JP2012200246A - Chocolate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide chocolate remarkably reduced in unpleasant astringent taste or the like derived from non-fat cacao components derived from unfermented cacao beans while maintaining the preservability of normal chocolate using non-fat cacao components derived from unfermented cacao beans of low quality.SOLUTION: The astringent taste of shell chocolate containing non-fat cacao components derived from unfermented cacao beans can be eliminated by using a water-containing substance with a moisture content of 8-18 wt.% and a moisture activity of less than 0.600 as the center.

Description

  The present invention relates to a chocolate containing a non-fat cocoa component derived from an unfermented cocoa raw material.

  Cocoa beans are used as a raw material for chocolate, cocoa and the like by taking advantage of their unique flavor. The flavor of cocoa beans is formed by fermentation and drying in the production area and subsequent roasting in the raw material processing step. It is known that the quality of flavor and taste formed in these processes varies depending on the variety, production area, producer, etc. of the cocoa beans. Chocolate and cocoa produced using cacao beans, which are generally classified as low-grade beans, have an unpleasant astringency or astringency (hereinafter simply referred to as astringency etc.) Is often felt, and the product quality is low. For this reason, several chocolates having improved astringency and the like and methods for producing the same have been reported so far.

  For example, chocolate that simply improves the flavor of chocolate may be obtained by adding vanillin to the cocoa mass after the grinding step and before mixing the sugar, etc., and mixing the cocoa mass with sugar, cocoa butter, and lecithin. Although the chocolate which mixed etc. is proposed (patent document 1), removal of the astringent taste of a low grade bean is impossible by the process of this grade.

  As a method of manufacturing chocolate with reduced astringency, etc. by adding some processing steps to the cocoa raw material, an ethanol solution with a concentration of about 40% by weight or more is added to cocoa beans or cocoa nibs, and this is enclosed in a sealed container Then, it is opened after heating, and then the roasted or dried cocoa beans or cocoa nibs are ground to make cocoa mass, and this is processed in a conche to produce almost completely stripped ethanol content. (Patent document 2), chocolate produced by using cacao mass obtained by blowing oxygen gas into roasted cacao mass to uniformly disperse oxygen gas bubbles, and then holding for a certain period of time (patent document 3), Adjust the pH of the cocoa beans when roasting the cocoa beans, or add reducing sugars etc. to the cocoa beans to promote the Maillard reaction. Method of applying an improved (Patent Document 4), the ammonia gas is adsorbed to the cocoa beans method for roasting, etc. (Patent Document 5) and the like. However, these chocolates and the production method are not effective to remove the astringent taste, which is an unpleasant taste derived from low-grade beans, and it cannot be said that a sufficiently preferable taste quality is achieved, and the production process is complicated. There are problems such as high manufacturing costs.

  In order to improve the taste quality of cocoa mass and processed products thereof, as a proposal to try to solve the above problems, polyphenol oxidase is allowed to act on cocoa mass or a cocoa mass-containing material under a condition where the water content is 0.1 to 3.0%. Therefore, there is a chocolate in which an unpleasant astringency is reduced (Patent Document 6). However, in the Examples of Patent Document 6, since milk powder is added when producing chocolate, the astringent taste is considerably reduced due to the influence thereof. For this reason, the evaluation of the astringent tastes of Comparative Examples 1 to 4 has no discomfort (see Table 1), and has not led to a fundamental solution. In addition, the treatment method using a specific enzyme is poor in versatility because cocoa beans that can be used are limited.

  Other proposals to reduce the astringent taste derived from polyphenols contained in cocoa mass include a method of converting polyphenols into sodium, calcium, magnesium, or potassium salts of polyphenol (Patent Document 7), molecular weight in soybean whey A method of containing 800 to 2000 non-protein components (Patent Document 8), in addition to adding a high-intensity sweetener such as sucralose, stevia, aspartame, or adding maltohexaose and / or maltoheptaose (Patent Documents 9 and 10). These methods have been confirmed to be effective for foods containing a large amount of water such as beverages, but have not been confirmed to be effective for foods containing little water such as chocolate.

  Thus, at present, it is insufficient to mask the astringent taste and the like derived from low-quality cocoa raw materials in the method of performing some treatment on the cocoa raw materials or adding substances to chocolate, There is no need for a dedicated manufacturing facility, and no simple masking method for astringency, etc. has been proposed.

