Chocolate Tempering: Tips and Troubleshooting

[Kerry Beal]

thank you all for passing on your understanding of chocolate --- i think i get it!!! (thank god)...one more question: what is happening in the tabelling process that allows un-tempered chocolate to be tempered? Thanks again for all your help!

In tabling you are - as in merlicky's response - forming the form V crystals along with a variety of 'undesirable' crystals. When the tabled chocolate is added back to the remaining warm chocolate in the bowl it is warmed back up to the working temperature. If the working temperature isn't exceeded then you will melt out only the undesirable crystals, leaving the good beta or form V crystals to predominate and multiply.

[judyjeu]

Hi everyone - I've been making truffles for a number of years (hobby-level) using my Revolation 1 to temper the chocolate and dip the centers. More recently I've been using molds. Throughout this time I've stayed quite amateur/ignorant about the tempering process since the machine did it for me, although I had a high level understanding of what the machine was doing. I recently outgrew the Revolation, so I bought an ACMC Tabletop temperer. I've tried to temper four times in a row and failed each time, and I'm getting desperate. I've read everything on tempering out there (including these forums) but can't figure out the problem. I hope you can help.

Environment: 68F degrees (20C), 50% humidity

Chocolate: Callebaut bittersweet. Manufacturer recommends: 113-122F (45-50C) melt, 81F (27C) seed, 88F (31C) working temp. Chocolate is not tempered (already used a few times), except for seed chocolate. Trying to temper about 1.5 lbs at a time.

1st attempt: Followed ACMC directions - melted to 115F (46C), held for 10 mins, added small pieces seed/tempered chocolate (2 oz) directly to melted chocolate, cooled to 82F (28C) (seed completely melted), held for 10 mins, raised to 89F (32C), held for 10 mins. Tempering failed. My theory: perhaps I didn't add enough seed chocolate as I later read it should be 25% of total chocolate.

2nd attempt: Same as previous but this time added 6 oz of seed chocolate in medium sized chunks. Removed chunks when reached working temp - the removed chunks were 8 oz of chocolate (had melted chocolate stuck on it), so it doesn't seem like much if any seed melted. Tempering failed.

3rd attempt: Tried the Revolation since this worked for me in the past. Revolation melted at 110F (43C), cooled to 86F (30C), I added 4oz seed (only 1/8 oz melted & the rest removed), raised to 89F (32C). Tempering failed again. (The revolation uses preconfigured temps which are not adjustable.)

At this point after some research I concluded my problem could be that using the chocolate many times over without tempering it meant I had lots of "bad" crystals that needed to be melted out, so I should use a higher melting temp for longer. (And Greweling recommends melting at 122F/50C.) I also realized I didn't need to do both seed chocolate and the raise-lower-raise temp cycle.

4th attempt: Back to the ACMC. Melted at 120F (49C) for 2+ hours. Dropped temp. Added 6oz seed chocolate when temp dropped to 113F (45C) - medium/small chunks, most added behind baffle and some added directly to melted chocolate. Dropped temp to 89F (32C). Pulled out remaining seed and tested temper right away. Result: Failure again. Chocolate seemed thicker (?).

At this point I've started to question whether I am even correct in thinking it's not tempered, but I'm pretty sure it's not. Using the Revolation for years, I always just assumed it was tempered, so I didn't get good experience in learning characteristics of tempered chocolate. And generally it seemed to be tempered, since I could use molds with the Revolation and the shells would release OK. Generally with the Revolation I was starting with tempered/fresh chocolate, whereas in these attempts I'm not. Maybe that makes it more difficult.

Here are the symptoms I'm noticing that make me think it's not tempered: 1) If I smear a small blob on a flat surface, it dries very dull and is somewhat soft if I break it. 2) Not drying fast. 3) Not releasing easily from molds - I have to refrigerate/freeze, then whack the heck out of the molds multiple times to get the shells out, breaking half in the process and a bunch don't come out at all. Those that do come out look pretty good though - shiny on the outside and snap well. When dipping centers, works OK but seems thick (centers are chilled though), surface is matte but not horribly dull.

So...... any ideas about what I'm doing wrong? I'm grateful for any help you can give. Sorry, I know this is yet another "I can't temper" post, but I've read all the previous ones and still can't figure out my problem.

Thank you!!

