08
May
If you cool it off at the right temperature ie temper it you get the good crystals otherwise known as beta crystals which allow the chocolate to retain its glossy sheen and crisp snap after its been used as a coating. This guarantees a perfect finished product with a satin gloss and a hard snap.
The purpose of tempering chocolate is to pre-crystallise the cocoa butter in it which is important to make your chocolate ready for processing.
What happens when you temper chocolate. In the tempering process melted chocolate is first cooled causing the fatty acid crystals to form nuclei around which the other fatty acids will crystallize. Once the crystals connect the temperature is then raised to keep them from solidifying. The purpose of tempering chocolate is to pre-crystallise the cocoa butter in it which is important to make your chocolate ready for processing.
During tempering the cocoa butter in the chocolate takes on a stable crystalline form. This guarantees a perfect finished product with a satin gloss and a hard snap. To prevent your chocolate from seizing it helps to understand why it happens.
There are a couple of reasons. First chocolate is all about cocoa sugar and fat. Chocolate will crystallize incorrectly if any moisture gets in it.
When tempering chocolate you must keep your chocolate dry at all stages after all you just spent days refining it to remove the water. Just look what a little bit of water can do. In order to avoid this you will need to temper your chocolate.
Tempering controls the crystals so that only consistently small crystals are produced resulting. When you melt chocolate you change the crystal structure. If you cool it off at the right temperature ie temper it you get the good crystals otherwise known as beta crystals which allow the chocolate to retain its glossy sheen and crisp snap after its been used as a coating.
In simple terms tempering chocolate means re-establishing cacao butter crystals. Cacao butter is essentially a solid mass which turns into liquid when you melt it. Depending on the temperature you heat the cacao butter to in order to melt it the cacao butter can form six types of crystals.
If you are tempering chocolate and you get distracted the worst can happen to your chocolate. Sometimes the consequences can be irreversible. Usually these situations happen when you do the tempering manually.
For bigger volumes of chocolates. What happens if you dont temper. If chocolate is melted without tempering it the cocoa fat will separate resulting in a dull streaky grey-ish colour and a soft and chewy texture.
Not the glossy smooth finish that you desire. Untempered chocolate is also far more sensitive to heat and humidity giving you. Tempering the melted chocolate creates a network of stable cocoa butter crystals.
When tempered chocolate hardens these crystals form a solid structure that gives chocolate a glossy finish smooth mouthfeel and a satisfying snap when you break it. Giapo explains what the differences between tempered and untempered chocolate are and how to make your own tempered chocolate at home. When it comes to baking cooking or melting there are two types of chocolate that you can use real chocolate and compound chocolate.
Chocolate that you buy from the supermarket has already been tempered giving it that perfectly hard and shiny look that snaps crisply when broken. Once its been melted you will need to temper it again. Tempering chocolate is a useful skill for any baking enthusiast to master.
Put simply it is the process of slowly melting and then cooling chocolate to allow the cocoa butter inside to crystalise. The finished product is shiny and will snap nicely when broken rather than crumble. You can use tempered chocolate to cover cakes truffles and fruit.