Japanese Patent No. 2670325 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 02-215347 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 03-015344 Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-031943 Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. Sho 62-025013 Japanese Patent No. 4505150 JP 2003-128664 A JP 2004-073196 A JP-A-10-248501 JP 2008-061593 A

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and its purpose is to maintain the storage stability of ordinary chocolate while using a non-fat cocoa component derived from low-grade unfermented cocoa beans. On the other hand, the object is to provide a chocolate with significantly reduced unpleasant astringent taste and the like derived from non-fat cocoa components derived from unfermented cocoa beans.

  As a result of intensive research, the present inventors have kept water activity to less than 0.600 in spite of high water conditions where the water content is 8 to 15% by weight so far, and long-term storage on a one-year scale A hydrous substance that can be produced has been developed (Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-043350). And in order to achieve the said objective, the chocolate dough containing the non-fat cacao component derived from an unfermented cacao bean is made into shell chocolate surprisingly, 8 to 18weight% of water | moisture content is contained in the center, and water activity is 0. The present inventors have found that the above-mentioned problems can be solved by including a water-containing substance of less than .600, and have completed the present invention.

  That is, the present invention contains, as a center, a water-containing substance containing 8 to 18% by weight of water and having a water activity of less than 0.600, and the shell chocolate contains a non-fat cocoa component derived from an unfermented cocoa raw material. It is related with chocolate which is chocolate dough.

  The present invention also relates to a chocolate, which is an oil-in-water emulsion in which the water-containing substance contains 40 to 70% by weight of saccharides of disaccharides or less and 5 to 25% by weight of fats and oils.

  Moreover, this invention relates to the chocolate in which the said water-containing substance contains 5-25 weight% of linear polyhydric alcohol as saccharides below a disaccharide, and contains 5-25 weight% of hard butter as fats and oils.

  Moreover, this invention relates to the chocolate which is the chocolate dough in which the said shell chocolate contains 10-22.5 weight% of non-fat cocoa components derived from an unfermented cocoa raw material.

  The present invention also relates to a chocolate containing 20 to 50% by weight of the hydrated substance as a center.

  According to the present invention, by containing a water-containing substance capable of long-term distribution on a one-year scale as a center, it contains a non-fat cocoa component derived from low-grade unfermented cocoa beans while maintaining the storage stability of ordinary chocolate. An inexpensive chocolate from which an unpleasant astringent taste of chocolate is simply removed can be provided.

  The chocolate of the present invention contains 8 to 18% by weight of water as a center, contains a water-containing substance having a water activity of less than 0.600, and the shell chocolate contains a non-fat cocoa component derived from an unfermented cocoa raw material. It is characterized by being a chocolate dough.

  The chocolate of the present invention is a chocolate having a structure in which the surface of the water-containing substance is coated with shell chocolate as described above.

  Cocoa beans, which are chocolate raw materials, are usually fermented after harvesting in the production area, dried and then sent to a processing place where they are subjected to processing such as roasting. On the other hand, the “unfermented cocoa raw material” as used in the present invention refers to cocoa beans obtained by subjecting cocoa beans not subjected to fermentation as described above to processing such as roasting.

In the present invention, the “non-fat cocoa component” is a component contained in the unfermented cocoa raw material, refers to components other than lipids, and is an important component that causes the flavor of chocolate.
Examples of the non-fat cocoa component include cocoa mass and cocoa powder obtained from the unfermented cocoa raw material. Cocoa butter consisting only of lipids is not included in the non-fat cocoa component.

  The chocolate dough of the shell chocolate used in the present invention contains a non-fat cocoa component obtained from the unfermented cocoa raw material. Such a chocolate dough has a composition corresponding to the chocolate standard and the semi-chocolate standard, except that a non-fat cacao component obtained from the unfermented cacao raw material is used as a cacao raw material, Similarly to the quasi-chocolate dough, any dough that is obtained by mixing components such as cocoa butter, milk components, and emulsifiers may be used. For example, bitter chocolate dough, sweet chocolate dough, milk chocolate dough, etc. are mentioned. Non-fat cacao components obtained from the unfermented cacao ingredients and sugars such as sugar (powdered sugar), milk solids (powdered milk), fats and oils, etc. These can be used as long as they are rolled by a conventional method and conched as required. The chocolate dough does not include white chocolate that does not contain a non-fat cacao component.

