Umazon Blog

Tempering is an important process that cannot be skipped because without it, your chocolate will not be shiny or smooth and these qualities are not naturally present in chocolate. The chocolate particles are made fine by the conching process but only when you temper does the chocolate particles become so fine as to be undetected by the tongue.

You can impart gloss, crispness, firmness, smoothness, creaminess and a longer shelf life to your chocolate but only through the difficult process of tempering. You can also avoid the occurrence of blooming that imparts a streaky look and gritty texture to chocolate. There will be no takers of such unattractive chocolates.

Since you melt the chocolates during tempering at temperatures more than 90F, the chocolates lose the temper that came with buying them from the chocolate makers so that you need to do re-tempering to maintain the highest quality.

Tempering by hand will especially be an asset when there’s a power disruption, when your tempering machine will be useless. It behooves you to learn tempering by hand if you wish to be known for fine quality chocolates.

The first method of tempering by hand, tabliering, is an innovation from France. It’s also called the marble-slab method as you use a marble slab to manage tempering.

A pound of chocolate bars, sliced into strips, is melted on a double boiler at medium heat so it doesn’t burn. The melt is then divided into two halves. The first half is folded and spread on a marble slab to lower the temperature so it thickens; and then you mix the other half in until the entire mixture cools. Tempering temperatures must be accurately maintained using a thermometer that’s calibrated on a regular basis.

The difference between the second method, “seeding” and tabliering is that, in the former you use already tempered chocolate as a seed for creating the proper crystals. Only three-fourths of the chocolate is melted and as the whole mush is cooled down, the unmelted strips are slowly mixed in until the entire chocolate melt is at the right temperature. Maintaining the right temperature accurately is just as important in seeding. Only after tempering is done does a chocolatier begin dipping and molding chocolates.

Chocolatiersboth novice and artisansaccept that tempering by hand is a difficult endeavor because it involves a strict maintenance of correct temperatures. You cannot afford to ignore this important aspect of tempering because even a minute change in temperature levels will force you to repeat tempering. Doing so will split your attention between keeping chocolates in its tempered state (meaning, right temperatures), and designing, sculpting and shaping your chocolate confections.

With a chocolate tempering machine, indeed you’ll have the advantage of coming up with the same quality of chocolate confections whenever you make them. That’s a great plus if you intend to market these candies for profit.