Chocolate Tempering: Tips and Troubleshooting

[Kerry Beal]

Yeah - clearly there is something weird going on. 

[Muscadelle]

Can’t you just tap your bowl/pan full of tempered chocolate for a minute or two to get rid of most air bubbles? I get those a lot in my milk chocolate but not so much in my dark chocolate. It’s a little better when I use cocoa butter to temper, I guess that’s because it increases the fluidity just a notch.

[jimb0]

how thick does the chocolate feel by the time you're using it, out of curiosity?

[cc.canuck]

18 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Yeah - clearly there is something weird going on. 

I'll take photos and maybe a video next time I temper

[cc.canuck]

17 hours ago, Muscadelle said:

Can’t you just tap your bowl/pan full of tempered chocolate for a minute or two to get rid of most air bubbles? I get those a lot in my milk chocolate but not so much in my dark chocolate. It’s a little better when I use cocoa butter to temper, I guess that’s because it increases the fluidity just a notch.

Would it be fine to spend that long tapping the bowl? I worry that would make me end up with swirls on my dipped items, like I used to get by the end of doing sessions before I knew you needed to keep stirring 

[cc.canuck]

17 hours ago, jimb0 said:

how thick does the chocolate feel by the time you're using it, out of curiosity?

 

I tend to need to warm it back up to work with it after getting it into temper. Truest most of the dark chocolate.

[curls]

6 hours ago, cc.canuck said:

 

I tend to need to warm it back up to work with it after getting it into temper. Truest most of the dark chocolate.

What are your temperature ranges? It is starting to sound like your chocolate may be overtempered or too cold when you are molding and working with it. Pictures and/or a more detailed description of your process would help with troubleshooting.

[cc.canuck]

4 hours ago, curls said:

What are your temperature ranges? It is starting to sound like your chocolate may be overtempered or too cold when you are molding and working with it. Pictures and/or a more detailed description of your process would help with troubleshooting.

That's the sense I'm getting! I'll upload photos next time I temper.

[Altay.Oro]

When dipping, I'm getting nearly 5-10 % of my bonbons with air bubbles ... I blow up them by tapping my fork on the surface of the chocolate or to the edge of the melter.

 

As mentioned here ... there seem to be three reasons for excessive air bubbles ...

1. Viscous chocolate,

2. Overtempered chocolate,

3. Excessive stirring ...

 

About stirring ... I do not stir at all when the melted chocolate cools down ... I put it down on a cold surface and I add my seed chocolate when my hands can not feel heat anymore from the melter pot ... I start to stir slowly with a spatula at this moment ... mostly in 5 minutes, and with a minimum amount of stirring, chocolate is ready to use ... check it, if not tempered stir a little bit more and recheck. Additionally, I don't put so much chocolate in melter ... I use 6 lt melter and fill half of it with chocolate ... with less chocolate, I generally observe less air bubbles + more manageable and easily / quickly tempered chocolate.

Edited April 30, 2021 by Altay.Oro (log)

[cc.canuck]

Thank you for all of the advice you've given so far. Really appreciate you all taking the time 😀

 

I did some tempering today with white chocolate. Here is a video of me stirring near the beginning of the process where you can already see my air bubbleage: https://youtube.com/shorts/39BZjT3JOhI?feature=share

 

And here is what I do:

 

1. Heat chocolate to 40 degrees in the microwave using short bursts of 20 seconds max and stirring fairly vigorously in between.

2. Leave chocolate to cool down to 34 degrees with minimal stirring.

3. Add in mycyro, stir in, and leave for a couple of minutes (I did use to use the seeding method but couldn't get on with it and it introduced the same amount of air bubbles for me if not more, probably because of the increased amount of stirring)

4. Stir like I do in the video linked above constantly until the temperature comes down to either 31 for dark or 28 for white and milk.

5. If I'm dipping, I'll do a few vigorous stirs in between dips because I find this stops streakiness

 

Hopefully something in the above stands out as an obvious mistake I can work on to help with the bubbles!

[Kerry Beal]

Could it be starting with the vigorous stirring while melting?

 

I'm not seeing anything too strange about your stirring in the video except I probably don't stir that much. 

[cc.canuck]

1 minute ago, Kerry Beal said:

Could it be starting with the vigorous stirring while melting?

 

I'm not seeing anything too strange about your stirring in the video except I probably don't stir that much. 

I wonder if I am over-concerned about burning my chocolate and could do with leaving it alone a little bit. I'll try scaling back the amount of stirring next time and see what happens. Or I could do the whole process and a vibrating table!

[Kerry Beal]

Just now, cc.canuck said:

I wonder if I am over-concerned about burning my chocolate and could do with leaving it alone a little bit. I'll try scaling back the amount of stirring next time and see what happens. Or I could do the whole process and a vibrating table!

Try the leaving it alone a bit more and see what happens.

[teonzo]

In this short video you are using the wrong movements.

If you keep the spatula in vertical position and move it full front, then you are going to add air behind the spatula path.

Similar when you scrape the bowl sides.

Instead of keeping the spatula in vertical position (90°), try keeping it at 45°, then move it with slow circular movements. You forearm, wrist and hand should be firm, you move only the upper side of your arm. Don't stir too fast. Scrape the sides of the bowl only when it's necessary (when the chocolate on the sides is becoming solid).

You just need to learn how to move the spatula to avoid adding air. Which means NOT doing the movements you make when folding whipped cream (or meringue) into a batter.

When you microwave the chocolate to melt it, there's no sense in stirring it too much. You should stir it as little as possible, ideally nothing at all. Run the microwave until the chocolate is starting to melt (most of it is still keeping it's shape, but some parts are melting), let it rest untouched for a couple of minutes, then stir it as little as possible to get it completely fluid.