  In the present invention, it is one of the features that the shell chocolate is a chocolate dough containing 10 to 22.5% by weight of a non-fat cocoa component derived from an unfermented cocoa raw material. Usually, cocoa ingredients containing non-fat cocoa components such as cocoa mass and cocoa powder are the most expensive ingredients among the ingredients that make up chocolate dough, but in the case of low-grade unfermented cocoa ingredients, the price of the cocoa ingredients However, since it is cheaper than milk raw materials such as powdered milk, there is an advantage that the manufacturing cost can be suppressed. When the content of the non-fat cocoa component in the shell chocolate is less than 10% by weight, almost no cost merit is obtained. On the other hand, when the content of the non-fat cocoa component exceeds 22.5% by weight, the astringent taste, etc. It is very strong and very difficult to remove completely.

In the chocolate of the present invention, the shell-containing chocolate covers the water-containing substance that is the center.
The water-containing substance has a water content of 8 to 18% by weight and a water activity of less than 0.600. Water activity is an index closely related to storage stability, and molds, bacteria, etc. cannot grow below 0.600. On the other hand, when the water activity is 0.600 or more, depending on the types of molds and bacteria, there are those that can proliferate, so the preservation of the water-containing substance is deteriorated. Also, if the water content is less than 8% by weight, the melting of the mouth becomes poor and the texture of the chocolate is impaired. On the other hand, if the water content exceeds 18% by weight, the water activity of the center cannot be suppressed to less than 0.600. . A more preferable range of water content is 11 to 15% by weight.
By using such a water-containing substance as the center, when the obtained chocolate is chewed in the mouth, the release of the flavor of the center can be accelerated, so the astringent taste of the shell chocolate is significantly reduced. It becomes possible.

A preferred embodiment of the water-containing substance is an oil-in-water emulsion containing 40 to 70% by weight of saccharides of disaccharides or less and 5 to 25% by weight of fats and oils. Examples of the saccharide that can be used in the present invention include monosaccharides such as glucose, fructose, and galactose, disaccharides such as sucrose, lactose, maltose, trehalose, and cellobiose, isomerized sugars, oligosaccharides, and saccharides of these disaccharides or less. Sugars, syrups, etc. containing as a main component, xylitol, erythritol, maltitol, sorbitol, mannitol, saccharides such as sugar alcohols such as glycerin and the like, as well as trisaccharides, tetrasaccharides, oligosaccharides that can be added to foods And saccharides such as polysaccharides. It is preferable that content of saccharides of disaccharides or less among the saccharides is 40 to 70% by weight in the water-containing substance. If the content of the saccharides below the disaccharide is less than 40% by weight, the water activity of the obtained hydrated substance becomes high and long-term distribution on a one-year scale becomes difficult. On the other hand, if the content of saccharides below the disaccharide exceeds 70% by weight, the water activity of the resulting hydrous substance is sufficiently low, but it becomes very sweet and unfavorable as a flavor.
Moreover, it is preferable that content of the saccharide below a disaccharide is 58 to 65 weight%, and contains 10-40 weight% of sugar alcohols as a saccharide below a disaccharide.
Moreover, you may have the process of caramelizing the carbohydrate below disaccharide. By caramelizing the saccharide, the water activity is reduced, and the content of saccharides below the disaccharide can be kept low.

Furthermore, the water-containing substance has the advantage that the content of carbohydrates below the disaccharide can be relatively reduced by containing a linear polyhydric alcohol as the sugar below the disaccharide, and the sweetness can be suppressed. is there.
The linear polyhydric alcohol refers to a sugar alcohol having no cyclic structure and having two or more hydroxyl groups, and examples thereof include sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol, glycerin, erythritol and the like. Since the linear polyhydric alcohol has a very high effect of lowering water activity, it is possible to keep the sugar content relatively small, which is preferable in terms of sweetness and flavor. The content of the linear polyhydric alcohol is preferably 10 to 15% by weight in the water-containing substance, and it is particularly preferable to use sorbitol and xylitol together as the linear polyhydric alcohol.

  Moreover, as fats and oils used for the said water-containing substance, cocoa butter and hard butter obtained from fermented cocoa beans are mentioned, for example. . Moreover, the chocolate dough containing the said fats and oils can also be used as a substitute of fats and oils.

