Tempering your own chocolate is a work of love. It takes time, precision and persistence. I learned to do it because my sister and father are both allergic to chocolate solids, but can have white chocolate. One of their favorite candies is cherry cordials, but they don't come in white chocolate. So I learned to make them (recipe coming eventually, lol). The following guide is the result of several months of research and experimentation on my part, to be able to use the equipment and space I mostly already had to temper chocolate. The only things I bought were a glass chocolate thermometer and the dipping tools. And chocolate of course! If you need to buy some of these tools, they will still be cheaper than the cheapest automatic chocolate tempering machine, and the result will be more consistent and better.
I know it's long, but please, please, please read the whole thing before you try to start on your chocolate. It will save you from making a ton of easy mistakes and potentially ruining your chocolate!
Quick temperature guide (in F):
Milk Chocolate- melting 115, working 86-88
Dark Chocolate- melting 120, working 88-90
White Chocolate- melting 110, working 82-84
Melting temperature- the temperature where all the cocoa butter crystals are melted, making the chocolate a blank slate ready to be reformed.
Working temperature- the temperature that will form the ideal cocoa butter crystals, the longer it is at this temperature, the more crystals will form.
Picking your chocolate:
-Make sure that the ingredients list has cocoa butter in it. If there's no cocoa butter, it's not real chocolate and doesn't need tempered.
-Chocolate chips that you can buy for making cookies are formulated to hold their shape as they are baked, so are not ideal for dipping and candy making, but they will work in a pinch.
Chocolate (or more precisely, cocoa butter) is an unusual substance and needs to be treated in a precise fashion to have that creamy texture and nice snap that we are all so familiar with. To successfully temper chocolate for dipping and candy making you will need some...
Equipment:
-a double boiler where the top pot has a long handle. You can jury rig this by putting one pot on top of another one, as long as it doesn't sit in the water, or have direct contact with the heat from the burner.
-a flat bottomed glass bowl or fairly thick ceramic bowl (to maximize surface area on the heating pad)
-a heating pad with multiple temperature settings that won't automatically turn off after a while (like the kind you get for sore muscles, you can find them in the pharmacy area of most stores)
-several hand towels, small and easy to work with, but not too small like a washcloth
-a nice comfortable spatula you can use continuously for 30 minutes to an hour
-a chocolate thermometer: special thermometer that will accurately display temperatures from around 70 degrees to around 125 or 130F. Infrared thermal guns are relatively cheap these days and are pretty awesome because they can measure precisely and don't touch the chocolate, and one less thing to juggle is pretty helpful. I actually ended up using both. If you buy a thermal gun, you will find tons of uses for it, I use mine all the time.
-dipping tools if you plan on dipping and coating things (The spirally one in this set is awesome)
-a silicone baking mat if you plan on making hot candy that will later need dipped in chocolate, if not wax paper is sufficient
-wax paper
-a cookie sheet or other stable flat thing to put the silicone or wax paper on
-a timer of some sort you can use without too much trouble. An oven or microwave clock is fine if you can keep track of it, doesn't have to be super exact.
(note: the links here are not affiliate links, they are just trying to show you what I have that has worked very well)
Rules:
1. Read the directions completely before melting your chocolate. Make sure you understand what you are doing before starting.
2. Be paranoid about temperature. If you're not, you can easily burn and ruin the chocolate, or have it drop below working temperature and have to start over.
3. Be paranoid about water. Chocolate hates water. MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING IS PERFECTLY DRY (including what you will be dipping, like fruit) BEFORE BRINGING IT NEAR THE CHOCOLATE! If the slightest amount of water gets into melted chocolate, it's ruined for tempering, though it can be used for other things. To salvage seized chocolate, just keep adding teaspoons of water until it's smooth again and you can use it for frosting, cakes, brownies, ganache, etc. You just can't temper it anymore for dipping.
4. Keep stirring, and stirring, and stirring.
5. Did I mention being paranoid about temperature and water?
Directions (this method is called the seeding method): Ambient temperature needs to be around 70 or lower, humidity 45% or lower.
1. Setting up the dipping station: Place the heating pad on the counter and spread a kitchen towel over it. Set the other towels in a place you can easily reach them. Turn the pad on to what you think will be a good setting for whatever kind of chocolate you are tempering and place the glass bowl on top of it to warm up. Wrap another towel around the outsides of the bowl to help them warm up too. The glass bowl is nice because it has thermal mass both on the bottom and sides and can help keep the chocolate at working temperature. By the time it is done heating, the bottom of the bowl needs to be at the upper range of the working temperature, maybe 1 degree higher though you will have to stir it more if it is higher. Moderate the temperature to what is needed by placing more layers of towel between the bowl and the heating pad. I have a thermal gun, so I can easily tell what temperature the bowl is at while it heats up, which allows me to adjust the heating pad and towels to get the perfect temperature. You might be able to place the chocolate thermometer with the tip resting on the bottom of the empty bowl to tell its temperature if you don't have a thermal gun, but I'm not sure how accurate that would be, and you will need the thermometer while stirring at the cooling station also.
a. Place the timer beside this station, or set it up so you can see your oven clock.
b. Spread the wax paper that you are going to be putting dipped product on beside this station also.
c. Set out a small piece of wax paper to do a smear test on to test the temper of the chocolate.
2. Setting up the cooling station: Put another towel, or an oven mitt, or something padded on the counter where you want to stand (or sit) and stir the chocolate for 30-45 mins, depending on how much you are making. The point is to have some insulation between the cooler counter and the warm pan with the chocolate in it.
a. Beside this station, set aside 10-15 of pieces of the store bought chocolate. If it's a chocolate bar, the pieces need to be sized about 1/2 inch. It comes from the store already tempered, and we are going to use this as our "seed" to help the melted chocolate learn how we want it to form its crystals as it cools.
