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.

PETITS FOURS
(anything that can be eaten in one or two bites)

MADELEINES
yield 12 cookies

4 oz butter, unsalted
2 eggs
3 oz sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
¼ tsp lemon juice
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp baking powder
3 oz cake flour

1. Melt the butter over medium heat, continue cooking until the milk solids turn a golden – brown color. Set aside to cool

2. Whisk the eggs and sugar over a bain marie until warm. Remove from heat and whisk in the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla

3. Sift the baking powder and flour together, stir into the egg mixture. Stir in the melted butter. Cover the bowl and allow the batter to rest 1 hour at room temp.

4. Butter and flour the Madeleine shells. Spoon or pipe the batter into the shells, filling each three fourths full

5. Bake at 450 F until the cookies rise in the center and are very light brown on the bottom and edges, approximately 3-4 min for 1 ½ inch Madeleines and 10 -12 min for 3 inch Madeleines. They should spring back when touched lightly in the center. Remove from the pan immediately.

We basically made the batter and then transferred it into a piping bag and put It in the fridge for an hour or two. It can also be frozen for up to a week. We also backed our at 375 convection (400 F still) a little bit less then what the book says.

"madelienes drizzled in chocolate, financier dipped in chocoalte"

FINANCIER CAKE

"financier cake dipped in chocolate, spinkled in powdered sugar"

6 ¾ oz sugar, confectioners
3 ½ oz AP Flour
2 ¼ oz Almond Meal
5 oz Egg Whites
5 ½ oz butter

1. Combine dry ingredients
2. Add egg whites
3. Brown the butter – add to mixture
4. Stir well
5. Chill batter and then pipe into sprayed petit four molds lined with sliced almonds. OR Pour batter into S/P/S (spray, parchment, spray) ½ sheet pan lined with un-toasted sliced almonds. Bake at 325 F-350F in a still oven until light brown. Let cool and cut desired shapes.

These were really good. We dipped these in tempered chocolate, which made them extra delightful!
CHEF CRITIQUE – Very close to over done., but still good!

SABLE COOKIES
yield 2 dozen

"checkerboard cookie"

White Dough:

3 oz butter, unsalted
1 ¼ sugar, confectioners
4 oz cake flour

Chocolate Dough:

3 oz butter, unsalted
1 ¼ sugar, confectioners
3 ¼ oz cake flour
¾ cocoa powder

1. Sift together dry ingredients.
2. Cream butter and then add dry ingredients, in a mixer with a paddle
3. Mix until smooth – this may take a while but it’ll get there.
4. Form each dough in a square, ½ inch thick. Wrap and chill
5. Roll each dough separately to a ¼ inch
6. Attach the two dough’s together with a little water and then cut in half
7. Attach the two halves together so the dough’s now alternate
8. Chill
9. Cut the dough into ¼ inch slices
10. Attach these slices alternately to form a checkerboard design
11. Wrap and freeze until firm
12. Slice into ¼ inch slices
13. Bake at 350 F in a still oven until tan around the edges

CHEF CRITIQUE: too dry, a little bit over cooked. Very nicely shaped, and symmetrical.

FLORENTINE BARS

"florentine bar"

1 recipie Pate Sucree Dough
7 oz butter, unsalted
10 oz sugar, granulated
3 oz honey
3 oz cream
14 oz almonds, sliced
4 oz dried fruit (chopped if necessary)
2 oz bread flour

PATE SUCREE DOUGH:

1 lb butter, unsalted
8 oz sugar
3 egg yolk
1 egg
1 ½ lb cake flour, sifted

1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Combine yolks and eggs – add eggs one at a time
3. Add sifted cake flour
4. Pat into rectangle, wrap in plastic
5. Refrigerate until needed

Crust:

1. Spray, parchment, spray a half sheet pan
2. Roll the pate sucree to 3/16 inch thick, making sure all the edges of the pan are covered. Trim any excess dough
3. Chill shell before baking
4. Blind bake shell at 350 F until half-baked and a very light color has occurred. Dough should be set on bottom and not wet.
5. Remove from oven and let cool

Filling:

1. Cook butter, sugar, hone and cream to 240 F (stir while cooking)
2. Fold in remaining ingredients (be careful not to crystallize the mixture by over mixing)
3. Spread mix onto par baked half sheet pan
4. Bake at 350 F in convection oven until bubbly in center and golden brown
5. Let cool
6. Cut into desired shapes

CHEF CRITIQUE: The crust was well baked. A little bit more color on top would have been okay.

