Tempering chocolates is an important process with which shine, smoothness, snap and the creamy texture that are not the normal qualities of chocolates, are imparted to them. Due to conching, a certain amount of fineness is attained by the particles of the chocolate liquor but if you do tempering, complete fineness is given to these particles.
Tempering not only gives a shiny patina, crispness, firmness, smoothness and richness to chocolates but prevents blooming from occurring. Blooming is an undesirable phenomenon with which chocolates get crumbly and gritty and also the appearance of grayish-white spots of crystals from the cocoa butter on the chocolates will make them ugly. Such chocolates will not be desired by customers.
Since temperatures higher than 90 degrees are employed for melting chocolates, this causes chocolates to lose their temper; re-tempering then is necessitated.
Whether they temper large quantities or small, all chocolatiers benefit from learning manual tempering since certain occasions may require them to do so.
France is the place from which tabliering, a manual tempering method, originated. Since a marble slab is the surface on which you work on chocolate to temper it, this method goes by the name of marble slab method also.
The ingredient required in tabliering is a one-pound chocolate bar and the tools required are a knife, a moisture-free mixing bowl and a chopping board, a double boiler and a rubber spatula. The one pound chocolate bar is cut into thin slices and you heat them moderately on a double boiler to melt. One half of the melted chocolate is tempered first by spreading it with a rubber spatula on a marble slab. Once this step is over, the other half portion is also mixed in and spread on the marble slab for cooling.
Another manual tempering method is “seeding” in which chocolate chips, already tempered, act as seeds in tempering chocolate. Initially melting of only three-fourths of the chocolate strips is done. After this, the remaining one-fourth and the melted chocolate are put together in a mixing bowl and blended till the entire melted mass is tempered.
There should not be any lapse in maintaining specific temperatures in both the methods and to ensure this, you should use a good thermometer. Tempered chocolate will be useful for making fruit-filled chocolates and confectioneries of varied shapes and designs. Your chocolate should remain tempered all the while that you’re dipping and molding otherwise you’ll have to temper again.
Your complete attention is necessary to successfully do manual tempering and hence you may not find time to have fun during this process. It might be best to shift to a tempering machine with which you can find time for fun as well as for chalking out strategies to scale up your business.