Tempering chocolate is basically the process of making your candy firm, snappy and excellent for making coatings or various shaped candy bars.
Basically, you want to heat the chocolate to melt all the crystals then cool it back down to the temperature where the desired crystals live. If you want to read more in depth, go here. If you prefer to follow the rest of this article, click here.
I warmed chocolate in the microwave yesterday. The problem is that I overheated my mixture. This is common when getting used to using one for tempering as it can be difficult to remove the chocolate at the right time which will often lead to the chocolate getting a little too hot too quickly.
If you catch it in time, you simply let the chocolate cool and start over. If you don’t, you’ll have not so pretty chocolate. It’s completely edible, but not very pleasing to the eye and the texture is sometimes chalky. You often see this in candy bars that got overheated and later cooled down or if you store it in extreme temperatures like the freezer.
This causes the chocolate to create a whitish tint. In time, you’ll often also get a chalky residue, especially in humid conditions. This is bloom. But don’t worry, you can learn hot to fix bloom by simply remelting the chocolate in these instances.
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Bloomed chocolate -
White even with a shine and crisp shell -
Feels very gritty -
Place a small heat proof bowl on top of a saucepan of simmering water. You don’t want the water to touch the bowl, just about 1/2 inch or so of water will do. -
It melts slowly at first, don’t be tempted to turn up the heat -
Stir often to prevent burning -
Check for the appropriate temperature for the type of chocolate (this is dark) -
Cool to desired temperature -
It will maintain a shine and be still quite runny, not yet viscous, -
Use as desired. -
Once set, it should now be free of grainy bits and have a shiny surface -
If you stir too vigorously, you’ll have air bubbles if you aren’t careful. You can tap the tray to knock them out. I didn’t bother. -
The underside should also be smooth and shiny.
