Cocoa butter

Cocoa butter is used to make chocolate, as was well as some ointments, toiletries and pharmaceuticals. Cocoa butter also is an important ingredient for confectionery products, having a major influence on the organoleptic and physical properties.

More than 98% of cocoa butter is simple lipid. More than 95% of this is triacylglycerol. Free fatty acid values are reported to be 1.5% and the concentration of mono- and diacylglycerol is about 2% of the simple lipid fraction.

Cocoa butter contains a high proportion of saturated fats, derived from stearic and palmitic acids. It exhibits a very complex crystallization system as a result of the different glycerides present. It is polymorphic, which means it will crystallize in several different forms according to how the liquid fat is solidified.

It generally acts as the continuous phase in chocolate, supporting the nonfat ingredients.

Thus, the properties of the chocolate – relatively hard and brittle at room temperature yet melting rapidly in the mouth – are greatly dependent on the properties of the cocoa butter itself. It is light yellow fat, exhibiting a distinct brittle fracture below 20 °C, a fairly sharp complete melting point about 35 °C with an incipient fusion or softening around 30-32 °C.
Cocoa butter

What are the important ingredients in confectionery?

Important ingredients of confectionary include sugars and syrups, milk products, fats and oils, cocoa, cereal products, nuts, dried fruits as well as flavorings and a variety of gums, gelling agents and such like.

Sugar
Confectionary has traditionally contained the sugar, sucrose as its characterizing ingredient. The factories normally use sucrose in a number of forms: crystalline milled sugar, icing sugar and possibly a 66% sugar syrup.

Brown sugar also used in confectionery. Caramel is used as a flavoring material and for imparting characteristics of brown color.

Fats and oils
A variety of edible fats and oils are used in confectionary products. For example, milk fat, cocoa butter and oils of palm kernel, groundnut, coconut and soya. Many of these can undergo hydrogenation to produce fats of varying hardness.

Butter consists of 80% fat; about 15% water and 5% milk solids.

Dairy ingredients
In confectionery, sweet condensed milk and concentrated milk are used extensively. Reconstituted milk powders are also employed but special care in the preparation of their dispersion is needed.

Cocoa butter 
Cocoa butter has strong functional properties. It helps in contraction on solidification which makes possible the molding of chocolate blocks and bas into an appalling style.

Whole egg products
Liquid whole egg and liquid egg white are used a great deal in baking and flour confectionery, but very little in sugar confectionery.

Starch soya flour
Starch has been used for many years, mainly in two ways. First, it is used as a molding medium to make impressions in filled shallow trays, in which liquid confectionery is deposited. Second starch is used as a gelling agent or stabilizer in many confectionary products.
What are the important ingredients in confectionery?

Gum Arabic

Gum Arabic
Gum arabic or acacia gum is a plant exudates hydrocolloid isolated from certain species of the acacia tree. Its chemical makeup is based on a number of different neutral and acid sugar components arranged in a highly branched structure.

Although gum Arabic has a relatively high molecular weight, its viscosity profile is extremely low in comparison to other hydrocolloids. This is due to its highly branched structure which limits effective hydrate volume. Highly concentrated solutions of gum Arabic (up to 50%) can be used in confections.

Arabic gum functions in confections as an emulsifiers, sugar crystallization control agent, bulking agent, and film former. In caramels and toffee products, gum arabic’s emulsification properties aid in the reduction of fat droplet size distribution and provide stability to the product. Hard gum, pastille, cough drop formula often use arabic gums at high concentration to provide bulk and contribute to an extremely firm texture in the finished products. Arabic gum’s film forming capacity is used in the coating of almond confections and other hard panned sugar confectionary.
Gum Arabic