Chocolate Tempering: Tips and Troubleshooting

[Kerry Beal]

Show us a picture of the mold you are using. Often if you just have the shell (for example a cup mold) - it will be very challenging to get it out even when perfectly tempered. Once filled a a bottom put on they will come out much more easily. 

 

There are some tricks to getting cup molds out. Freezer for 3 minutes, twist of the mold and pull out with your finger. 

 

Dark chocolate is the only one that really gives a good snap. Run your finger along the surface of the chocolate and see if it marks - well tempered (dark) chocolate doesn't mark much. 

[jauhe]

I've been experimenting with making bonbons for a few months now, and I'm running into an issue when melting the chocolate. In the beginning I wasn't running into any issues, but recently when I melt the chocolate in the microwave, most of it melts, but there are little grains or bits that never melt. If you smoosh them against the side of the bowl they disintegrate and go away, but otherwise even heating to very high temperatures, they never melt on their own. The consistency of the rest of the batch is fine (I could strain them out and it would work fine). I've had seized chocolate before, but that seems to affect the whole batch when it happens (not just little bits), and I've been very careful to avoid any contact with any drop of water. I thought maybe they were little overheated/burned bits, but I took brand new chocolate, melted it in 15 second increments on 50% power, and I still got the same result. Any tips on what I'm doing wrong here?

 

   

[Kerry Beal]

How old is the chocolate? Has the package been open to the air/moisture?

 

 

[jauhe]

It's about 4 months old. It melted in transit and then re-hardened. I opened the package, cut it into smaller blocks, and put each in a sealed ziploc bag. I'm in a somewhat humid climate, but I've been just taking it out of the bag to cut off a block, then resealing it. Is brief exposure to humidity enough to do this?

[Kerry Beal]

It can be if the humidity is high enough. 

[jauhe]

It's maybe 70% humidity on average in the kitchen where I cut and microwave it, but everything else is done in an air conditioned room with low humidity and temperature. I can try with a new bag never letting it leave the air conditioned room. Is there anything else other than humidity to look out for that can cause this graininess?

[Kerry Beal]

Just thinking back to lumpy chocolate I have had over the years - it usually comes down to either age or moisture has gotten into it. When it came to you melted was the bag fully sealed?

[jauhe]

Interesting, ok. It's a Callebaut 823 block, and yes it was fully sealed when I got it. I'll pay more attention to moisture next time. This definitely isn't an issue of temperature then (overheating in the microwave, or sitting a hot truck during shipping, or things like that)?

[Jim D.]

When chocolate is overheated in the microwave, you will know it.  It usually has a terrible smell and little bits of burned chocolate in it.  And, as a side note, this can happen more easily than you might think.  I use very short intervals of microwaving at the beginning of the process.

 

I have had melted chocolate that looks like your photo.  Often it just goes away during the process of tempering.  In a few extreme cases, I used an immersion blender on it, and the chocolate smoothed out quickly.  Just be sure to keep the blender blade immersed in the chocolate to avoid air bubbles.

[gap]

Yup, I second the immersion blender. I've had to do it a few times. Not sure why, but it fixed the issue.

[SweetandSnappyJen]

Hi folks!

 

I've recently dabbled in running some kid bon-bon making birthday parties and they've been really fun (would NOT recommend for under 12 though:) I'm trying to cut time by tempering the chocolate in advance (pre-party) and then keeping it at 32 in the melter. It's usually a good 45 minutes before the shelling happens, so by that point, the chocolate is incredibly over-crystalized. I'm trying to streamline this process a bit, and so far all I've come up with is about 5-10 minutes before shelling, adding some untempered melted chocolate at working temp. But I'm just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions for doing advance tempering, without having to futz with it until its ready to be used.

 

Thank you!

Jen

[pastrygirl]

You could try holding it at 33-34 so it doesn't crystallize so rapidly.  Or at 35-36 and demo how cooling and agitating encourages crystallization. 

[Kerry Beal]

7 hours ago, SweetandSnappyJen said:

Hi folks!

 

I've recently dabbled in running some kid bon-bon making birthday parties and they've been really fun (would NOT recommend for under 12 though:) I'm trying to cut time by tempering the chocolate in advance (pre-party) and then keeping it at 32 in the melter. It's usually a good 45 minutes before the shelling happens, so by that point, the chocolate is incredibly over-crystalized. I'm trying to streamline this process a bit, and so far all I've come up with is about 5-10 minutes before shelling, adding some untempered melted chocolate at working temp. But I'm just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions for doing advance tempering, without having to futz with it until its ready to be used.

