Tempering Chocolate

Tempering Chocolate is a technique of melting chocolate, then cooling and agitating the chocolate in order to encourage the growth of desirable crystals. These crystals, when cool, form the structure of properly tempered chocolate

Tempered Chocolate should – set quickly, set without streaks of cocoa butter, sets hard and shiny.

Temperature for tempering chocolate

- Dark Chocolate 90F

- Milk Chocolate 89F

- White Chocolate 88F

Temperatures may vary depending on they type/brand of chocolate

There are 4 different methods of tempering chocolate

1. Seeding
1. Uses a bowl of melted chocolate heated to 115 F**
2. Melt 2/3 of the chopped chocolate, and then stir in 1/3 of chopped chocolate, to cool it down to the proper tempered temperatures

2. Tabling
1. Uses a bowl of melted chocolate heated to 115 F**
2. Melt all the chopped chocolate; pour 2/3 of the chocolate onto a clean marble table (can also use granite or stainless steel)
3. With a back and forward motion of an offset spatula, table the chocolate until it thickens
4. Return the thickened chocolate back to the bowl of melted chocolate and stir the two together until the proper temperature for tempering

3. Direct
1. Place a block of tempered chocolate into a bowl, and allow to melt very slowly over a moderate temperature

4. Block
1. Uses a bowl of melted chocolate heated to 115 F**
2. Place a block of tempered chocolate into the bowl of melted chocolate, and allow the block to cool down the melted chocolate to the appropriate temperature
3. Remove the block of chocolate, and bring the melted chocolate back to a bain marie to warm it to the proper tempered temperature.

**When using chocolate that has been previously melted or chocolate that has been bloomed, the initial temperature for melting chocolate should be 120F, and held for a period of 10 minutes before continuing with the tempering methods.

"chocolate truffles drizzled in white chocolate"

we made the above "vessel" by rolling a balloon into the chocolate and after the chocolate set, popped the balloon.

FUN CHOCOLATE FACTS

· Seizing – a condition that occurs when chocolate comes into contact with water. It seizes up and becomes a hard lumpy mass. Once seized, chocolate is no longer good for tempering but can be used for ganaches or chocolate sauce.

· Fat Bloom – Grayish-white streaks in chocolate resulting from improper tempering or exposure to heat. Cocoa butter separates when over heated and rises to the top.

· Sugar bloom – occurs when chocolate is refrigerated, condensation occurs on surface of chocolate and leaches out sugars. When the moisture evaporated, it leaves a gray film of superfine sugar crystals on the surface. Can also occur if chocolate is stored in a humid environment.

· Burning chocolate – chocolate should never be melted over an open flam. Never melt chocolate beyond 130 F because cocoa particles will be burned and separate from cocoa butter. This is irreversible.

REALLY FUN FACTS

1657 – The first chocolate house opened in London. Still served in liquid form, but only to the elite. (Drinking money)

1907-Hershey introduces Hershey’s Kisses®

1940 – Forrest Mars, son of Frank Mars of Mars, Inc., starts his own chocolate company with Bruce Murrie. They combined their initials and created M&M’s, a chocolate candy bar that can be carried without melting and is thereforeof special interest to the US military.

Dark Truffle Filling

our presentation of truffles; we made white chocolate, dark chocoalte with dark chocolate filling, raspberry filling and peanut butter filling rolled in graham cracker crumbs

8 oz semi sweet chocolate
4 oz cream
1 oz butter

*Make sure the bowl is dry

1. Combine the cream and butter; bring to scold.
2. Pour cream mixture into chocolate. Do not stir right away; let the cream melt the chocolate.
3. Stir form center – emulsifying the fat and the water.
4. Put into the refrigerator to harden.

How we tempered chocolate in class:

1. Heat water over high heat.
2. Take water off heat place bowl of chocolate over water, let the chocolate begin to melt
3. Once it has started to melt stir (from the center out)
4. Bring to a temperature of 113F -115F
5. Take off of hot water
6. Add in more chocolate ( known as seeding) to start the cooling down process – you now want the temp to go to 83 F-85F.
7. Once it had reached that temperature place back over hot water and bring back up to 90F

Agitating (stirring) the chocolate will cool it down, so if you are trying to bring the heat up try not agitate it too much.

The ideal room temp for tempering chocolate is between 60-75 with low humidity.

With this newfound knowledge of chocolate tempering we made TRUFFLES.

After making the filling, we rolled them into balls, and dipped them into the temper chocolate, and then let them cool.

We also made a raspberry filling and a peanut butter filling. For the peanut butter we simply added peanut butter to the already made dark truffle filling.

For the raspberry we replaced raspberry jam with cream. Combine the chocolate and butter together, melt over hot water, once melted add jam.

CHEF CRITIQUE ON TRUFFLES: should be more of a consistent size (again in our defense we did that on purpose, we wanted small and larger ones), The white chocolate ones were not covered enough., The actual tempering of the chocolate was good, however he did not like our presentation.