grinding cacao nibs

[samadhisoul]

coffee grinder or Vitamix?

which do YOU use?

[marigold]

vita but its way gritty compared to the choc powder...xxxx

[Sheryl]

Freezing them before grinding helps get them finer... or buy raw cacao powder!

Cheers,
Sheryl

[Shivananda]

You know, I use neither... I use my single auger juicer with a blank, and go slow... but something just occurred to me that I wonder why I haven't mentioned before... before I had that option, I used to use a suribachi for a lot of grinding.

Basically a suribachi is a mortar and pestle found in many Japanese homes, as well as most macrobiotic kitchens. It's a pottery bowl with fine ridges and a wooden pestle called a surikogi They work really well for grinding seeds and nuts and things, and come in many sizes from very small to very large .

Here's an article and pic http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/suribachis.htm

Maybe I should review them for the cheeeeeeap appliance thread.

[truthseeker]

coffee grinder. But I still can't get them as fine as the bought cacao powder.

[samadhisoul]

yeah, that stuff is so expensive for me right now--and out of stock, right?

hmmm, wonder how THEY do it? (raised eyebrow)

[truthseeker]

Ya it is expensive and since my local Whole Foods Market carries raw cacao nibs now I've just been sticking with those.

I'd also like to know how they get it so fine. Hmmmmmm......

You just reminded me Shivananda, I have a small marble mortar & pestle stashed away somewhere in my kitchen. Gonna dig that out tomorrow and see if I can't get the cacao powder to be more fine with that...... thanks.

[rawpriestess]

I do it two ways, first I grind in a new unused coffee grinder, that is only for grinding cacao nibs, since my hubby has grown fond of them, I have a couple other coffee grinders, one for sweet spices, and one for savory/hot spices, this works best for me, and I simply blow them clean, or wipe them out.

then I use my old ceramic morter and pestal to finely grind them, as I have always done my spices this way.

herbs, I grind in my bamix hand held blender, it has this attachment thingy for herbs. works well for small amounts.

if I need to do alot of herbs, I use my cuisinart. (commonly known as a food processor) but I still call my ice box, a fridge, for Fridgadare, and my camp stove a Coleman, and my food processor a cuisinart, and my blender a Vita Mix, and my vaccuum cleaner my Kirby, and well, you get the drift.

[Vivilicious]

Though I do love the fine texture of raw cacao powder, many people choose not to use it since it's a de-natured food. In case anyone is curious, to get raw cacao powder, you heat the raw cacao nibs just enough to separate the cacao oil (butter) from the cacao solids (powder). Cacao nibs, on the other hand, are just chopped up cacao beans. Thus, they remain a whole food. I, myself still indulge sometimes in raw treats made with cacao powder or butter, though I am more conscientious about it since learning how it's made. If you want to buy some ready-made cacao desserts, I believe the gorgeous couple at www.livinglibations.com make their own whole-cacao breakfast chocolate by hand.

This weekend I will be trying to make cacao goji chili truffles for the first time with the nibs instead of the powder. I was worried about the texture being gritty since I will be grinding them in the vitamix instead of a coffee grinder, but I look forward to trying the aforementioned tip about freezing the nibs beforehand. Also, since the truffles call for coconut oil, I might end up adding some to the "vitamixture" to smooth it out if necessary. We shall see :)

[Mary Kay]

Hey! Let us know how it goes, K? ye, that freezing thing was a good tip!

Mary Kay

[Baby Bird]

Try putting them through your homogenizing juicer with the blank plate in...it yields a thick, moist cacao paste!