March 4, 2010
Why You Need To Learn Chocolate Tempering By Hand
Chocolates are neither originally shiny nor smooth so tempering makes them so. All chocolate makers temper chocolate before they bring it to market for public consumption. Despite conching, the chocolate paste still needs to undergo tempering to turn the cocoa bean particles even more refined so that the tongue will no longer be able to detect it.
Precision chocolate tempering brings about such features as glossiness, firmness, and creaminess to chocolate candy as well as it chocolate last for a very long time. Chocolates that are not tempered are usually prone to bloom, a state where huge crystals break into the surface of chocolates and therefore unappealing and disappointing to buyers.
When you already heat the chocolate to prepare it for the dipping and molding process, it will immediately lose its temper. Chocolates that go beyond 90F needs to be re-tempered.
Because most modern chocolatiers want maximum yield in less time, they tend to depend on automated tempering. Using chocolate tempering machine could really be of advantage but knowing how to temper by hand could be that one edge over your competitors you’ll ever need, especially in a power outage.
One of the ways you could temper by hand is through tabliering, what is commonly known as the marble-slab technique by the French. In this method, chocolate is cooled on a marble or any cold or stone surface.
The materials you will need include a pound of chocolate, mixing bowl, serrated knife, rubber spatula, double boiler and chopping board. Chop the chocolate into bits and heat in a double boiler, mixing gently so it won’t burn. Pour half of the completely melted mixture onto the slab scraping and spreading repeatedly until thickly fluid and matte. Add in the remaining mixture until the whole mush has the same consistency.
After mixing, you can now dip your fruit into the tempered mush or even shape the air-dried chocolate with cookie cutters or candy molds. At this stage of creating, you have to carefully watch temperatures. Stop once the chocolate loses its temper because you’ll need to re-temper the mush again.
Another way of tempering is through seeding where loose crystals are bound together using the structures in non-melted chocolate strips as model.
Be ready with the same materials and melt just as in tabliering. Once melted pour the chocolate mush into the bowl and mix and fold until the mush has a homogeneous consistency, temperature, and appearance.
Always stand guard over the temperatures of the chocolate to ensure it stays in its ideal tempered state, especially when you are in the dipping and molding process. Keep your calibrated thermometer at hand.
Manual tempering can really be a tiresome procedure even for someone who has been doing this for a long time. This is because tempering requires so much time and work, that you will not be able to get to your creative side really hustling during the dip and mold procedure.