Chocolate Tempering

A lot of people wonder why we have to temper chocolate. So why do we? And whats the easiest method to achieve the perfect temper?

Below, I’ll try to explain the different ways of tempering chocolate – from the easiest method, to my favourite one 🙂

Why do we temper chocolate?

Every chocolate bar you buy (good quality) has already been tempered. This means the chocolate will have that shiny look, and when broken, it’ll have that lovely ‘snap’ sound. The tempering process is important to make the chocolate look smooth, shiny and to prevent if from gaining a dull greyish colour or wavy textures.

When you temper chocolate, you are melting the cocoa butter, which means the fatty acid crystals separate. By achieving the perfect temper, you want to bring the crystals back to a stable form. The basic method of tempering is rising the temperature up to 45 – 50° C dark chocolate, 40-45C Milk chocolate and 37-43C white chocolate. After melting the chocolate bringing the temperature down to 31C dark chocolate and 29-30C milk or white chocolate. There are a few ways of doing this…..

NB: For any of the process’ below you will need the following:

• a spatula for stirring
• thermometer
• microwave (or double boiler)
• microwave-safe bowl
• moulds if you are making bars, etc.

1. Tempering by addition; “Seeding” – My favourite 

Once you’ve melted the chocolate and you reached your desire temperature, you will need to add your seed (this will be the pre-tempered chocolate you have – the drops/callets/bar you used to melt). The seed should be 20% of the total amount of chocolate you have already melted, for example; if you are melting 1kg of chocolate, set aside 200g of that chocolate finely chop, and add to your melted chocolate.

Once the seed has been added, the temperature will drop. Once this drops down to your set temperature, you can place the chocolate for 10sec in the microwave or back into bain-marie (not boiling) and raise the temperature back to 32C – your tempered chocolate is ready!

2. Tempering on marble or stone – good but messy

This is the oldest method of tempering chocolate and is still being used by many chocolatiers. Melt your chocolate until it reaches the temperature for your chocolate and pour 70% on top of the marble (be careful doing this, you might get chocolate everywhere). Once your temperature drops back to 29-30C pour the chocolate back to the bowl with the remaining 30% left in the bowl. This should raise the temperature perfectly back to 32C, leaving you with your perfectly tempered chocolate.

3. Tempering using Mycryo – Cocoa Butter in powder 

This method is quite easy too. Melt your chocolate to your desired temperature, allow the chocolate to cool down to 33-35C (stirring helps), then add 1% of the total amount and mix well. When the chocolate is perfectly pre-crystallised, keep the temperature at 34°C for dark chocolate and at 33°C for milk chocolate and white.

Tempering chocolate is all about patience and care. Understanding the correct methods and process’ does take practice, but once achieved, you’ll be a on your way to perfection! I hope this has helped you understand a little more about the various basic ways of temping – for more information, be sure to check out Callebaut’s page on tempering which i’ve added below 🙂

Read more.

Good luck and happy testing!