 

Thank you!

Jen

The untempered chocolate you add to it can be quite warm - just make sure that you don't go well over the working temperature when you add it. When added to over tempered chocolate you can take milk up as high as 32.5 and dark as high as 34.5

[gap]

Another quick/easy option might be an EZtemper ... although you pay for the convenience. Maybe not an option if you're just doing the kids parties, but if you use chocolate a lot in another capacity, it can be a real time saver

[Kerry Beal]

A guy who started out doing kids parties (untempered chocolate into the freezer) just bought his 5th EZtemper.

 

[SweetandSnappyJen]

9 hours ago, gap said:

Another quick/easy option might be an EZtemper ... although you pay for the convenience. Maybe not an option if you're just doing the kids parties, but if you use chocolate a lot in another capacity, it can be a real time saver

Absolutely!  I do have one, the best!

[Kerry Beal]

3 hours ago, SweetandSnappyJen said:

Absolutely!  I do have one, the best!

You can hook it up to a battery and take it with you.

 

 

[Gerry B]

I recently bought an 11 lb block of Callebaut C811 from Restaurant Depot. When I broke open the block I see that there is a ribbon of lighter chocolate running through the middle of the entire block. It tastes, melts and tempers fine. Does anyone know what this is and what could've caused it?

[Kerry Beal]

Just a strip that has gone out of temper likely. Looks like the block wasn't cooled properly when it was formed.

[Gerry B]

Thanks for the reply. If I melt, temper and let it harden, can I then use it as "seed" when tempering a new batch?

[Phil Bard]

Hello All, brand new to this forum and this is my first post. Sorry it's a bit long.

 

I started making chocolate from beans this past October, lots of fun and I've been fairly successful. In the beginning of December I started on bonbons with colored cocoa butter and it's also been fun and for the most part successful. Early attempts at hand brushing and airbrushing colored cocoa butter in the polycarbonate mold cavities were fine, everything was releasing OK. About a week ago I started having problems with the color sticking to the mold, almost always at the crown of the hemisphere. I'm working with colors made from mixing fat dispersible pigments (Roxy and Rich) at around 10%.

 

I've read a number of posts on this forum and elsewhere about it, people point to improper tempering most often, with mold and ambient temperature mentioned as well. I've tried two of the most suggested techniques for tempering the butter. First was heating to 105F (40C), then cooling to 78F (26C), then heating back up to 86F-89F (30C-31C). Today I went with the technique mentioned by Kriss Harvey and others, heat to 100F (38C), then cool to 86F (30C) and use. I had failures in about 1/3 of the 24 cavities of the mold in BOTH situations. 

 

The overall process: The molds are washed in warm water with dish detergent, dried and fastidiously cleaned with a cotton puff. With the mold at room temperature I use a stamp to put the color in the cavity, repeatedly working it to get the pattern. Then spray a thin coat of white. I refrigerate briefly then let the mold sit for a couple hours at room temperature. For the shell, I've used both white chocolate and dark, it doesn't seem to matter. Shell thickness is not terribly thin or overly thick compared to what I've seen in demo's online. The shell chocolates are properly tempered with sylk. I refrigerate for 10 minutes after shelling. Then let the molds sit for a number of hours at room temperature before adding ganache (at 75F usually), then refrigerating briefly until the fill sets. Then I cap, again with tempered chocolate at around 89F (32C). After scraping once I add a small amount of chocolate and an acetate sheet, and spread flat with the spatula. Once again I refrigerate briefly. I've been going into the fridge right away and wonder if I should be waiting a bit beforehand, I've seen this suggested but in my lack of experience I don't know why this should matter.  After this I have tried waiting just an hour to de-mold, and also waiting about 4 hours. I still get failures here and there. In the early attempts before this problem showed up, I was de-molding within an hour of coming out of the fridge and had good releases, but that wasn't when I was using the stamp to manipulate the color so I'm wondering if that is a factor. Also, I live in the Pacific NW and its been pretty rainy lately, so humidity is high outside, but only around 50% in my home.

 

**Here's something that I did today that puzzles me, and may indicate where the problem lies. After shelling and cooling, I turned over half of the shells in the mold. All were perfect. But after filling, capping and releasing, some of those stuck (???).