3. Melting: Make sure the pot you are putting chocolate in is perfectly dry! Put about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom pan of the double boiler, and the chocolate you will be working with in the top pan (the one without the water). Heat it on medium on the stove until the water starts hissing and steaming like it does just before it simmers, then turn the burner off. Stir the chocolate with the spatula until all of it is melted, and then keep stirring and leave it over the hot water until it has reached melting temperature. If it won't get up to melting temperature, go ahead and turn the burner back on to give it a boost, but watch the temperature carefully! If the chocolate gets too hot, it will burn and not work very well, so pay close attention.
4. Cooling station: Once melting temperature is reached, remove the upper part of the double boiler (the pot the chocolate is in) and set it on the towel at the stirring station.
a. Drop in a piece or two of the seed chocolate. Hold the handle of the pot and with smooth easy motions, stir by working the spatula around the edge of the pan, scoop the bottom up and over several times, give it a brisk stir around in the middle, then around the edge again. All the chocolate needs to be moved constantly while its cooling to promote good crystal growth. Don't touch the pot with your hands because the warmth of your body will affect how fast it cools.
b. Take its temperature every few minutes (paranoid, remember?) and drop in another piece of seed when the last one has melted. Don't drop in too much seed as we don't want lumpy chocolate, and as it cools the seed will eventually stop melting. The cooling process is the longest part of tempering. It can take between 30-45 mins for about 1lb of chocolate, depending on the ambient temperature.
5. Dipping station: When the chocolate is 1 or 2 degrees above the upper working temperature, take the pot over to the dipping station and pour it into the glass bowl (which should be at most 1 degree above working temperature). It should cool that last degree or two during the pouring and scraping process. If it still needs to cool a bit, keep stirring and taking its temperature until it is at working temperature. You might have to remove the bowl from the heating pad briefly to help it cool. At this station you need to constantly maintain the chocolate at working temperature after it has reached it.
a. When it has reached working temperature, set the timer for 5 minutes and keep stirring with the same motions you used during the cooling process. This is the last part of crystal formation and essential for well tempered chocolate.
b. After 5 minutes, put a fairly thick smear of chocolate on the small piece of wax paper. It should be about 1/8th inch thick so you can get a good idea of how the chocolate will set up. Set the timer for another 5 minutes and keep stirring.
c. When 5 minutes is up, check the smear. It should be set up, have a nice sheen, and snap when you break it. It might still be just a touch soft and not snap sharply, but you should still be able to tell if it is good. If it is still melted, or has a dull finish, or is mushy when you try to snap it, it is not tempered properly. You might want to try another smear and see if the extra stirring at working temperature helped. If not, you have to reheat it to melting temperature and do the cooling and stirring again...ugh.
6. Dipping! Yay, we reached the fun part! We still have to be paranoid about both temperature and water, but the long cooling grind is over. Find the last little piece of seed and scoop it out so it doesn't mar your perfect dipping technique.
a. If you have an actual chocolate thermometer, wrap a piece of tape around to be double sided and put it on the edge of the bowl to rest the thermometer against and lightly hold it in place. The bottom of the thermometer should NOT be touching the bottom of the bowl, it should be in the middle of the chocolate mass so it can accurately measure the chocolate's temperature. We will be putting cool things into the chocolate, which will be cooling it off. But the heating pad will be heating the bottom of the chocolate, which will help keep it warm. It's a delicate balancing act that you need to pay close attention to. If the heating pad is too hot, it will ruin the temper of the chocolate by getting the chocolate touching the bottom of the bowl too hot, which will get mixed in to the rest when you stir it and melt all those lovely crystals you worked so hard to get formed. If the chocolate gets too cool, the wrong type of crystals will start forming and that also ruin the temper, so be vigilant.
b. Make sure the things you are dipping are perfectly dry! After every 2-4 pieces you dip, take the thermometer out and give the chocolate a good stir, using the same motion you used to temper it. I just use my spiral wire dipping tool to stir, keeps from having to juggle one more thing. Scrape the chocolate off the thermometer and stir that in too, then put the thermometer back in place and dip some more pieces.
c. As you use the chocolate, its mass reduces. This changes the balancing game, because the warmer chocolate on the bottom of the bowl has less mass to distribute its warmth into, which makes the chocolate warmer overall. When this starts happening, just put another towel between the bowl and the heating pad, or fold the one you have already there.
d. As the chocolate remains at working temperature for longer periods, it will get slightly thicker. This is because the crystals are still forming, so it's a good sign! Don't think you need to heat it back up, or thin it out somehow, that would ruin all your hard work tempering it.
e. If you finish dipping and still have chocolate left, its no problem. Just get a fresh piece of wax paper and spread out the leftover chocolate on it in a sheet that will be easy to break apart and re-melt for more goodies later. Or have something set by to use it! You could make nut or mint bark, or spiced chocolate, or whatever else catches your fancy!
Helpful info:
All of these brands work well and only have cocoa solids, cocoa butter, lecithin, vanilla, and sugar as their ingredients (and milk if it's milk chocolate).
Baker's
Guittard
Ghirardelli
Lindt
Valrohna (expensive but most people like the flavor over the majority of other brands)
Dagoba
Scharffen Berger
Endangered Species
Reference:
http://candy.about.com/od/candybasics/a/chocguide.htm
http://www.chocoley.com/resources/how-to-temper-chocolate
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/155/Tempering-Chocolate
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/the-food-lab-best-way-to-temper-chocolate.html
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/what-is-white-chocolate-best-brands.html
No comments:
Post a Comment