The Secret Behind Successful Chocolate Tempering
21 January 2010If it is celebration time, chocolates figure largely. But chocolates should be delicious, creamy, shiny and smooth and only then can they be enjoyed pleasurably. But these characteristics are not the natural traits of chocolates and chocolates get these via tempering. By tempering, it is meant that you should melt and then cool chocolates to particular temperatures.
If you temper chocolates, you can also prevent the occurrence of blooming that makes chocolates undesirably dull, crumbly and grainy. No customer will be willing to buy them.
An innovation called tempering machines has revolutionized the tempering process that used to be originally a difficult one. But some chocolatiers still wish to do tempering by hand only because it is their opinion that tempering by machine does not come under the purview of orthodox tempering. But every chocolatier will agree that tempering by hand is a tough process.
The purpose of tempering is to make the chocolates shiny, smooth, and crisp as well as to increase their shelf life. These qualities come only from type V crystals so tempering is the art of producing type V crystals. But the real obstacle for tempering arises in the form of the fatty acids in the cocoa butter that form into six crystalline structures that dominate at their own particular temperatures.
Only by maintaining that particular temperature at which type V crystals form in more quantities, you can prevent production of other six types of crystals. Otherwise you cannot temper your chocolates properly and hence should repeat the tempering process again. You can use an accurate thermometer for maintaining this specific temperature.
There are two methods to do manual tempering and whichever method you choose, you should ensure that you maintain specific temperatures during tempering. In the first method called tabliering, you melt and cool the chocolate at specific temperatures but cooling is done on a heat-absorbing surface like a marble slab. In the second method known as “seeding”, you use already tempered chocolate bits as “seeds” to temper your melted chocolate.
But you cannot plan quantity production for gift-offerings or for trade when tempering by hand because your chocolates will likely not possess the same quality. If you use a tempering machine, you can produce high-quality chocolates that can be replicated every time you craft candies.
Since the complete operation of a tempering machine is automated, you can expect to produce good quantities of type V crystals. You need not worry about maintaining specific temperatures also because this part is controlled by a computer chip on the machine.
A tempering machine makes things easy for you and hence you have lots of free time available to you. You can utilize this free time for evolving suitable plans for your business expansion. You can also think creatively to enhance the quality of your chocolates.
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