How To Temper Chocolate
Source of Recipe
AllRecipes.com
List of Ingredients
Chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate-coated truffles, chocolate-dipped spoons, chocolate fondue. . . It seems like it would be easy enough to make these decadent treats; we all know how to melt chocolate, right? Many of us have learned the hard way, however, that though chocolate is among the most wonderful of life's simple pleasures, it can become simply a headache when we try to melt it.
Buying chocolate for dipping
Two of chocolate's main ingredients are cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Cocoa solids are what give it its marvelous and distinct chocolaty flavor, and cocoa butter is what gives it its smooth, creamy richness. The proportion of cocoa butter in chocolate is one of the factors that determines the quality (and the price) of chocolate. The best chocolate for dipping is called couverture. It comes in a solid block, which you will need to chop up into little chunks before you try to melt it. Couverture contains a high proportion of cocoa butter, and has a deep color and a definite shine to it. It will break with a clean snap. Since the melting point of cocoa butter is just below your body temperature, this chocolate will literally melt in your mouth. Because of its high cocoa butter content, though, couverture can be quite difficult to work with.
If you're willing to sacrifice some decadence for the sake of convenience, you can use compound chocolate. This kind of chocolate has been specially processed so that some or all of the cocoa butter is removed from the cocoa solids. The cocoa butter is replaced with some other kind of less moody vegetable fat, such as cottonseed oil, soybean oil, or palm kernel oil. This kind of chocolate will not have the same shine and snap as real chocolate, and may not melt in your mouth in quite the same way, but it does not require the same kind of special treatment that couverture does. If you want to pull out all the stops and try the real deal, though, read on.
Tempering
If you want to work with chocolate other than compound chocolate, either for dipping, molding, or piping, it must first be tempered. Tempering is tricky business. It involves melting and then re-aligning the microscopic crystals in the cocoa butter so that they re-harden exactly the way you want them. There are at least six different ways that cocoa butter crystals can align themselves, and only one way that you want them to align themselves. If the crystals are incorrectly aligned, your chocolate will be dull and streaky, or it will not harden at room temperature. To correctly align the cocoa butter crystals, you need to slowly disintegrate them by bringing the chocolate up to a temperature of 118 degrees F (48 degrees C), re-form them by bringing the chocolate back down to 80 degrees F (27 degrees C) by stirring and adding small shavings of unmelted chocolate, and finally, re-dissolve any of the bad kind of crystals by bringing the chocolate back up to a temperature of 91 degrees F (33 degrees C).
Try this at home!
The two best ways to temper chocolate at home are in a double boiler or in the microwave. If using a double boiler, make sure the water is not touching the bottom of the upper pan. Bring the water up to a simmer, then turn off the heat before adding the chocolate. To temper chocolate in the microwave, place the chocolate in a glass bowl and zap it on high power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each interval.
It's tremendously helpful to have an accurate thermometer when tempering chocolate, but if you want to try it without one, you can use your lips to gauge the temperature, since they are significantly more sensitive than your hands. Keep in mind that 118 degrees F is just a little bit warmer than your lips (not hot!), 80 degrees F will feel cool (although the chocolate will be mostly liquid), and that 91 degrees F is just slightly cooler than your lips. Before you start dipping, do a "temper test:" drizzle a little bit of the chocolate onto a piece of waxed paper. Let it set up for 5 minutes. If it's glossy and hard, your chocolate is correctly tempered.
Don't lose your temper!
The two most common problems of working with chocolate are separating and seizing.
Separation happens when you get the chocolate too hot. The melting point of chocolate, especially that which contains a large amount of cocoa butter, is very distinct. One second, you have a bowl full of chocolate lumps, and the next second you have a silky-smooth bowl of melted chocolate. Because the change is so sudden, many people get impatient and make the mistake of turning up the temperature too high in order to speed up the process. When chocolate gets too hot, the cocoa butter separates from the solids, and you have a pile of chunky, mushy glop. Once chocolate has separated, there is no way to salvage it. The best way to thwart separation is to use gentle heat and don't forget to stir, stir, stir!
Seizing is what happens when moisture is introduced to melted chocolate. It is another process that can take place in the blink of an eye; one second you have a smooth bowl of liquid chocolate, and the next second you have a bowl full of lumpy, grainy goo. Even the tiniest amount of liquid-a single drop of water, the moisture clinging to a just-washed strawberry, or the steam from a double boiler that gets too hot-will cause this kind of damage to your chocolate. It is possible to rescue seized chocolate. The way to do this is, ironically enough, to add more liquid. Where a little bit of moisture causes seizing, lots of moisture will allow chocolate to relax again. If you're adding liquid to chocolate - flavoring it with a liqueur for dipping, or with cream for fondue or ganache - it's best to put the liquid and the chocolate together at the beginning, before you ever start to melt the chocolate.
Are you discouraged yet? Don't be! Working with chocolate is a labor of love, and it's also fun, not to mention rewarding. After all this painstaking effort, don't forget, you will have succulent, breathtaking desserts that will not soon be forgotten-by you, or by the special people with whom you share them.
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