Having said this, no matter what you do, some little bubbles will always get there. But they should be really few.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[cc.canuck]

7 hours ago, teonzo said:

In this short video you are using the wrong movements.

If you keep the spatula in vertical position and move it full front, then you are going to add air behind the spatula path.

Similar when you scrape the bowl sides.

Instead of keeping the spatula in vertical position (90°), try keeping it at 45°, then move it with slow circular movements. You forearm, wrist and hand should be firm, you move only the upper side of your arm. Don't stir too fast. Scrape the sides of the bowl only when it's necessary (when the chocolate on the sides is becoming solid).

You just need to learn how to move the spatula to avoid adding air. Which means NOT doing the movements you make when folding whipped cream (or meringue) into a batter.

When you microwave the chocolate to melt it, there's no sense in stirring it too much. You should stir it as little as possible, ideally nothing at all. Run the microwave until the chocolate is starting to melt (most of it is still keeping it's shape, but some parts are melting), let it rest untouched for a couple of minutes, then stir it as little as possible to get it completely fluid.

Having said this, no matter what you do, some little bubbles will always get there. But they should be really few.

 

 

 

Teo

 

This is incredibly helpful, thank you! I'll follow this next time.

[Rajala]

What would you say is a normal amount of time it will take to temper 1 kg with the seeding method?

[Kerry Beal]

5 hours ago, Rajala said:

What would you say is a normal amount of time it will take to temper 1 kg with the seeding method?

I'd say 20 minutes or so. 

[pastrygirl]

On 4/22/2021 at 10:29 PM, keychris said:

the big automatic tempering machines like a Selmi hold the chocolate in the tank at 45C (or whatever you set it at). The chocolate that comes out the spout has been cooled to 32C (or whatever you set it to) and it's perfectly tempered (or should be).

 

So since the Selmi cools before dispensing, in theory it could give me chocolate cooled to below room temp?  If it's 95F in my kitchen, it could dispense chocolate at 88?  I'd have to put it directly in the fridge, but hmmm ...

[Kerry Beal]

34 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

So since the Selmi cools before dispensing, in theory it could give me chocolate cooled to below room temp?  If it's 95F in my kitchen, it could dispense chocolate at 88?  I'd have to put it directly in the fridge, but hmmm ...

It has a compressor in it to cool - so yes.

[cc.canuck]

On 6/7/2021 at 1:59 AM, Kerry Beal said:

I'd say 20 minutes or so. 

It takes me so much longer than this - I'm wondering if that's a part of my results being so hit and miss. What kind of bowl are you using and are you placing it on top of a bowl filled with ice to cool it down? I'm using glass and just sitting it onto a cloth.

[Kerry Beal]

Find me here - it's a free 4 day pass where you can watch all the demos.  I demo tempering dark and milk on a slab, by seeding and of course with the EZtemper. I also do a demo on tempering Ruby by the same 3 methods. You'll be able to see the bowl I use.

 

I prefer plastic these days - glass really hangs on to the heat. 

 

I tend not to use cold water or ice under the bowl anymore. 

[cc.canuck]

22 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Find me here - it's a free 4 day pass where you can watch all the demos.  I demo tempering dark and milk on a slab, by seeding and of course with the EZtemper. I also do a demo on tempering Ruby by the same 3 methods. You'll be able to see the bowl I use.

 

I prefer plastic these days - glass really hangs on to the heat. 

 

I tend not to use cold water or ice under the bowl anymore. 

Brilliant, thank you for that 😁

[Siobhan]

On 4/13/2003 at 6:47 AM, mjc said:

The way I temper chocolate is to first melt it to somewhere between 115 and 120 degrees F. I've found this to be the most important step. If you bring the temperature of the chocolate to high you will not be able to achieve a good temper. Different chocolates have different maximum temperatures, so if you are having problems, this may be one area to investigate.

After you have melted the chocolate and brought it to the right temperature you then cool it down. You want to bring it down to around 80 degrees, but again this can vary slightly with the chocolate you are using. There are different methods you can use to cool, the chocolate. I use the Tabliering method and pour about 1/2 of the chocolate on a marble slab, where I spread it with a spatula to cool, and then add it back to the bowl. Then combine the cooled chocolate with the warmer chocolate in the bowl. You should now have achieved that approx 80 degree temp. But now of course the chocolate will be to think to work with, so you have to carefully rewarm it to around 90 (also varies slightly). To rewarm it, I usually just put it back over the water bath that I used originially to melt my chocolate, but have been off the heat for awhile. It is important at this stage I believe not to get the chocolate too hot.

I'm not a professional, but this is the method that works best for me. I usually achieve a very good temper. When I don't, I find that I have accidently warmed the chocolate too much.

Hope this helps.

What happens if the chcoclate u were tableing makes the chcoclate in the bowl too cold when you add it back in?

Also another question Im assuming if you add it back and its too warm still you just pour some oout again till it reaches tempetature,am I correct in that at do you think/thanks

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, Siobhan said:

What happens if the chcoclate u were tableing makes the chcoclate in the bowl too cold when you add it back in?

Also another question Im assuming if you add it back and its too warm still you just pour some oout again till it reaches tempetature,am I correct in that at do you think/thanks

Heat it with a microwave or hairdryer back to the working temperature.  If too warm - yes - pour some out, work it again and add it back in.

 

[wannabechocolatier]

Would, say, pouring a thick slab of properly tempered chocolate encounter any issues without the assistance of a fridge? Or would it all eventually set properly given that the ambient temperature isn't in the 80s or higher?