Raster Gang

When chocolates are offered, you’ll be tempted by the shine, smoothness, great appearance, creamy texture and the crisp bite and however hard you wish you could refuse them, you may not succeed so much. These great qualities are not original to chocolates but are imparted to them via a technique called tempering. In tempering, you melt, cool and re-heat the chocolates in serial procedure at the most accurate chocolate temperatures.

Chocolatiers insist upon tempering chocolates not only to give them gloss and creamy texture but to add longevity to their shelf life. Without tempering, you give scope to blooming which can cause dullness, a grainy and chalky aftertaste, and crumbliness. No customer will buy such undesirable chocolates.

The importance of chocolate tempering lies in its capacity to stabilize the fat crystals in cocoa butter. These fat crystals dominate at varied temperatures and with tempering, they can crystallize in a uniform structure.

But manual tempering can be quite tough to both the experienced and beginning chocolatier. Beginners must fully understand the process before venturing into this so-called hit-and-miss adventure.

The fatty acids in cocoa butter form into six types of crystals and each crystal type, by behaving dominantly at six different temperatures, hamper the creation of type V crystals which alone can make chocolates shiny, smooth and creamy.

Since chocolates are sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures, you should maintain the specific temperatures accurately to avoid repeating tempering them again. Here, a reliable temper meter or a good calibrated thermometer would come in handy.

There are two methods of manual tempering. Melted chocolate is worked upon on a marble slab during the cooling stage to temper; this is called tabliering. Another method, known as seeding, is to use tempered chocolate bits as seeds to help crystals form in melted chocolate. But in both the methods, you reach the working temperatures by gently warming chocolates and keeping it tempered for the subsequent dipping and molding stage of chocolate candy making.

To temper large quantities of chocolates for gifting or commercial purposes, it’s advisable to use a chocolate tempering machine; otherwise, you’ll be subject to uncontrollable factors like moisture and heat in the working area, inaccurate thermometer, etc. The microchip in the tempering machine will remove all these hassles.

A tempering machine will always yield to nicely tempered chocolates because type V crystals are produced every preparation time. Temper is also retained for longer hours. Because the machine monitors temperatures constantly and on its own, you can comfortably temper larger volumes of chocolates and still be assured of obtaining the same chocolate quality every single time you make candies.

Tempering machine helps you in tempering large quantities of chocolates uniformly and with the free time you get by using it, you can work upon improving the quality of your products to cater to the discerning public so that your chocolates will be in high demand on a consistent basis.