How Long Does It Take for Chocolate to Harden
One of the first things we learned in my baking class in culinary school was how to temper chocolate. I was SO excited to learn how to do this because for some reason it always really intimidated me and I never tried to learn it on my own. I have no idea why I was so intimidated, because as I learned in school it's actually SUPER easy. Really all it takes is a little precision and patience and if you watch the video I made for you and follow the instructions, you will be on your way to tempering beautiful, shiny, hard chocolate in no time!
Tempered chocolate is wonderful to use when making homemade candy, such as truffles or peanut butter cups or peppermint bark, because it maintains a nice smooth, shiny, and hard texture even at room temperature. It gives your candy a professional quality and makes it much easier to serve and transport, not to mention it just tastes better because you get that wonderful snappy texture. Stay tuned for some recipes utilizing tempered chocolate.
How to Temper Chocolate
TWO RULES for melting chocolate:
These apply to both melting and tempering chocolate.
1. Never heat above 120°F
This will sacrifice chocolate flavor
2. Never expose melted chocolate to water
Any water will cause the chocolate to seize. Even a droplet from steam! You know your chocolate has seized when it becomes lumpy instead of smooth.
If your recipe calls for liquid, such as butter, water, coffee, or liqueur, always melt it alongside the chocolate simultaneously.
What does it mean to temper chocolate?
The process of tempering creates chocolate coatings that are ultra smooth, glossy, and have a crisp satisfying snap when eaten. Anything made with tempered chocolate doesn't require refrigeration, unlike untempered chocolate which does.
When do I need to use tempered chocolate?
Tempering chocolate is perfect for making chocolate candies, truffles, dipped confections, or chocolate cake decorations.
If you just use melted chocolate to dip, you won't get a coating that stays snappy. It'll be dull and soft and will need to be refrigerated just to avoid melting. Tempered chocolate products stay hard at cool room temperature.
When is tempered chocolate not needed?
You don't need to temper if you're simply adding melted chocolate into a batter, mousse, or ganache.
How does tempering chocolate work?
The process involves controlling the melting, cooling, and reheating of chocolate within specified temperature ranges depending on the kind of chocolate. Melting chocolate without tempering changes the molecular structure of the cocoa butter to be unchained and unstable, which is why it never goes back to that nice hard and snappy texture.
Tempering the chocolate rechains those molecules and stabilizes the cocoa butter crystals, making the chocolate homogenous again and allowing it to cool back into a smooth, shiny, snappy quality.
Why temper chocolate?
Simply put, it's the best way to get that beautiful professional chocolate coating while maintaining a delightful chocolate flavor. Especially if you want to store or gift something like truffles without requiring refrigeration.
Tempering can be an extra step that feels tedious. There are 'chocolate' candy melt products available at many stores that produce that a similar crunchy coating when dipped. Unfortunately, these chocolate compound products aren't actual chocolate because the cocoa butter has been replaced by hydrogenated industrial oils. They taste artificial and unsatisfying.
What is the best chocolate for tempering? Can you temper chocolate chips?
Only use high quality bars of chocolate for baking (such as Ghirardelli baking bars or even Trader Joe's Pound Plus chocolate) or coverture chocolate wafers (such as Guittard or Valrohna). If using bars, finely chop the chocolate with a serrated knife. Finely chopped chocolate will melt more evenly.
DO NOT use chocolate chips. These have added ingredients that help them to maintain their chip shape when exposed to heat and will not melt down smoothly for tempering.
Can you temper chocolate without a thermometer?
In my opinion, a thermometer truly is essential to tempering chocolate because it takes the guesswork out and ensures your temper will set up beautifully. Chocolate is expensive so I like to make sure I have the proper tools for success!
You can use a chocolate thermometer to register the temperature stages of tempering chocolate, or simply a high quality digital thermometer.
What is a double boiler?
A double boiler is simply a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan filled with about an inch of simmering. You just want to make sure the bowl on top doesn't touch the water. This allows the chocolate to be melted gently by the heat.
You can use metal or glass bowls for the top part of the double boiler. Glass will take longer to cool down as required to temper in Step 2.
How to save seized chocolate:
The way to fix seized chocolate is completely counterintuitive. It's done by actually adding a little bit of melted butter, oil, or water back into the mixture and stirring vigorously. Unfortunately, at this point the fixed melted chocolate should only be used for chocolate sauce or hot chocolate and not in a recipe.
This post was originally published in 2013 and updated with more tips and new photos in 2020. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
How Long Does It Take for Chocolate to Harden
Source: https://handletheheat.com/temper-chocolate/