Joseph and the Chocolate Factory

 Ever since Joe discovered that we could buy cocoa beans in bulk at the market, he has been wanting to try to make his own chocolate. Cocoa beans come from cocoa pods that grow on trees in cocoa plantations.  The cocoa beans then have to be roasted and cracked to get all of the shells off and then they are ground into what's known as cocoa liquor - a thick substance kind of like clay. 

 We weren't sure how we would find the equipment needed to turn the cocoa beans into something usable, but after asking around, we just recently found someone who sells the cocoa liquor.  So we decided to see if we could make some chocolate sauce.  We broke off some chunks and put them in a pan...

WHOA! Some moonlight must have gotten through the curtain cracks...it happens once in a while...

We added some water...some sugar..some butter...some soy milk powder...some salt...and then boiled it. 

Very interesting.  Edible? Yes.  Desirable? Not sure.  It just has a different taste.  It definitely cannot be used as a substitute for cocoa powder because the taste is different.  We learned it's because it still has the cocoa butter in it. Unsweetened baking cocoa is what's left after all the cocoa butter has been pressed out.

It tasted better on bananas.

So we made up some crepes and they were actually quite delicious!  

We have since tried making a chocolate banana smoothie and it was ok.  Better when frozen. I'll keep you posted if we ever try a chocolate bar...