Among them, the water-containing substance can give a raw chocolate-like texture more strongly by containing hard butter as an oil and fat, and can further improve the flavor of the resulting chocolate. The hard butter is cocoa butter And a cocoa butter substitute fat, and by using hard butter as fat, a texture with a mouth melt like raw chocolate can be obtained. The content is preferably 5 to 25% by weight in the water-containing substance. If the content of hard butter is less than 5% by weight, it will be close to liquid properties and a texture like fresh chocolate will not be obtained. On the other hand, when the content of hard butter exceeds 25% by weight, the texture becomes hard and the texture like fresh chocolate cannot be obtained. The hard butter content is preferably in the range of 8 to 22% by weight. Cocoa butter substitute is used to replace some or all of cocoa butter for the purpose of improving the physical properties of chocolate and saving manufacturing costs. There are those rich in unsaturated triglyceride type oils and lauric or high elaidic acid type called CBR. As fats and oils for cocoa butter substitute oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, peanut oil, rice bran oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, olive oil, kapok oil, sesame oil, evening primrose oil, palm oil, shea fat, Examples include vegetable oils such as monkey fat, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and animal fats such as milk fat, beef tallow, lard, fish oil, whale oil, and the above oils or a mixture of two or more of these oils, or those Processed oils and fats that have been cured, fractionated, transesterified, and the like can be used.

  Furthermore, if necessary, the water-containing substance may contain an emulsifier, an egg, a stabilizer, a taste ingredient, a sake, a preservative, a salt, an acidulant, an antibacterial agent, a colorant, a flavor, an antioxidant, and the like.

  As the emulsifier, monoglyceride, organic acid monoglyceride, polyglycerin fatty acid ester, sucrose fatty acid ester, propylene glycol fatty acid ester, sorbitan fatty acid ester, lecithin and the like can be used. It is preferable to use the emulsifier in a water-containing substance within a range that does not affect the flavor at 0.01% by weight or more. As the egg, whole egg, egg yolk, egg white, enzyme-treated egg, and the like can be used.

  As taste components, fruit juice, pulp, jam, fruit juice powder, cacao powder, coffee powder, almond paste, peanut paste, and the like are used as necessary. When using a taste component, 0.1 to 25% by weight, preferably 1 to 20% by weight, is preferably added to the water-containing substance. However, when the sugar component below the disaccharide is contained in the taste component, it is counted as the content of the sugar below the disaccharide.

  Examples of western liquor include rum and brandy. When using sake, it is preferable to add 0.1 to 5% by weight to the water-containing substance.

  Examples of the salt and acidulant include sodium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, magnesium carbonate, citric acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, and lactic acid. When adding a salt and a sour agent for flavor adjustment, the amount is preferably 1% by weight or less in the water-containing substance. In addition, it is known that the salt has an effect of lowering the water activity, but a great effect cannot be expected in the range of the addition amount, and the acidulant can improve the antibacterial property by lowering the pH.

  Examples of the antibacterial agent include licorice extract, green tea extract, sasa extract, tannin, lysozyme, and the like, and are used in a range that does not affect the flavor at about 0.01 to 0.5% by weight in the water-containing substance. Is preferred.

  The stabilizer, preservative, colorant, flavor, and antioxidant are not particularly limited as long as they can be used for confectionery such as chocolate.

  The water-containing substance having the above composition can keep the water activity low by adopting an oil-in-water emulsion structure. The method of emulsification is based on a method in which the water phase component and the oil phase component are mixed and cooked simultaneously, and after the water phase component is cooked, the oil phase component is added and emulsified into an oil-in-water type, A method of emulsifying into an oil-in-water type after the water phase component is gradually added to produce a water-in-oil emulsion and then the emulsification is separated is not particularly limited. As a device for emulsification, a simple whipper or the like may be used in addition to a device such as a homogenizer.

  Moreover, it is a more preferable aspect that the chocolate of this invention contains 20 to 50weight% of the center water-containing substances. If the moisture content is less than 20% by weight, the masking effect such as astringency derived from the unfermented cacao raw material contained in the shell chocolate is weak, while if it exceeds 50% by weight, the chocolate feeling is not felt.

  The chocolate of the present invention is a method of preparing a shell chocolate with a chocolate dough for shell chocolate using a predetermined mold in advance, filling the center, and finally covering again with a chocolate dough for shell chocolate, or It can produce by the method of filling the chocolate dough for shell chocolate, and a center simultaneously.

Content of shell chocolate should just be 50 to 80 weight% in the chocolate of this invention.
Moreover, it is a preferable aspect to adjust the thickness of shell chocolate to 1.5 mm or less. By making the thickness of the shell chocolate 1.5 mm or less, the texture of the chocolate is very preferable, and the taste is further improved. Therefore, the water-containing substance at the center may be dispersed.

  EXAMPLES Next, although an Example demonstrates this invention in detail, this invention is not restrict | limited at all by these Examples. In addition, the number in an Example means a weight part and "%" means weight%. In addition, a water activity isothermal measuring device “LabMASTER-aw BASIC” (trade name) manufactured by Novasina was used for water activity measurement.