[prospectbake]

I've never used a tempering machine when working with chocolate, but I'm a bit surprised its giving you that much trouble (isn't the point of those machines to make tempering easier?). My first guess is that the chocolate is contaminated somehow, water maybe? By your descriptions of the chocolate it most definitely is not tempered correctly. I would start with fresh chocolate, especially if you've been using chocolate that has been melted down after being in the fridge/freezer since it's likely absorbed some water. It sounds like your conditions are pretty ideal otherwise.

So while I can't really suggest how to use your machine, this is what I do (and I've yet to incorrectly temper a batch).

Starting with tempered chocolate I slowly melt it down over a bain-marie (heat turned off) until it's about 80% melted, take off the heat and continue to agitate, using my spatula to pull the chocolate up the sides of the bowl to help cool. The unmelted chocolate acts as the seed in this case, and once it reaches about 90 degrees, or feels slightly cool against your lip, I test, and use! Pretty simple, and I've used this for molded chocolates with excellent release, shine, and snap. I don't know what temperature I melt it to, but if you start with tempered chocolate there's really no need to go above 100 anyway (I don't usually even use a thermometer)

If I do use a seed (working with untempered chocolate or I can't find any mycryo), I don't add it until mid to high 90's since beta-crystals (the desirable variety) don't start forming until around 93, so if you add the seed too early you may just end up melting out the seed before the beta crystals could even start to form. I also make sure to agitate a lot to ensure a good temper, if the chocolate looks streaky it may be in temper but just need more stirring (I assume though that the machine does this for you).

It sounds to me that this machine is complicating things far too much! Chocolate is sensitive, but not that sensitive, and just takes a little practice. Hope that helps!

[lapin d'or]

I was wondering if you have been able to double check the temperature of the pool of chocolate against a thermometr so you are sure the machine is giving you good temperature information?

And also when you decide to pull out the seed chocolate and check for temper has the main pool of chocolate had time to start developing enough good crystals. The seed chocolate is just that, it starts the development of the right crystals but even at the right temperature you may need to wait and just keep the chocolate stirring for a while for the whole pool of chocolate to get seeded enough. Then if it starts to get over crystallised you need to melt a few out.

I have often read that to temper an amount less than 1kg is not so easy and it looks like you are working with a bit less than that but that advice may just apply to tempering 'manually'.

Hope that helps, I have not used a table top temperer so no direct experience to call on.

Lapin

[Marmalade]

Try melting at 120 or so as you mention, dropping down to 90-92, and adding seed then. Wait at least 10 minutes or more and test for temper. You are probably adding your seed when the chocolate is still too hot. Good luck!

[lebowits]

I use a larger Chocovision (X3210) but have hand tempered chocolate many times. Melt your chocolate to approximately 118F, add at least 10% of the weight of your melted chocolate in seed, large chunks work well, let the temp fall to 90F and remove remaining seed. Continue to cool and agitate to 82F - 83F, and then bring back to working temp which will vary based upon your chocolate (approx 88.5F for dark chocolate). Test your temper.

[Digijam]

I'd second the advice to check the calibration of your temperature probe. I've got the same tempering machine(the ACMC) and quickly discovered that I need to up my figures a notch to compensate for its readings. Don't be afraid to work on the upper limits for your chosen chocolate type and to shut the machine down for a few minutes once you do get a working temper.

Mark

Edited November 17, 2010 by Digijam (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Odd that the chocolate is not tempering well in either of your machines - perhaps there a problem with the chocolate?

[chocchic]

are you using seed chocolate straight from the Callebaut block or has it been previously tempered yourself? It may be a problem with improperly tempered seed crystals.

[judyjeu]

Thanks everyone for such quick responses! To answer a few questions - I don't think my chocolate is bad (no water touched it, wasn't refrigerated), although I have previously used it to dip chilled truffle centers so maybe it's possible the centers had some condensation. I have gone through the tempering process several times with my chocolate, so it is well "used" - but from what I understand that's not supposed to be a problem. On my last attempt I used a 2nd thermometer to make sure my ACMC wasn't way off, and they were pretty close (usually within 1 degree, occasionally 2 degrees briefly). My seed chocolate is Callebaut block, so it is definitely tempered.

Based on your feedback, it sounds like I'm adding my seed at too high a temp and also not giving it enough time to form the beta crystals at the lower temp. (Although adding seed too early doesn't seem like it would hurt anything if you still have unmelted seed at the end - i.e. all your seed wasn't melted at too high a temp, is this correct?) And given that my machine is always agitating the chocolate, it seems that although my chocolate might not be tempered as soon as it drops to 89, it would eventually become tempered after more time just from the agitation, which I didn't find to be the case.