JOCONDE
yield ½ sheet tray

"joconde cake"

3 ¾ oz sugar
1 ¼ oz cake flour
4 1/3 oz Almond meal
6 oz eggs, whole
4 oz egg white
½ oz sugar
1 ½ oz butter, melted

"joconde batter"

1. Sift the sugar and cake flour together, stir in almond meal
2. Add the whole eggs and stir
3. Whip the whites with sugar until med peak
4. Gradually fold the meringue into above batter
5. Temper some of the batter into the melted butter and then fold all together until evenly incorporated
6. Pour batter into a sprayed, parchment lined then sprayed again.
7. Evenly spread the batter
8. Bake at 400 F in a convection oven

MARZIPAN
yield 13 oz

2 ½ oz almond paste
3 oz corn syrup
8 oz sugar, confectioners (sifted)
1. Using the paddle attachment, mix the almond paste until it sticks to bowl
2. Add enough corn syrup to stick to sides of bowl
3. Slowly add enough powdered sugar to form a dough that is firm and workable, but not sticky.
4. Wrap airtight with plastic wrap
5. Chill until needed
6. Roll with sifted powdered sugar

ASSEMBLY OF PETIT FOUR

1. Cut the Joconde cake into three equal parts.
2. Between each layer spread a very thin layer of jam
3. Top it with a layer of marzipan
4. Cut into bit size pieces.
5. Top marzipan layer with fondant icing. (icing + simple syrup)

CHEF CRITIQUE: Nice volume, batter was mixed well. The Marzipan was to thin, and the fondant glaze was too thin.

ok so we did laminated doughs in intro to baking and intro to pastry.. but we did do different things.. here it is!

Laminated Doughs take two

	Translations	Leaveners	Fold	# of turns
Danish	Wienbrod (Vienna bread)	Butter, yeast	Single, envelope	3-4
Crossiant	Crescent	Butter, yeast	Single, envelope	4
Puff Pastry	Pate Feuiltee	Butter	Double, book fold	4

Components of all Laminated dough
1. Beurrage (Butter Block)
2. De trempe (Wet Dough)

Common mistakes – not letting the butter rest enough – use when butter is malable “plastic state”

PUFF PASTRY

Yield: 1 full sheet pan

Beurrage

1lb butter
½ oz lemon juice
1/8 tsp Kosher salt
4 ½ oz Pastry flour

1. Using the paddle attachment cream the butter.
2. Add lemon juice and salt
3. Add flour
4. Wrap in plastic. Shape into a square – 1 inch thick.

Detrempe

8 oz water
½ oz kosher salt
2 oz butter
3 oz pastry flour
~ 1lb AP flour

1. Combine pastry flour and salt
2. Add butter (mix by hand or using dough hook)
3. Add some water
4. Add AP flour (slowly, you may not need all of it), add the rest of the water
5. Add the rest of the flour
6. Smooth out dough
7. Let relax for 20-30 min

With the recipe above we made Napoleons, Pithiviers, Palmiers

Once the butter is chilled, you will roll out the butter block on top of the detrempe. Complete a book fold. Everyt time you roll out the dough, fold it up then let it relax in the fridge. With Puff Pastry you want to do 4 folds.

Incorporating the butter into the detrempe.

