From scratch · S’mores from scratch
Bean-to-bar chocolate
The hard way, for the curious: roast cocoa beans, crack and winnow them, grind and refine them with sugar, then temper. A project, not a weeknight.
✋ 1 hr 35 min hands-on
⏱ 1 day 3 hr start to finish
🍽 About 13 oz (380 g) of 75 percent dark chocolate.
Ingredients
- 300 g cacao nibs, roasted nibs, or about 375 g of whole cocoa beans to roast and shell
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 30 g cocoa butter (food grade), helps a home grinder; leave out for a stiffer bar (optional)
- 60 g whole dry milk powder, for milk chocolate (optional)
Time
Hands-on time is when you’re busy; the rest is rising, simmering, chilling or cooling, when you can do something else.
| Step | Hands-on | Waiting |
|---|---|---|
| Roast whole beans at 300°F | 5 min | 25 min |
| Cool, crack and winnow | 30 min | 15 min |
| Grind into cocoa liquor | 20 min | – |
| Refine in a melanger (skip for a rustic bar) | 10 min | 1 day |
| Temper and mold | 30 min | – |
| Set | – | 1 hr |
| In all | 1 hr 35 min | 1 day 2 hr |
How long it keeps
- Cool, dry place, wrapped, at 60 to 70°F, away from strong smells. NDSU gives opened chocolate about 1 year.
Nutrition
Estimated from the ingredients’ USDA FoodData Central numbers.
Steps
You’ll need: rimmed baking sheet (for whole beans), rolling pin and zip-top bag, hair dryer or a fan, and two bowls (for winnowing), stone melanger (best), or a high-powered blender or food processor, instant-read thermometer, chocolate mold or parchment-lined dish.
- Buy cocoa beans or nibs sold as food. If you start with whole beans, roast them in one layer at about 300°F for 20 to 30 minutes, until they smell like brownies and the shells crackle and loosen. Roasts vary by bean; taste a cooled bean and adjust next time.
- Cool the beans, put them in the bag and crack them with the rolling pin into pieces the size of a lentil.
- Winnow: outdoors or over a sink, pour the cracked beans slowly from one bowl to the other while a hair dryer on cool (or a fan) blows across the stream. The light papery shells blow away; the heavy nibs fall into the bowl. Repeat until the nibs are clean.
- Grind: blend the nibs (and the cocoa butter, if using) in short bursts, scraping down often, until the friction warms them into a thick, gritty paste, cocoa liquor. Let the motor rest between bursts so it doesn’t overheat.
- Refine: in a melanger, add the paste and sugar (and milk powder for milk chocolate) and let it run 24 to 72 hours, tasting now and then, until it feels smooth on your tongue. With only a blender, grind the sugar fine first, blend it in for 10 to 15 minutes, and expect a rustic, slightly gritty bar.
- Temper by the seed method: warm the chocolate to 120°F, then stir in about a quarter of its weight of chopped tempered chocolate (from an earlier batch or a good store bar) until it cools to 88 to 90°F (86 to 88°F for milk). Test a smear on foil: it should set glossy and firm in about 5 minutes.
- Pour into molds, tap out the bubbles, and let it set at cool room temperature, about 1 hour.
⚖️ ScalingMelangers have a minimum load (often about 1 lb of nibs); a blender works best with 1 to 2 cups of nibs at a time. Keep the sugar at about a quarter of the weight for a 75 percent bar.
🛡 SafetyA blender jar and a melanger drum get hot as they run; handle them with care, and keep fingers out of a running machine.
Good to knowTempering is what gives chocolate a snap and a shine. Seed method: melt dark chocolate to 120 to 122°F (milk chocolate to 115 to 117°F), then stir in chopped tempered chocolate, about a quarter of the weight, until it cools to 88 to 90°F for dark (86 to 88°F for milk). Fish out any unmelted pieces. Test a smear on foil: at room temperature it should set firm and glossy in about 5 minutes.
Good to knowRealistic expectations: a blender can’t grind sugar and cocoa as fine as a factory, so the first bars are often grainy. A melanger, a small stone grinder made for nut butters and chocolate, is what makes home bars smooth.
Good to knowNo seed chocolate? Pour two-thirds of the melted chocolate onto a clean marble or granite slab, spread and scrape it back and forth until it thickens, then stir it back into the rest; this tabling method is how chocolatiers temper by hand.
📜 The old wayFor most of its history chocolate was a drink: roasted beans ground on a warm stone and whisked with water and spices. Bars came only in the 1800s, once presses and refining machines could make the paste smooth.
Sources
- Chocolate Handling and Tempering, Guittard Chocolate Company (technical guide). Accessed 2026-10-25.
- The Art of Candy Making, Utah State University Extension. Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Food Storage Guide (FN579), NDSU Extension, reviewed January 2023. Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Chocolate, Grokipedia. Accessed 2026-10-25.