The Intricacies of Tempering Chocolates by Hand
Posted in Arts + Artisans, Best Food, Enterprise on February 18th, 2010Tempering can never be ignored because it’s the only one that can turn chocolates glossy, silken, crisp and velvety because chocolates do not have these great qualities on their own. It is true that conching makes the particles of the chocolate liquor fine but if you do not temper chocolates, these particles cannot acquire the minute fineness with which high-quality chocolates come with.
Blooming is prevented only because of tempering. It spoils your whole chocolates by making them powdery and coarse; chocolate also turns blotchy because the crystals in cocoa butter rise to the top and becomes visible, making chocolates unpalatable to consumers.
Chocolates are heated at temperatures above 90 Fahrenheit to prepare them for candy making. At this temperature, they get distempered so they should necessarily be re-tempered.
Manual tempering will be a practical skill for every chocolatier to have even if they own a tempering machine; particularly because there will be unforeseen occasions when these machines won’t be available for use.
The twin methods of manual tempering, tabliering and seeding, are almost similar to each other. Tabliering is a French treasure; they call it the marble-slab technique since a marble slab is used to cool down the chocolate once its melted.
Tabliering requires working on two batches of one pound of chocolate, melted for preparation, separately. The first one is cooled across the marble surface until its consistency and appearance is thickened and matted, respectively. The second portion is then mixed in to achieve a homogeneous quality overall.
The same procedure is followed in the technique called “seeding”; tempered chocolate act as seeds to the non-tempered mush. The first melted three-fourths of the chocolate strips and the second non-melted one-fourth are mixed together in a bowl until they’re of the same appearance and consistency, too.
The essential rule in both is that you must maintain correct temperatures throughout the tempering cycle, for which a calibrated thermometer will be useful. You can make either fruit-filled chocolates or chocolates of interesting designs with this tempered chocolate. You should ensure the chocolates still retain temper all the while that you’re dipping and molding.
Manual tempering being tedious will consume most of your time so it might not be a pleasurable experience, making chocolate candy. Using a tempering machine will give you ample time to have fun and evolve strategies in developing your chocolate confectionery enterprise.