Easy Method of Tempering Chocolate
For lots of chocolate recipes including creating printed chocolates it’s important to ensure your chocolate is tempered properly.
What Does Tempering Mean in Chocolate Production?
Tempering is the process of heating and cooling chocolate to stabilize it for chocolate production. Tempering gives chocolate a smooth and glossy finish and keeps it from melting easily on your fingers. It also means it’s at the correct temperature when using chocolate transfer sheets, allowing the printed chocolate designs to successfully transfer onto your chocolate.
How Do You Temper Chocolate?
Tempering chocolate is an easy process, it just takes a little patience and a food thermometer.
First of all, bring a pan half filled with water to a simmer and then remove from the heat. Break half of your chocolate into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over the pan to make a bain-marie, ensuring the bottom does not come into direct contact with the water. Let the chocolate gradually melt stirring slowly and continuously.
Remove from the heat and add the remaining chocolate pieces. Slowly stir the chocolate until it melts and reaches 27–28°C (this is where a little patience is required!). For milk chocolate the temperature should be 29˚C and for white chocolate 28˚C.