How to temper chocolate easily

Member

By cebyrnes
User-Submitted Article

Article Rating: (1 Ratings)

Temper chocolate easily

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Good chocoloate, typically 68%+ cacao for dark.
Plastic bowl-see advice.
Rubber/Silicone spatula
Thermometer, infrared best.
Microwave

Step 1

Chop 2/3 of chocolate-leave remaining 1/3 whole-this is "seed".
FYI chocolate is "tempered" when you buy it.
Melt slowly to avoid tempering, target is 90˚ for dark chocolate. (88˚ for milk)
Step 2

Melt chopped chocolate in bowl slowly microwave, 30 seconds at a time. It may not change shape, but be melted underneath.
Stir and don't heat any more if starting to liquefy.
Step 3

Measure temperature. Do not exceed 120˚, it burns easily.
Step 4

If chocolate is >90˚ add the "seed" and stir gently until temp is 90˚.
Remove seed and it is now tempered!

Tips & Warnings

Buy the same good quality chocolate that you would like to eat as a bar.
Good values on chocolate can be found in many places on-line. My favorite is El-Rey, it has the best ability to mold and not break and tastes fantastic.
Is bowl microwave safe? Fill bowl with cup of water, heat for 1 minute, if bowl is cool or barely warm then it is OK.
The infrared thermometer is an incredible help, you don't have to put it into the chocolate, it can also be used to test oven temp, oil temp for frying and lots of other purposes. Best price I could find is at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VPNRK4?smid=A12QCB28TZ2MIN&tag=pricegrabber2-tools-20&linkCode=asn
Many thanks to Elaine Gonzalez from whom I have learned these techniques.
Avoid chocolate chips the are meant to retains shape at high temperatures.
Ghirardelli chocolate is very difficult to work with, it doesn't liquify well at 90˚ .

Comments

acecool79 said

Flag This Comment

on 7/24/2009 I would love to learn to temper chocolate. This is really good advice. Thanks.

on 1/1/2009 Great advice on tempering. All too often, people won't use good chocolate because it needs tempering. I enjoy using good choclate and it is well worth the time and effort along with the great taste. candymaker1975@yahoo.com.