Murph+Chocolate Making 101

With another Memorial Day weekend come and gone, I completed my 7th annual Murph in honor of those who have bravely served our country.

I have completed Murph on Memorial Day every year since 2014, including with a broken foot in 2016, and while visiting DC for a wedding in 2018. This year was a little different in its own way. Quarantine Murph. Despite the circumstances, I was determined to complete the workout in whatever way I could. I haven’t run much since dealing with a nasty chronic ankle injury in December, but last week I finally worked up to running 2 miles for the first time. For my Murph this year, I did:

1 mile run

100 DB rows (in place of pull ups since I did not have a pull up bar)

200 push ups

300 squats

1 mile run

Murph is one of my favorite Crossfit workouts, and it has definitely evolved for me over the years. The first few times I did Murph, it was with banded pull ups and knee push ups. Last year, I did kipping pull ups and 100 push ups strict and 100 from my knees. This year, thanks to the 1000 push ups that have been programed for us in quarantine and all the work I’ve been doing on them the last year, I finally completed all 200 push ups from my toes. That was a big accomplishment for me! I have to say, it helps to not have the pull ups, but my post-Murph pain is definitely not as bad as it used to be. My shoulders are definitely super sore from the push ups though, but it’s crazy how much stronger I’ve gotten. Even when we feel like we aren’t making progress, there are metrics like this to remind us that we are. I believe I finished around 52 minutes.

The other reason I wanted to post today was that I finally completed my first batch of solo homemade chocolate! My sister makes the best chocolate, straight from the raw bean. After making it with my brother in law when I visited them in February, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at it. This ended up being the perfect quarantine hobby, although I’m not starting it until week 11 of quarantine. I’m going to go through my experience with the process here.

Because I don’t have quite the equipment or experience my sister does, I ordered bulk roasted cacao nibs from the supplier she uses for her raw beans. I used 2 1lb bags for this batch.

To make chocolate, a melanger is a piece of equipment that is absolutely necessary. I ordered one from Amazon and it came in a week!

The first step from the roasted nibs is to grind them up in a blender, and then slowly add them to the melanger.

I had to monitor it pretty closely for the first 30 minutes or so because it was still so thick that the wheels kept threatening to hurl it over the edge, so I had to tame them back into the machine. Once the chocolate progressed and became more liquidy, this was no longer an issue.

Then, the chocolate just hangs out in the melanger, and it grinds for 24-36 hours. I got really excited when my equipment arrived and started the chocolate immediately, so I opted for the 24 hour time because the 36 hour time would have involved me waking up at 4am to tend to the chocolate.

1.5-2 hours before it’s done, add the sugar. I added 8oz to my 2lbs of nibs, making this chocolate 80%. Next time, I think I’m going to add 10oz and make it closer to 76%. (My sweet spot for chocolate is 75-80%).

I added my sugar 2 hours before finishing (at the 22 hour mark). Once the time was up, I poured all the chocolate out into a chilled bowl and stirred. And stirred. The mixture needs to be an even 82 degrees. Once it reaches this point, it then needs to be heated up to 90 degrees, and then it can be poured into moulds. This is the tempering process. This is responsible for the crystal structure of the chocolate, and the texture. I accidentally heated by chocolate back up to 110 degrees instead of 90, which meant I had to cool it all the way back down to 82, and then heated back up to 90. The cool thing about this process is that if you mess it up, you can always remelt it or re-cool it and start again.

FINALLY I had it in the moulds.

Once it is in the moulds, shake out the bubbles and then immediately place it in the fridge until it is completely hardened. This took about 45 minutes for me.

So far, it looks like my tempering went well! The chocolate has a shine, and doesn’t have any discolorations. My kitchen and I may have ended up covered in chocolate, but it was all worth it!