russellstreet - Bowl of Chocolate - //flic.kr/p/aBrzgH
Tempering Chocolate, not for the faint hearted, Until Now!
When You watch all those cooking shows they're always got to show oof by Tempering Chocolate.
Watching TV cooking shows brings out cold sweat when the contestants get asked to temper Chocolate.
They approach tempering chocolate with trepidation, which brings terror to a novice cook.
It looks difficult to temper chocolate because you can't see anything happening. So you need to rely on a thermometer to check your chocolate temperature range . to ensure accuracy and consistency with chocolate.
These shows make out tempering chocolate is complicated.
Sure there’s a bit science involved in temperating chocolate, but once you get the grasp of this, it's not so hard to do.
Tempering returns the cocoa butter crystals to suspension within the chocolate and produces chocolate with a deep shiny gloss.
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.”
Charles M. Schulz , was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Peanuts
So why would go to all the effort to temper Chocolate
- Tempering your chocolate gives your chocolate gives a glossy, shiny look, and you get a crisp, clean snap when you break it...
- When you see chocolate with white streaks or blotches it's called blooming. Once you've warmed your chocolate, this causes the cocoa butter crystals to break its suspension, and when the chocolate cools, the cocoa butter crystals rise to the top...
- Well-tempered chocolate melts at a much higher than untempered chocolate because the fatty acid crystals in tempered chocolate get tightly locked together. So this way your chocolate won’t melt when you touch it...
- To preserve the keeping quality of chocolate by stratifying the fat...
- Tempered chocolate will slightly shrink when cooled, which makes it easier to slip out of moulds easily...
Tempering chocolate controls the fatty acid crystals to give consistent small crystals producing, a much better-quality chocolate.
If you're working with Chocolate then you want your chocolate to be shiny "snappable", without a white bloom, then it time to temper your Chocolate.
The Effects of Tempering Dark Chocolate
“On the most basic level, tempering is necessary because the particles that make up a chocolate bar can arrange themselves in many different ways. The different arrangements of the chocolate particles on a molecular level create different physical properties of the final chocolate on a much larger scale. Chocolate with the correct molecular arrangement (referred to as Form V chocolate) is dark brown, glossy, and makes a satisfying snap when broken [fig (a)]. Chocolate with an incorrect molecular arrangement (Form IV chocolate) is lighter in colour, matte, and will crumble when broken instead of snapping [fig (b)]. Mistempered chocolate will also exhibit an unsightly white coating called fat bloom [fig (c)]..”
How Chocolate is Made - Gregory Owen - January 5, 2013 Princeton University
(a) Properly tempered chocolate is dark brown and snaps cleanly*
(b) Poorly tempered chocolate is lighter and crumbles*
(c) Poorly tempered chocolate also exhibits ugly white impurities known as fat bloom*
* Download How Chocolate is Made - Gregory Owen - January 5, 2013 Princeton University
Chemically, The fats in cocoa butter crystallise into 6 different forms (polymorphous crystallisation). When you Temper Chocolate you’re aiming to get beta crystals.
The 6 different crystal forms have different properties. To make good looking chocolate you need to form as many type Beta V crystals as possible. This will give you the best chocolate appearance, texture and creates the most stable crystals, will not degrade overtime.
Crystal Melting Temperature Notes
- 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...
Steps in Tempering Dark Chocolate
- Put Dark chocolate in clean, dry bowl then simmer over water between 46°- 49°...
- Remove Bowl with chocolate from the heat & let it cool to 27ºC. Now it time to seed the melted chocolate by dropping tempered chocolate which helps make good beta crystals. Seeding - Keep stirring while the chocolate is cooling. Motion creates the good form of crystallisation, tempering...
- This is the tricky step you need to get right. You need to get chocolate up to the perfect temperature (dark chocolate between 31°-32°C) to get the desired beta crystals. If you’re using Milk Chocolate, then it tempers at 30°-31°C...
- Remove what's left of your seed Chocolate don’t let the temperature get over 32ºC or you’ll have to retemper your chocolate...
Cadbury Kitchen Step by Step Guide to Tempering Chocolate
To make this easy the good folks at Cadbury offer this video.
Watch it here Cadbury the Simplest way of Tempering Chocolate at home
So if this all seems don't worry we got you covered with a Chocolate Tempering Bain Marie
ROBAND CHOC2A Choc Tempering Bain Marie
Designed specifically for tempering chocolate and holding chocolate at a predetermined temperature for food coating operations.
- Designed to take various combinations of gastronorm pans...
- Wet operation only...
- Self-resetting thermal safety cut-out...
- Double skin tank
- Thermostatically controlled (temperature range 0 - 50°C)...
- Stainless steel construction...
- POWER 1000 Watts...
- Current 4 Amps...
- Pan Combination 2 x 1/2 size 150 mm plus lids...
- Dimensions 555 x 350 x 305 w x d x h (mm)...
- Note: Available without pans. Delete “A” from Model No...
Check out the ROBAND CHOC2A Choc Tempering Bain Marie
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