About Tempering Chocolate

It’s the holiday season and that’s when many head to their kitchens to make something special. There are many chocolate candy-maker hobbyists that over-reach and find themselves with a lot of expensive ingredients and confounding results. That’s when our phone rings or the emails come.

The most common question this time of year usually has to do with the chocolate not “drying” or “drying” with a mottled gray appearance. The answer is simple - it’s a matter of temper. Not yours, but the chocolate’s.

When referring to chocolate, temper is a methodical conditioning or training of the chocolate to set up the crystallization of the cocoa butter to achieve an attractive, useful result when the chocolate sets. Well tempered chocolate most certainly will taste better, have a better mouth feel, look more appealing and have a longer shelf life.

A note here: when I speak of chocolate, I’m referring to real chocolate with cocoa butter for the fat and chocolate liquor for the flavor, NOT the stuff with palm kernel oil for the fat and cocoa for the flavor. The latter doesn’t need tempering.

There are several uncomplicated ways for the hobbyist to temper chocolate:

• Method #1 - maintain the current temper. Melt the chocolate slowly to 91°F then mix it and use it. If you melt chocolate that’s already in temper and do not break the crystallization by staying under 91°F, you will not need to temper the chocolate. This method requires time and patience in setting up a way to melt the chocolate slowly. If you are going to do it often, a small thermostatically controlled warm box would be worth the time to construct for a dedicated hobbyist (reuse a old dorm fridge).
• Method #2 - seeding. Melt chocolate to 115°F - 120°F to totally break down all cocoa butter crystals. Cool chocolate to 91°F by frequent stirring. A double boiler or water bath at 75°F can be used. Add approximately 3% by weight finely shaved tempered chocolate from a bar to the melted chocolate. Stir well for about 5 minutes before using.
• Method #3 - hand puddling on a marble slab. This is the old-fashioned professional candy maker’s preferred method but it is beyond the scope of this post. Maybe some other time.

Now - some rules:

• always melt and cool chocolate slowly and gently
• if you use a microwave to melt chocolate - do it in increments and go slow
• if you use a double boiler to melt chocolate - do not get water or steam condensate in the chocolate or it will seize (become unworkable)
• your kitchen temperature is best in the 68°F - 70°F range
• your centers or molds should be in the 68°F - 80°F range
• dark chocolate tempers at about 2°F warmer than milk chocolate

Finally, never cool/set your chocolates in a refrigerator. You are likely to get into odor absorption and condensation issues. It is best to cool/set your chocolates gently in a 55°F - 65°F room with a fan stirring the air. Careful with the fan as cooling too fast by blowing hard directly on the chocolates or not not cooling fast enough can both cause undesirable crystallization.

So there is tempering chocolate in a nutshell. Overall, not very difficult once you’ve done it a few times and find out what works for you in your kitchen. Hopefully you’ll be able to experiment with tempering chocolate without the stress of a “must do” project hanging over your head. Happy dipping!