[Sca-cooks] chocolate temperer

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

On Tue, 26 Nov 2002, Gorgeous Muiredach wrote:

>
> >It still
> >seems like an unusual term. You aren't changing the chocolate. You
> >aren't making it harder or softer or changing it to a different state
> >or type of chocolate. You are in fact trying to keep it at the same state.
>
> The thing is that you *are* changing it.  To manipulate the chocolate,
> whether dipping or molding, you have to melt it.  Melting *will* change the
> structure of the chocolate.  Tempering is trying not so much to keep it the
> same state as bring it BACK to its original state :-)
>
And not only are you bringing it back to its original state, you have to
keep it there. A large mass of chocolate cools off more slowly than a
small mass, but is awkward to work with. What you do if you are good at it
is to work with small amounts of chocolate at a time, and leave the rest
of the stuff in the bowl over the warmer so it stays warm.

Cocoa butter and sugar, left to their own devices, will crystallize in big
structures--tempering keeps them from doing so. Think about the texture of
the chocolate chips in your average chocolate chip cookie--the chips are
usually kind of crumbly and dry-tasting. That's because the chocolate was
subjected to the same conditions as the rest of the cookie, which is fine
for cookie-baking but not for chocolate. The temp was too high, and then
the cookie was left to cool fairly rapidly, so the fats and sugars were
left to crystallize on their own.

I do have a piece of marble that my mother gave me for chocolate work,
but I haven't had the time lately to get out the toys and play. So even if
I did buy or build temperer, it's not like it would do much for a while.


Margaret