This is what I'll try next: melt at 120F, hold for a while, drop temp to 93 and then add seed chocolate, drop to 82, hold for 10 mins, bring back up to 89, hold for 10 mins, then remove leftover seed. Is that leaving the seed chocolate in too long? I know it might be; I guess now I'm paranoid I'm not seeding enough so I'm trying to stack the deck in favor of that.

If this doesn't work then I'll try starting with fresh tempered chocolate instead of my very used untempered chocolate, and see if that works. At least that will eliminate one variable.

Thanks for your help!

[Chocolot]

You are making this way too hard. Melt the choc to 120. Turn the temp down to working temp-90? Throw some broken up block in the back of the baffle. Turn the bowl on and walk away. When it hits the working temp, you are ready to go. Leave the block in the back, or what is left of it. Keep seed in the back while you are working. This will slowly melt and you can continue working. If it seems to over crystallize, turn the temp up 1-2 degrees.

[lebowits]

You are making this way too hard. Melt the choc to 120. Turn the temp down to working temp-90? Throw some broken up block in the back of the baffle. Turn the bowl on and walk away. When it hits the working temp, you are ready to go. Leave the block in the back, or what is left of it. Keep seed in the back while you are working. This will slowly melt and you can continue working. If it seems to over crystallize, turn the temp up 1-2 degrees.

I second this. In my own case, I remove the seed when the bowl reaches 90F so as to prevent over seeding.

[jrshaul]

I've been meaning to learn how to temper chocolate for some time now, and seeing as how my latest batch of truffles are much too fluid to be served as-is, I suspect I may as well get at it. I'm aware of the standard procedure of heat to 120F, cool to 86F, and heat to 90F, but I'm a bit perplexed as to how I might go about keeping this temperature mostly constant. A thick ceramic bowl and maybe a towel would appear the most obvious solution, but perhaps I'd be better off turning the stove very low and monitoring the thermometer?

Also, on a semi-related note, could anyone comment on my ganache-preparation technique? I've been using a microwave to melt the chocolate and butter, and adding hot cream with a little corn syrup. I've never had any trouble with emulsions, though I suspect that this is mostly because Trader Joes' dark chocolate has lecithin in it.

[gap]

Re tempering: an electric blanket can be used to keep the chocolate warm, or heat periodically in the microwave or have a heat gun (ie., paint stripper from local hardware store) to add a bit of heat every now and then. The more chocolate you have in the bowl, the more it will hold its heat.

Re your ganache: there are many ways. Most common is to boil cream and glucose. Pour over chocolate. At 32C add the butter. You can also try melting the chocolate, tempering it, heating cream to 30C and combining with chocolate, then adding butter. This theoretically keeps the ganache chocolate in temper which some believe extends shelf life.

[Tony S.]

I bought this Cara Heating Pad w/ Select Heat, which allows me to set the pad to a specific temperature. I place that in a large mixing bowl and then set my bowl of tempered chocolate on top of the pad. The outer bowl allows the pad to wrap around the bowl of chocolate to heat all around it instead of just from the bottom. I make sure to stir the chocolate often and I'll check the temperature w/ my infrared thermometer. If I need to bring the temp up a bit, I'll pop the bowl in the microwave for 10 seconds or so or hit it with my heat gun. I'm able to keep about a kg of tempered chocolate at its working temp for much of an afternoon with little fuss.

[Kerry Beal]

What I find that people new to tempering often get fixed in their head is that if the chocolate gets cool it needs to be tempered again - which it doesn't -just reheat making sure you don't go over the working temperature. So as suggested above you can reheat with a heat gun, a hairdryer, a few seconds in the microwave. It may take 12 or 15 seconds in the microwave - but I never give it 15 seconds at once - I tend to do 5, then 5, then 5. I never go over temp that way - but I would if I did all 15 seconds together.

Re the ganache. I make most of mine in the Thermomix these days which just makes it so simple - but doing it by hand - I have my chocolate at about 30 C, my cream (and glucose) at about 40 C and mix them together until I get an emulsion. I usually stir in the room temperature butter after.

[lebowits]

When I need to warm my tempered chocolate a bit, I'll wave it over a very low flame for 10 - 15 seconds while stirring continuously. I generally keep the bowl about 12" - 18" above the flame so as to prevent too concentrated a hot spot.

