Tempering chocolate is an intimidating procedure, but once you get the hang of it, it isn't bad at all. I spent the entire first chocolate unit and half of the second unit struggling to temper chocolate--it was stressful and difficult. Happily, at some point it just clicked and by the time we got to the last plated dessert unit I actually volunteered to make decorations that used tempered chocolate.
Basically, tempering chocolate is a process of heating, cooling, and agitating chocolate over a period of time. The reason to do this is to encourage the cocoa butter to crystalize in a certain way. When a liquid solidifies it crystalizes (think of water forming ice crystals); cocoa butter is no different. Certain types of cocoa butter crystals (beta crystals) are more stable than others. If you have a more stable crystal the chocolate will have a nicer appearance and texture. By melting the chocolate fully--by heating it to a maximum of 122*F for dark chocolate--you melt out all types of crystals. Then by lowering the temperature (to the holding range of 86-90*F for dark chocolate) in a controlled manner you encourage the formation of beta crystals. There are three main methods of lowering the temperature--tabling, seeding, and using an ice bath. Each method has its supporters. I prefer seeding, but in a pinch I'll use an ice bath. Tabling is too messy in my opinion and is seldom used, however it is the classic method for tempering so it bears mentioning. I will discuss each of these three methods in subsequent posts. Here, I will discuss some basics you will need to know for all three.
First, you must always remember that water is the enemy of chocolate! It will cause chocolate to seize and become too thick to work with. It will also cause unsightly sugar bloom. If your chocolate has sugar bloom you cannot temper it. The best thing you can do with chocolate that has been exposed to water is make brownies or hot chocolate or otherwise use it in a baked good.
Second, it is useful to know about the two types of bloom and how to identify them. They are fat bloom and the aforementioned sugar bloom. Fat bloom comes from improperly tempered chocolate. When the chocolate is not properly mixed and agitated, streaks of cocoa butter can (in essence) separate from the cocoa solids forming swirls and streaks of pale cocoa butter in your hardened chocolate. That's okay, it just means you have to re-temper the chocolate and try again. Sugar bloom, as I mentioned, is a sign of water damage and means you can't re-temper the chocolate. It is easily distinguished from fat bloom; rather than looking like streaks they look like white patches and often appear to be tiny rings (most likely left behind by evaporated water droplets). When in doubt, just use the chocolate for baking and not tempering. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to temper a batch of chocolate only to realize that it just won't go no matter how hard you work at it.
Third, the most important thing you can have when you learn to temper chocolate is a well-calibrated infrared thermometer. A no-contact thermometer is key to checking the temperature because you don't have to worry about contaminating the chocolate or having the chocolate harden on the probe making the readings come out wrong. It is important that it's well-calibrated since the holding range is only a small range of four degrees Fahrenheit.
Fourth, you will also need a clean and dry rubber spatula, a double boiler (or a bowl over a pot of water), dry towels or a pot holder or two (to rest the bowl on in order to insulate it and slow the cooling once you are in the holding range or to keep it from over-heating if you have the next item), and, if you are lucky enough to have it, a warm surface (such as a griddle placed over a pilot light) to keep the chocolate warm and, therefore, in the holding range indefinitely.
Fifth, you may hear people say that you can only temper couverture chocolate. (In case you were wondering, couverture chocolate has extra cocoa butter which makes it more fluid when it is melted and, if tempered properly, harder when it's solid.) That is not true; you can temper any type of chocolate you want. You can temper a Hersey's bar if you have the desire. The reason you typically use couvature chocolate for tempering is that most of the times you use chocolate that is in temper you want to be using couvature chocolate. The reason is simple: because couverture chocolate is more fluid it is ideal for covering candies/truffles/etc and pouring for showpieces and these uses require tempered chocolate. For both uses the appearance of the chocolate is an important part of the final product, therefore you want the chocolate to be in temper (since, as discussed above, tempered chocolate is prettier than untempered chocolate). Also, it hardens harder so it gives candies a nicer snap and showpieces more strength.
I think that's about it. Stay tuned for how to do each of the three main tempering methods.
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