Individual Infos

It’d be untrue to say that attractive chocolates with fine and creamy texture, smoothness, shine and a crispy bite do not somewhat tempt you. But all these fine qualities are the results of proper tempering of chocolates. Tempering consists of heating, cooling and reheating the chocolate; chocolate is melted and worked upon to give the required temper.

Due to tempering, the shelf life of the chocolates also increases. If you do not do tempering, blooming will occur due to which there will be whitish gray spots on the chocolate and what you get will be dull, crumbly chocolates that have a dry taste.

Cocoa beans are processed in chocolate making and tempering is one of the important final steps. The fatty acids of cocoa butter have different temperatures for melting and solidifying. You shape the fatty acids into uniform crystals by tempering.

Tempering can be done both by hand and with a machine. Tempering by hand is found difficult due to the strange characteristics of cocoa butter, the fats of which crystallize into six types and tempering becomes difficult because these six types of crystals exhibit a dominant behavior at six different temperatures. Out of these six types of crystals, type V gives the chocolates the desirable shine, smoothness, fine texture, excellent quality and a longer shelf life and hence the aim of tempering is to produce more amount of type V crystals.

Specific temperatures should be maintained during tempering and you may be forced to repeat the entire process even if there is a slight deviation from it. Thermometers may also deceive you at times.

Two methods of tempering by hand are available. One is by melting the chocolate and working upon it on a heat-absorbing surface so that the chocolate cools and get the required tempering. Another is using already tempered chocolate in the form of strips as “seeds” so as to make the freshly-melted chocolate get tempered. But in both these methods and for subsequent dipping and molding, keeping temperatures constant is important.

Producing large quantities of chocolates involves more work towards tempering and hence you are advised to use a tempering machine in this case. There are no hassles like maintaining specific temperatures, ensuring moisture-free environment, etc. with a tempering machine. Another advantage is that you get to produce more type V crystals with this. A computer chip takes care of maintaining specific temperatures. Automatic handling of heating, cooling and reheating is assured.

You are relieved of your tension and you will save a lot of time and efforts if you use a tempering machine. You can devote this time and efforts for developing your skills in chocolate making and also plan creatively to make your business bigger.