Chocolate making, part 2

I did this quite some time ago already, but somehow forgot to post about it! So, here it is, another try with the wonderful "make your own chocolate" kit - report of the previous one over here.

Last time, I just experimented, didn't measure any of the ingredients, and made two kinds of chocolate. What I learned from that was that even though some recipes recommend using coconut oil, that was not to the liking of any of my family members. The other batch without coconut oil was much more popular. So, this time, no coconut oil.

In addition, this time I did my best to measure the ingredients. I had roughly the same amount of cocoa butter and cocoa powder plus a few teaspoons of agave syrup and just a sprinkling of salt - however, as I tasted the mixture, I ended up adding some more of this and a bit more of that, so... I still can't say precisely how much of what the final product actually contained (that seems to be my method in the kitchen anyway). Interestingly, the mixture had a pretty strong cocoa flavour before we (my daughter worked as an eager assistant) poured it into the mold. Once it was set and we tasted it, however, I thought it could have been more intense! Hmm.

Anyway, this time the result was very tasty! And colourful; my DD wanted to decorate the chocolates with cashews, dried apricots and dried cranberries. Also, there was no sign of the slightly grainy texture this time - the chocolate had a lovely, glossy finish - nor did the chocolate set too fast.

Finally, a picture of my highly professional cocoa butter melting equipment. :D