How to Temper Chocolate

In a previous article I wrote about my efforts of making molded chocolate candy and this is a continuation of my thoughts.

At this point I always buy tempered chocolate as untempered chocolate requires a lot of extra work and you need to know a lot more about it.

There are several ways to temper chocolate. One is the double boiler method.

First melt the chocolate to 100-110 F
Then allow the coating to cool to: 83-84 F if Milk Chocolate or 85-86 F if Dark Chocolate and finally to 87-88 F if Rainbow Coating .

At this point you need to hold the coating at this temperature until it starts to thicken. A thicker coating means more "seed" crystals and a thinner coating means there are less "seed" crystals.

Now allow the coating to warm to 86-87 F if Milk Chocolate or 89-90 F if Dark Chocolate or 90-92 F if Rainbow Coating and hold the above temperature.

See why I use the tempered chocolate!

Then there is the hand dipping method and you melt some coating by either and that is done by placing some coating in a sauce pan in a warm oven which you must not heat above 130 F and stir occasionally while melting.

Or one can place some coating in a double-boiler on low heat, stirring the coating while it melts. Do not allow water or water vapor to come into contact with the coating. At this point cool the melted coating to about 92 F and then pour about 1/2 lb. of the melted coating onto a cool surface. Next mix and fold the coating with the hand until it become fairly thick and then add about 2 lbs. of the melted coating to the thickened coating and mix the two together very thoroughly. Here you need to add more of the 92 coating if it is still too thick or add less 92 coating for more advanced temper.

The next step is to coat the centers by covering the center with tempered coating and shake the excess coating off the center and then place coated center on a tray, foil, or waxed paper. Finally you trace a design on the top using a finger.

Too much work for me. I'm not a "Chocolatier"; I'm just having fun making molded chocolates.

There is also the shaved coating method whereby you melt some coating as in above and cool the melted coating to about 92. Then using a knife or a spatula, slice some coating from a block of coating that is in good temper make a slice as thin as possible remembering that the ratio of shavings should be I part shavings to 9 parts melted coating.

Next stir the shavings into the melted coating until the shavings are

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