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Make Mocha Beans Yourself: This is How the Chocolates Go Vegan

You can make mocha beans yourself from just six ingredients. We will show you how to make marzipan pralines vegan and gluten-free.

Mocha beans are chocolate pralines with a coffee note. You can use the beans to decorate cakes or for snacking. If you buy the beans in the supermarket, they are usually packed in plastic and cardboard. You can avoid the packaging by making the mocha beans yourself. You can also use high-quality chocolate and coffee to produce a particularly tasty and non-toxic product.

Since cocoa beans and coffee beans are grown in areas near the equator, you should look for the Fairtrade seal when buying. Among other things, the seal improves the working and trading conditions of smallholders. For example, they receive a cost-covering price guarantee. There is also a ban on the use of certain pesticides on the plantations.

Finding sustainable coconut oil, on the other hand, is not always easy. You can also pay attention to fair trade here, as well as the organic seal to avoid chemical-synthetic pesticides. In addition, there are now coconut oils that have received awards from the Rainforest Alliance.

Make mocha beans yourself: This is how the chocolates are also vegan

Ingredients:

200g marzipan
150 grams of chocolate
80 coconut fat
3 tsp ground coffee
2 teaspoons coffee liqueur
2 tbsp powdered sugar

Directions:

First cut the raw marzipan mixture into small pieces so that you can knead all the ingredients more easily.
Now put all the ingredients except the chocolate and coconut oil in a bowl and knead everything together. You can also make the coffee liqueur yourself.
Now form small oval beans from the marzipan-coffee dough and place them on baking paper.

After shaping, you can use a skewer to press small, long grooves into the beans.
After that, cool the beans and start melting the chocolate and coconut oil together.

Now cover the beans with chocolate. It makes sense to only glaze the underside of the beans, let them dry and then glaze the entire bean. Place the beans, bottom side up, on the baking sheet. Now brush the undersides with the chocolate icing. The chocolate may take 15 minutes to set.

Once the chocolate has set, you can glaze the top of the beans. Place the beans on a fine grid. This way, the excess chocolate can run off later and the finished pralines look nicer. Note: The small chocolates will slip through the normal oven grates. To avoid this, you can simply place two grids on top of each other. You should place a piece of baking paper substitute under the grid or place a flat plate. This way you can catch and recycle the chocolate that runs down.
If the beans are completely covered with chocolate, you should quickly put them on a plate or on a piece of baking paper. If the chocolate sets while the beans are still on the grid, they could stick to it.

Now all you have to do is set the chocolate. Let the beans set in a cool place for about an hour.

Use up the leftover chocolate

If you make the mocha beans yourself, there will be chocolate left over at the end because it runs down when glazing, for example. You should not throw away these leftover chocolates, but reuse them. How to use up leftover chocolate:

in a chocolate fondue
as a chocolate glaze on a vegan chocolate cake
as broken chocolate
in a drinking chocolate
as a chocolate sauce for desserts or ice cream
in a vegan chocolate salami.

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Cooking Tips

Instructions and Tips for Making Chocolates Yourself

Make chocolates yourself? Simple, tasty, with heart and soul. That’s how you spoil your loved ones. That’s how you spoil yourself. Clever chocolate recipes to imitate and try out.

In the following, you will learn everything that is important and useful for making chocolates. Why do they taste so good? How to make them yourself easily and simply. Which tips and tricks make the result even more satisfying and numerous tasty praline recipes.

Chocolates to indulge in

Making chocolates is already one of the supreme disciplines of hobby bakers and kitchen heroes. But it is also your pleasure. But it is not that difficult to want to make chocolates yourself. The nice thing about it is that pralines, in contrast to cookies, biscuits, cakes, and tarts, have a much longer shelf life and are edible. So you can let off steam in the kitchen for a whole weekend and always have small and romantic gifts for your loved ones and friends for the next few weeks. Have the courage to try. The tasty, delicious results come all by themselves. It is also a great idea for homemade gifts for Christmas.

Tools, materials, and basic equipment

If you want to make your pralines clean and tidy, you can’t avoid a praline grid and a praline fork. For the first attempts, a wire rack and fork will certainly suffice… but honestly? They are just stopgap measures that unnecessarily complicate work and make it less clean. With a praline fork and praline lattice, on the other hand, you can easily “ignite” any homemade praline. A pot for heating the couverture is also essential.

What’s inside?

If you talk about wanting to produce pralines, you are primarily talking about different fillings that are filled into hollow praline balls. At least these are the classic chocolates. This filling is called can ache and usually consists of lots of cream and couverture as the basic ingredients.

Then it depends on the respective taste. Because the ganache can be upgraded with any alcohol such as rum, whiskey, or Marc de Champagne, refined with special flavors such as pistachios, coconut flakes, coffee, chili, vanilla, or spiced up with fruit components made from raspberries or apricots. Depending on the flavor additive, the required amount of butter also varies. Because this determines the respective fat content of the praline.

Making chocolates – the mass makes the difference

In order for the praline production to be successful, you need a good base: the can ache. To ensure that this is correct, we have put together some important tips and tricks.

  • The mass hardens very quickly. We, therefore, recommend using an electric mixer to mix the individual ingredients. If you want to try it analogously with your own physical strength, you will quickly reach your limits. In addition, the result is not as creamy and smooth.
  • The color of the chocolate mass determines the intensity of the taste. The best indication of this is the dried chocolate on the edge. If it is very dark, the cocoa content is very high. The lighter the chocolate, the higher the milk content.
  • Sometimes the mass just doesn’t have the desired consistency. If you want to let your praline mass harden a bit, you can put the mass in the fridge. We recommend a minimum of 3 hours, but you can also stay overnight. Then whip the mass up again. This provides additional suppleness.

Shelf life of homemade chocolates

We often ask ourselves how long a praline can keep for so long. You can’t really say that with any certainty. First and foremost, the respective ingredients decide how long the praline can be enjoyed.

Keep in mind that most ganache contains cream. This limits the shelf life of the praline to a good two weeks. In order to guarantee this period, however, the praline must be stored at 15 to 18 degrees … preferably in the dark. In terms of taste, a reduction in the aromas can definitely be determined after two weeks.

Of course, it is also crucial that flawless ingredients are used and that work is carried out as hygienically as possible. The shelf life can also be extended in this way. Sterilization of the ingredients also increases shelf life. It is advisable to heat the cream just before its boiling point, instead of just heating it to 70°C, as many praline recipes recommend. But be careful: If you heat your cream to over 70°C, you lose taste … at least the flavor is changed. In return, you have less to worry about mold growth.

The alcohol content also determines the shelf life. The more alcohol the chocolates contain, the longer they will keep. Classic liqueur pralines can have a shelf life of up to 6 weeks. But here again: the taste diminishes over time. The best thing to do is to produce less and always ensure fresh supplies, then you don’t have to worry about shelf life … and you can try out many more new praline recipes.

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