How to temper chocolate
While there's a lot to be said for just sitting in your pajamas, watching Netflix, and eating a gigantic bar of Dairy Milk, there's actually a lot more to chocolate. In fact, there is a lot you can do with this humble ingredient. One of the most important skills in chocolate, and also one of the most difficult, is tempering the chocolate.
Tempering chocolate is a technique that involves slowly heating and then cooling the chocolate so that the fats crystallize evenly and the chocolate breaks when it breaks. It is what gives coated truffles and chocolates that magnificent, brilliant shine. Well tempered chocolate can elevate your sweets from meh to wonderful in minutes, while poorly tempered chocolate looks dull and has a white flower from where the cocoa fat has risen to the surface.
While it may sound easy, it has a definite skill ... Even trained pastry chefs can find it difficult to get it right, so don't be too hard on yourself if it takes a few tries to achieve sweet perfection.
THE SOWING METHOD
Our preferred method of tempering chocolate is the 'seeding method'. Here, you add tempered chocolate to the untempered melted chocolate. Tempered chocolate will introduce (or seed) the proper crystalline structure to the overall batch and align everything. To do this, you will need a double boiler (you can easily make your own by placing a bowl over a saucepan filled with boiling water), a thermometer, and some high-quality chocolate with a good cocoa content (yes, this is an excuse to buy that fancy looking chocolate next time you go to the grocery store). Divide the chocolate into small pieces and add three-quarters to a bowl. Place the bowl over the water bath, making sure the bottom does not come into direct contact with the water. Let the chocolate gradually melt until the thermometer reaches 55 ° C, while stirring slowly and continuously. Remove from the saucepan from the heat and add the remaining chocolate chunks. Slowly stir the chocolate until it melts and reaches 27–28 ° C. Place the chocolate bowl back over the pot of water and simmer. Reheat to 31–32 ° C, ensuring that the chocolate does not exceed 32 ° C. The dark chocolate should reach 31C-32C; milk chocolate should reach 29C-30C and white chocolate should reach 28C-29C. If the chocolate has reached the correct temperature and there are still unmelted pieces of chocolate, remove them before raising the temperature. If you leave them, the chocolate will thicken very quickly and become sticky from excessive crystallization.
THE CRUMB METHOD
If this seems too complicated for you, there is another way. Food blogger Izy Hossack introduced us to the 'crumb method'. This involves using a food processor to turn the chocolate into crumbs, before pouring the mixture into a bowl and adding hot water. Too good to be true? Maybe, but it's certainly one to try if you're looking for a quick and easy method of tempering chocolate! Now that you know how to temper chocolate, we think you deserve to make yourself some truffles. We like ours with salted caramel, but you can make them with Irish Cream, raspberries, hazelnuts ... the only limit is your imagination!
It's worth noting that these make great edible Christmas gifts too. And let's face it: what's better than personalized holiday food gifts, tailor-made for each recipient. You could even add them to Christmas gift baskets for the chocoholic in your life!
We would love to see the delicious creations you make with tempered chocolate.