[jrshaul]

What I find that people new to tempering often get fixed in their head is that if the chocolate gets cool it needs to be tempered again - which it doesn't -just reheat making sure you don't go over the working temperature.

This one secret made the whole process so much easier. While not 100% ideal, it seems that the temperature of the chocolate isn't hugely important so long as it has achieved temper and not exceeded 91 degrees.

I ended up tempering my chocolate in a coffee mug. I melted some milk chocolate (it's what I had on hand) in the microwave, using an instant-read meat thermometer to verify it hit 120 degrees. Adding further chopped chocolate wasn't enough to bring it down to 86 degrees, so I used a cool water bath before moving the mug into some simmering water to bring it back up to 91.

While the process was a bit of a kludge, the truffles came out great!

I'm curious, though - does anyone else here pipe out their truffles? I tried it, and had a lot of trouble producing chocolates of the desired shape. Should I just go out and invest in some moulds?

[Tony S.]

Personally I would be reluctant to use a water bath to either cool or heat melted chocolate. Just a tiny bit of water getting into the chocolate will cause it to seize and you will not be able to temper it at all. I guess for such a small amount, you're not risking that much but I know if that happened to me I'd be pretty frustrated.

Also, I don't think milk chocolate needs to be heated to that high of a temperature to melt all the crystals. 120F is about the high end for dark. Milk chocolate should be taken to around 110F at the most. And the working temp of milk (and white, for that matter) is a few degrees lower than it is for dark, more around 82F-85F. But if what you did worked for you than I guess it doesn't really matter.

As for piping ganache, I've never done it for hand dipped truffles. I just let the ganache crystallize in a bowl than scoop into balls and dip. But given the choice, I much prefer to use molds and pipe the ganache into shells. Guess it all depends on the look you're going for with the final product. But if you use molds, you'll definitely want to work with a larger batch of tempered chocolate, like was suggested before.

Edited July 28, 2011 by Tony S. (log)

[gap]

I'm curious, though - does anyone else here pipe out their truffles? I tried it, and had a lot of trouble producing chocolates of the desired shape. Should I just go out and invest in some moulds?

You can pipe truffles without worry or you can mould them - both will take time and practice to learn though

[jrshaul]

On a semi-related note, can anyone comment on my use of alcohol in truffles? The recipe I used calls for the addition of 1/4 cup liquor to a mixture of 4oz cream and 8oz chocolate. While the end result was fabulous, I'm told that the addition of water (of which most booze is at least 60%) can break the emulsion very easily. While I suspect I was saved by the presence of lecithin, I'm wondering if I would be better off adding the alcohol to the cream before mixing and simmering away the extra water and ethanol?

I'm curious, though - does anyone else here pipe out their truffles? I tried it, and had a lot of trouble producing chocolates of the desired shape. Should I just go out and invest in some moulds?

You can pipe truffles without worry or you can mould them - both will take time and practice to learn though

The problem I had with piping is that I ended up with very irregular shapes with extremely coarse sides. The chocolate would not separate from the nozzle, instead hanging there until I shook it off. Aside from being unsightly, these irregular lumps also meant that the truffle agglomerated up a lot of chocolate during dipping. I admit my Ziploc bag piping apparatus is not the best, but it's much easier than hand-shaping ganache that goes liquid at body temperature.

On a related note, I highly recommend Trader Joe's "pound plus" milk chocolate for idiotproof dipping. I suspect I may have done the whole procedure in a highly un-optimal fashion, but the stuff has enough emulsifier and cocoa butter to make it a non-issue. It tastes pretty good, too, and at slightly less than $4/pound, I can afford to make mistakes.

Edited July 29, 2011 by jrshaul (log)

[pastrygirl]

You usually want to keep the alcohol because it is a preservative. If the truffle is too soft, you can replace some of the cream with butter (therefore making the cream + butter + alcohol combination about the same fat:water ratio as cream alone), or just use less cream.

Edited July 29, 2011 by pastrygirl (log)

[grits12]

I'm new to working with chocolate. How do I temper fine chocolate?

[Maison Rustique]

I use a tempering machine (Revolution) and it works great. Mind you, I'm not tempering vast quantities for commercial purposes.

[rickster]

Assuming you don't want to invest in a machine, I find using the microwave and an infrared thermometer to be an easy way to do it. You should look for instructions in a book, like the ones by Andrew Shott or Peter Grewling.