What is tempering and what are chocolate tempering temperatures?
Tempering chocolate is an essential step for making smooth, glossy, evenly coloured coating for your dipped chocolates. Tempering prevents the dull greyish colour and waxy texture that happens when the cocoa fat separates out. Tempered chocolate produces a crisp, satisfying snap when you bite into it. (You do not need to temper chocolate that you bake with, such as when you make brownies.) The tempering process takes chocolate through a temperature curve, a process which aligns the chocolate’s crystals to make it smooth, silky, and glossy.
Before you go ahead here is a quick video for you:-
Wikipedia.com (the free encyclopedia) explains how the cocoa butter in chocolate can crystallize in six different forms. The primary purpose of tempering is to assure that only the best form is present. Below is the Wikipedia.com chart showing the six different crystal forms and their different properties, followed by an excellent explanation of what the tempering process is actually trying to achieve.
chocolate tempering temperatures
Crystal Melting Temperature Notes chocolate tempering temperatures :-
- I 17°C (63°F) Soft, crumbly, melts too easily.
- II 21°C (70°F) Soft, crumbly, melts too easily.
- III 26°C (78°F) Firm, poor snap, melts too easily.
- IV 28°C (82°F) Firm, good snap, melts too easily.
- V 34°C (94°F) Glossy, firm, best snap, melts near body temperature (37°C).
- VI 36°C (97°F) Hard, takes weeks to form.
For the best possible finished product, proper tempering is all about forming the most of the type V crystals. This will provide the best appearance and mouth-feel and creates the most stable crystals so the texture and appearance will not degrade over time. To accomplish this, the temperature is carefully manipulated during the crystallization.
How To Temper Chocolate
What You Need
Ingredients
Good quality chocolate, between 60-70%
Equipment
Medium pot for heating water
Metal that will fit snuggly in the pot
Kitchen towel
Rubber or silicone spatula
Conditions
A cold room (room temp or below), low humidity – do not attempt before a thunderstorm!
Instructions
- Heat the water: Fill the pot with water and bring it up to a simmer. Turn off the heat.
- Begin melting the chocolate: Make sure your bowl is very dry, as any drops of water will seize up the chocolate. Put about 2/3 of your chocolate in the bowl and place it over the water. The water should be touching a large area of the bottom of the bowl. Be very careful that the water does not splash into the bowl. Do not stir! Let the chocolate sit in bowl over the hot water, uncovered, until it is about 2/3 melted.
- Stir until completely melted: After the chocolate is about 2/3 melted, gently stir it and allow it to melt further. Letting the chocolate partially melt before stirring prevents creating large clumps of solid chocolate glued together by melted, now re-solidified chocolate. Be very careful not to allow any water into the bowl.
- Test the temperature of the chocolate: Lift the spatula up to your lower lip and dab a small dot onto the place just below your lower lip. It should sting slightly (but not too much!).
- Add remaining chocolate: Remove the bowl from the water and set it on a folded kitchen towel to absorb any water from the bottom of the bowl. Stir in the remaining chocolate (the ‘seed’). Stir slowly and gently until the chocolate is completely melted. The chocolate will begin to thicken and become less shiny and more matte as it cools. This part of the process can take up to half an hour. If you want to speed things up, take the bowl to a cooler place (outside, for example – but not the rain!).
- Test again for temperature: Once all the seed chocolate has melted, touch the spatula to your lower lip area again. The chocolate should feel cooler than your body temperature. If it feels warmer than your skin, you can drop in a few more pieces of chocolate and keep stirring. If you don’t feel anything, this means the chocolate is at about your body temperature, and you need to keep stirring gently until it cools down. When it is ready it will feel refreshing on your skin. You are now ready to dip your ganache!
- Keeping the chocolate in temper. Continue to stir the chocolate as you dip. If the chocolate cools too much, turns matte, and begins to thicken, place the bottom of the bowl back into the hot water for 1 or 2 seconds. Remove quickly and stir the warmer chocolate up from the bottom and throughout the bowl. Test to be sure it has not gotten too hot and resume dipping.
You can also look at some of the chocolate recipes below :-