1. Make the Detremp into a square larger then the butter
2. Brush off any flour that you may have been using
3. Place the butter in the middle in a diamond position
4. Wrap the dough around the diamond, and pinch it shut.
5. Let rest 20-30 min before rolling out.
6. Once the Detrempe has relaxed, roll to ¼ - 1/8 inch thick. Use flour so that it doesn’t stick to the surface. Brush off excess flour that’s on the dough. Try and maintain a rectangle shape.

“ puff pastry rolled out”

“puff pastry after its been baked”

NAPOLEON

1. The dough should be rolled out to approximately 9 X 12.
2. Dock the before baking
3. Chill the dough before baking it
4. When baking it place an additional tray on top to weigh it down.
5. Bake at 350 convection oven for approx 10 min till it’s a golden brown. Make sure your middle is cooked.
6. Once cooled, trim sides, then cut into 3 equal parts.

GLAZE (for top of Napoleon)

For this we used white icing mixed with warm simple syrup. With hand pour over the Napoleon then drizzle with chocolate.

Inside the Napoleon is pastry cream which we have talked about a few times before, and you can also add fresh fruit if desired.

CHEF CRITIQUE:

*The glaze on the top was too thin, meaning we added too much simple syrup to the mixture.

*My puff pastry was a little under cooked. Next time I should put foil on top while it is baking. This will slow the browning on top allowing the middle to cook longer.

*The pastry cream was a little bit runny – caused by sitting out too long.

PITHIVIERS
(pronounced PTVA)

“finished Pithiviers”

1. Cut out two rounds. You want one slightly bigger then the other. In this case we cut out a 4 inch diameter an a 3 inch diameter. The 4 inch will act as our top, and the 3 our bottom.

“top and bottom rounds”

2. Roll the circles out a little bit to make a little flatter – closer to the 1/8 thickness.
3. Brush the bottom (around the edges) with egg wash (to act as a glue)
4. Place almond cream in the center (recipe to follow)
5. Place the top piece on, making sure to “glue” it down, so that it sticks to the bottom piece. It should look like a big ravioli.
6. Cut around the edges to make it look like a flower. Can use any kind of tool you want to help make a shape, we used a PVC pipe cut in half horizontally.
7. Chill
8. After it has been relaxed, make a design on the surface using the non-sharp side of a knife – basically you want to score it decoratively, but do not want to poke through.

“scored top”

9. Bush with egg wash – bake at 350 convection. Use skewer to test doneness.

“straight out of the oven – it was a little puffy!

CHEF CRITIQUE – The layers were good, very well developed, the filling was cooked. Over all good job!

ALMOND CREAM FILLING

6 oz almond paste
3 oz butter
3 oz sugar
1 egg
3 ½ oz graham cracker crumbs
¾ oz cake flour

1. Cream together the first 3 ingredients.
2. Add the egg
3. Add the remaining ingredients.

FRAME

For this we used already made puff pastry

“baked frame filled w/ pastry cream and apples”

1. Cut a 5 X 5 square, fold in a triangle, cut along the edges, but not all the way through.

“5 x5 square”

“folded into a triangle”

“slits on edges”

2. Unfold, and twist the cut slits to create a frame.

“ unfolded square”

“twisted edges to create “frame”

3. Pipe pastry cream on the middle and arrange fruit on top.

CHEF CRITIQUE: We should have arranged the fruit better. (in our defense it looked a lot better before we baked it J )

PALMIERS

“baked palmiers”

1. The dough should be in a rectangle or square
2. Brush the dough with water, then sprinkle with sugar, repeat.
3. Fold over the edge on each side about ¼ - ½ an inch. Repeat with the water and sugar
4. Keep folding/rolling until it looks like a scroll. Make sure each side is even.

“palmiers rolled into a “scroll”

5. Wrap it very tightly in plastic wrap and put into the freezer.
6. When it is about half way frozen, remove and slice about ¼ in thick.
7. Roll in sugar after sliced.
8. When in oven flip once one side has caramelized.

“this is how it should look straight on”

CHEF CRITIQUE: layered well, very well shaped even on both sides. They could have had a touch more color on one side.