(Preparation of chocolate dough 1-4)
According to the composition shown in Table 1, rolls and conching were performed to obtain chocolate doughs 1-4. In addition, conching was performed on 45 degreeC conditions for 4 hours, and when the particle size of the produced chocolate dough 1 and chocolate dough 2 was measured with the micrometer, all were the range of 20-25 micrometers.

(Production of hydrous substances 1-8)
Next, according to the composition of Table 2, water-containing substances 1 to 8 as the center portion were produced. In the production method, all raw materials were mixed, heated to the desired moisture, and emulsified using a homomixer to obtain an oil-in-water emulsion.

(Production of hydrous substances 9 to 11)
Furthermore, according to the composition of Table 3, water-containing substances 9 to 11 as the center portion were produced. In the production method, first, the water phase portion was heated and concentrated until the Bx described was obtained, and then the water phase component and the oil phase component were mixed in the formulation shown in Table 4 and emulsified with a whipper to obtain an oil-in-water emulsion. . In either case, the sugar was heated to 180 ° C. and caramelized.

(Examples 1 to 13, Comparative Examples 1 to 4 and Reference Example 1)
Next, the water-containing substances 1 to 11 prepared as a center are filled in shell chocolate prepared using a mold with the chocolate dough 1 or 2 in advance, and covered with the chocolate dough, and Examples 1 to 13 are compared. The chocolate of Examples 1-4 was produced. The thickness of the shell chocolate was about 1.0 to 1.5 mm. Moreover, the single weight of chocolate was all 5.0 g. Reference Example 1 was obtained by dissolving a commercially available alphabet chocolate and filling and solidifying the same shape and weight as in Examples 1 to 13 and Comparative Examples 1 to 4.

Next, the flavor of the obtained chocolate was evaluated.
The evaluation method had 30 panelists try each chocolate, and evaluated the flavor with an integer value between -5 and 5 points.
Table 5 shows the combinations of the shell chocolate dough and the water-containing substance in the center, the average value of the flavor, the storage stability, and the significance test result of the flavor with Reference Example 1 which is a commercially available chocolate. For the significance test, a t-test with Reference Example 1 was performed, and all the t values less than 0.05 were described as “t <0.05”.
The t test is a statistical test indicating whether or not the difference in the average value between sample groups is a coincidence, and is generally said to have a difference when t <0.05. Therefore, if the result of the t-test with reference example 1 is t <0.05, the difference in average value can be regarded as inevitable, and it can be said that there is a significant difference in flavor. On the other hand, when the t value is 0.05 or more, it can be said that the difference between the average values is considered to be highly contingent and there is no significant difference in flavor.

The chocolates of Examples 1 to 6 have the same shell, and the flavors are improved when compared with the chocolates of Comparative Examples 1 and 4 that do not contain a center. It was confirmed that there was a masking effect from the absence.
The same results were obtained for the chocolates of Examples 12 and 13 in which the center content was changed.
It is confirmed that the chocolates of Examples 7 to 9 and Example 11 using the water-containing substance as a raw chocolate-like composition as the center have a higher average flavor value than Reference Example 1 and a higher masking effect. It was possible to obtain significance for Reference Example 1.
Since the chocolate of Example 10 uses milk chocolate for the shell, it has a relatively low astringency, but it can be seen that the masking effect is sufficiently exhibited as compared with the flavor of the chocolate of Comparative Example 4.
The chocolate of Comparative Example 2 has a low moisture content in the center water-containing substance, so that the masking effect is not sufficient, and the chocolate of Comparative Example 3 in which the water content of the center water-containing substance is high has a masking effect. As a result, the storage activity was poor.

Claims (5)

  As a center, it contains 8 to 18% by weight of water, contains a water-containing substance having a water activity of less than 0.600, and the shell chocolate is a chocolate dough containing a non-fat cocoa component derived from an unfermented cocoa raw material. Characteristic chocolate.   The chocolate according to claim 1, wherein the water-containing substance is an oil-in-water emulsion containing 40 to 70% by weight of a saccharide having a disaccharide or less and 5 to 25% by weight of fats and oils.   The chocolate according to claim 2, wherein the hydrated substance contains 5 to 25% by weight of a linear polyhydric alcohol as a saccharide of a disaccharide or less and 5 to 25% by weight of hard butter as an oil or fat.   The chocolate according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the shell chocolate is a chocolate dough containing 10 to 22.5 wt% of a non-fat cacao component derived from an unfermented cacao raw material.   The chocolate according to any one of claims 1 to 4, comprising 20 to 50% by weight of the water-containing substance as a center.