was the logical effect. But hey, the milk dissolved into the mixture, so it was a success. To continue, I added more milk slowly, adding 1 tsp at a time and stirring till it's homogeneous before adding another tsp.
But all it did was give me a paste that is quite similar to choc frosting they use on cakes. Adding more milk and sugar only gave me a sweeter and thinner paste. Heating does nothing and I couldn't heat it for long because my electric heater has only 1 setting and prolonged cooking may cause it to burn. So I stopped after a while.
Conclusion is that adding butter will make it creamier in texture but it will not make it taste smoother. I wonder if I need to use full cream condensed milk instead of low fat. Anyhow, I now have half a bowl of chocolate frosting that I cannot finish. Probably will eat it for breakfast with some bread. Muahahahahahaha!
I also have this suspicion that my chocolate tastes different from commercial chocolate because of the inherent taste of the Hershey's Baking Bar I'm using. Maybe they have different types of cocoa and these companies use different types.
Too lazy to google. Maybe next time.
This piece of news is pretty interesting. Apparently some chef served frozen shit to a bad customer and it caused quite a sensation because it happened in a big hotel. LOL! Epic prank!
Alright, according to the Wiki article on types of chocolate, the diff between pure chocolate and dark chocolate is the addition of fats and sugar. So if I'm making dark chocolate, all I need is sugar and butter. I can skip the milk now.
Which is strange, because the sugar didn't seem to dissolve before I added milk in my second attempt just now.
And this chocolate I'm using now is also known as chocolate liquor. Also very strange because it's called liquor despite it not containing any alcohol. English...
I can't figure this out!! Many recipes I see online tells people to add sugar to the chocolate to make dark chocolate. But the sugar doesn't dissolve into the chocolate until I added milk in the second attempt! What am I doing wrong now?
And why does it always have this burnt taste? Is the vanilla extract used to cover up this?
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