How to Temper Chocolate

How to Temper Chocolate

TWO RULES for Melting Chocolate

These apply to both melting and tempering chocolate.

1. Never heat above 120°F for bittersweet or semisweet chocolate. If tempering milk or white chocolate, avoid heating above 110°F.

This will sacrifice chocolate flavor.

2. Never expose melted chocolate to water

• Any water will cause the chocolate to seize. Even a droplet from steam!
• You know your chocolate has seized when it becomes lumpy instead of smooth.
• If your recipe calls for liquid, such as butter, water, coffee, or liqueur, always melt it alongside the chocolate simultaneously.

What Does it Mean to Temper Chocolate?

• The process of tempering creates chocolate coatings that are ultra smooth, glossy, and have a crisp satisfying snap when eaten.
• Tempering allows us to manipulate the fat molecules in the cocoa butter of the chocolate to arrange its crystalline structure in a way that creates that snappy chocolate texture.
• This same process, along with proper storage, also helps to prevent the chocolate from blooming, which is when a white coating forms on the surface of the chocolate.
• When using tempered chocolate to coat, say, Oreo cookies, the coated cookies won’t require refrigeration to stay hard and snappy.

When Do I Need to Use Tempered Chocolate?

1. Tempering chocolate is perfect for making chocolate candies, truffles, dipped confections, or chocolate cake decorations.
2. If you just use melted chocolate to dip, you won’t get a coating that stays snappy. It’ll be dull and soft and will need to be refrigerated just to avoid melting.
3. Tempered chocolate products stay hard at cool room temperature. Avoid storing at warm temperatures and at high humidity to protect the tempered chocolate’s structure.

When is Tempered Chocolate Not Needed?

You don’t need to temper if you’re simply adding melted chocolate into a batter, mousse, or ganache.

How Does Tempering Chocolate Work?

• The process involves controlling the melting, cooling, and reheating of chocolate within specified temperature ranges depending on the kind of chocolate.
• The goal of tempering chocolate is to ensure the development and longevity of Form V crystals, one of the six types of cocoa butter crystals.
• This type of fat crystal is stable and contributes to the coveted textural properties of a delicious chocolate treat!
• Maintaining and controlling the development of Form V crystals is also crucial to avoid the unpleasant white, chalky appearance that can form on chocolate when recrystallization occurs.

Why Temper Chocolate?

• Simply put, it’s the best way to get that beautiful professional chocolate coating (without any additional ingredients or refrigeration) while maintaining a delightful chocolate flavor.
• Tempering can be an extra step that feels tedious. There are ‘chocolate’ candy melt products available at many stores that produce a similar crunchy coating when dipped.
• Unfortunately, many of these chocolate compound products aren’t actual chocolate because the cocoa butter has been replaced by hydrogenated industrial oils. They taste artificial and don’t provide the same satisfaction.

What is the Best Chocolate for Tempering? Can you Temper Chocolate Chips?

• Only use high-quality bars of chocolate for baking (such as Ghirardelli baking bars or even Trader Joe’s Pound Plus chocolate) or couverture chocolate wafers (such as Guittard or Valrhona).
• If using bars, finely chop the chocolate with a serrated knife.
• Finely chopped chocolate will melt more evenly.
• DO NOT use chocolate chips. These have added ingredients that help them to maintain their chip shape when exposed to heat and will not melt down smoothly for tempering.

Can you Temper Chocolate Without a Thermometer?

• In my opinion, a thermometer truly is essential to tempering chocolate because it takes the guesswork out and ensures your temper will set up beautifully.
• Chocolate is expensive so I like to make sure I have the proper tools for success!
• You can use a chocolate thermometer to register the temperature stages of tempering chocolate, or simply a high-quality digital thermometer.

What is a Double Boiler?

• A double boiler is simply a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan filled with about an inch of simmering water.
• You just want to make sure the bowl on top doesn’t touch the water.
• This allows the chocolate to be melted gently by the heat.
• You can use metal or glass bowls for the top part of the double boiler.
• Glass will take longer to cool down as required to temper in Step 2.

How to Save Seized Chocolate

The way to fix seized chocolate is completely counterintuitive. It’s done by actually adding a little bit of melted butter, oil, or water back into the mixture and stirring vigorously. Unfortunately, at this point, the fixed melted chocolate should only be used for chocolate sauce or hot chocolate and not in a recipe.