The Art of Tempering and Chocolate Candy Making
With all the instructions available on the Net, you’ll probably think that making chocolate candy is one quick and easy task. Just get some chocolates, thermometer, double boiler, candy molds and rubber spatula. If you are planning to create some chocolate truffles, then you may include some heavy cream to your list.
The cooking directions are just as easy, too. All you need do is cut up the chocolate bars into pieces, let it melt in the double boiler and stir it once in a while so that it will not get burned. One the chocolate has been totally melted; you can remove it from the heat and pour the melted chocolates into the bowl. Pour onto candy molds or dip fruits into the chocolate to create some interesting chocolate treats. Let them spend some time in the chiller and after that they’re all set for serving.
If you just want to give your chocolate candies to some friends or if it’s merely for family consumption, you’ll probably not need the thermometer. But if you want to sell, the thermometer will be essential. Once your chocolates are properly tempered, you can be sure that they are worthy to sell for big bucks.
Chocolates are not that really glossy and creamy, proper chocolate tempering is the one responsible for these kind of attributes. Chocolate manufacturers temper their chocolates first before introducing them to the buying public. All the commercial chocolates that you purchase from the store for your chocolate confectioneries went through the process of tempering. When you make your own chocolate candy at home, the first thing that you’ll do is to melt them. Once heated, the chocolates lose temper immediately and become very susceptible to blooming.
Cocoa butter possesses some fatty acids that turns into different crystal forms during crystallization. These crystals appear at different chocolate temperatures so it’s important that you keep temperatures at accurate levels to acquire the appropriate crystals, which is the Type V crystal. You have to produce as much Type V crystals as possible since these crystals are the ones responsible for the tempting features of chocolates.
Tempering can also be done manually, and you’ll need the help of a calibrated thermometer all the time. As you probably know, chocolate tend to react quickly to sudden changes in temperature. Little change in heat levels may cause chocolate to lose temper; when it does, you’ll have to re-temper, which means that you’ll have to go through that tedious process all over again.
Getting yourself a chocolate tempering machine could really be a big help in obtaining accurate temperatures during tempering. This machine automatically forms Type V crystals and make sure that your chocolates is tempered all the time. You don’t need to keep on watching the temperature. You can just leave it behind and attend to other activities such as dipping candies into your chocolate. This chocolate tempering machine really works wonders.
