Recently I took a class on making Thai inspired bean to bar chocolate using inclusions. The first bar inspired by this class was a Massaman crunch vegan milk chocolate bar. If you would like to read more about the Thai inspired chocolate class that I took, check out the Inclusion-craft Thai Inspired Chocolates Workshop post, for more information about this bar, keep reading.
Inspiration
Massaman curry is full of warming spices that remind me of fall. Usually it is milder than other curries with only a touch of heat. It is a creamy dish with coconut milk, tender vegetables and crunchy peanuts. I really wanted this bar to represent these warm spices but in a very approachable and familiar way.
Making a Vegan Milk Chocolate
The base for this vegan milk chocolate is made up of coconut and peanuts. The chocolate is sweet and creamy like milk chocolate, but without the dairy. To balance that creaminess I candied the peanuts with tamarind and palm sugar to mimic the sweet and sour broth in Massaman curry. We then ground the tamarind candied peanuts and coconut with fruity coco nibs from Peru to make a smooth vegan milk chocolate base.
The crunch in this bar comes from both popped brown rice, and a Massaman curry brittle. To make the brittle I steeped coconut oil with many of the spices that you would find in a Massaman curry paste; cardamom, coriander, white pepper, cumin, mace, fennel, cloves, Thai red chili peppers and orange zest. After steeping the spiced coconut oil we combined it with caramelizing sugar and a touch of baking soda to aerate it. The curry brittle was then poured into a thin layer while it hardened and cooled. This thin, crunchy brittle along with the puffed brown rice is mixed in with the coconut peanut vegan milk chocolate before molding.
When assembled this bar is creamy, crunchy and sweet with those warming curry notes. It’s a vegan milk chocolate crunch bar elevated to an exotic get-away while sitting in a familiar comforting place. Stay tuned to find out where you can get one!
Check out our other Thai Inclusion bar; the Vegan Thai Green Curry bar here.
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