 

I expect there is a wealth of experience here, if anyone has anything helpful I'd appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

 

Phil

[Jim D.]

As a start, could you say more about what you mean by using a stamp to get the colored cocoa butter into the cavity?  What sort of stamp?  Are you referring to the hugely popular silicone stamps that make a pattern in the cavity or something else (a sponge perhaps?).

 

I know it's a nuisance, but another check would be to test the cocoa butter before using it.  Spread a little on stone or parchment or just waxed paper and wait to see if it firms up and turns from shiny to matte.  If it does, then it's tempered regardless of which method you are using for tempering.  The traditional method for tempering includes the third step of raising the temperature back up to working temperature (the theory being that all types of crystals formed as you cooled the cocoa butter, so you have to melt the I-IV crystals, leaving type V).  Kriss Harvey's method (also used by James Parsons) is not typical, but it seems to work--although I don't quite understand the science behind it.

[Phil Bard]

1 hour ago, Jim D. said:

As a start, could you say more about what you mean by using a stamp to get the colored cocoa butter into the cavity?  What sort of stamp?  Are you referring to the hugely popular silicone stamps that make a pattern in the cavity or something else (a sponge perhaps?).

 

I know it's a nuisance, but another check would be to test the cocoa butter before using it.  Spread a little on stone or parchment or just waxed paper and wait to see if it firms up and turns from shiny to matte.  If it does, then it's tempered regardless of which method you are using for tempering.  The traditional method for tempering includes the third step of raising the temperature back up to working temperature (the theory being that all types of crystals formed as you cooled the cocoa butter, so you have to melt the I-IV crystals, leaving type V).  Kriss Harvey's method (also used by James Parsons) is not typical, but it seems to work--although I don't quite understand the science behind it.

I'm using a silicone stamp I made from pouring silicone molding material into the cavities I'm coloring, it's the same size. Then I just add color and swab the stamp to get the pattern I like. I guess the question I have is does this interfere with good crystallization even if the cb is well tempered.

 

That's a reasonable suggestion about testing, I'll check the butter on parchment next time I try this. I would think that the fact that most of the surface of my bonbons is very shiny would indicate the cocoa butter is tempered. And I have used the first method successfully on cocoa butter applied by my finger, everything released and the chocolate came out quite shiny. The first problems I had with sticking were when I replicated one of Andrey Dubovik's techniques, blowing on drops of cocoa butter in the cavities. Most of the bonbons came out fine, but a few stuck, see the image below. Then it continued when I made the stamp. What is truly puzzling me is why the stamped bonbons I made today and rolled over to inspect just after shelling were perfect, but then got stuck after adding ganache, capping and de-molding. I don't think the ganache was warm enough at 75F to melt the cb, but I suppose it's possible. Capping wouldn't do it would it? And if it did I would expect sticking near the point where the shell joins the cap.

 

My interpretation of the Harvey method is that you destroy all crystals, then allow only V to form as you never drop the temp low enough for any of the others to do so. At first I didn't get the part in Method 1 about lowering the temp so far, why let any of the other forms proliferate? But recently I ran across a nerdy/science vid on YouTube that explained the reason was that the further below the melting point of V you go, the faster the V crystals form. Even though you get down low enough for IV, V will proliferate very quickly, faster than if you stayed up at 92F or so. Raising the temp back above 78F kills off the IV and you have built a much more extensive network of V in less time.

 

I'm going to try using sylk the next time I mix colored cb, it's the method I've used without fail on bar chocolate and I have lots of sylk. That would take the temperature manipulation regimen out of the equation.

 

Thanks for your feedback, on Christmas Eve no less! Hope you enjoy your holiday.

 

Phil

 

 

[Jim D.]

7 hours ago, Phil Bard said:

I'm using a silicone stamp I made from pouring silicone molding material into the cavities I'm coloring, it's the same size. Then I just add color and swab the stamp to get the pattern I like. I guess the question I have is does this interfere with good crystallization even if the cb is well tempered.

 

That's a reasonable suggestion about testing, I'll check the butter on parchment next time I try this. I would think that the fact that most of the surface of my bonbons is very shiny would indicate the cocoa butter is tempered. And I have used the first method successfully on cocoa butter applied by my finger, everything released and the chocolate came out quite shiny. The first problems I had with sticking were when I replicated one of Andrey Dubovik's techniques, blowing on drops of cocoa butter in the cavities. Most of the bonbons came out fine, but a few stuck, see the image below. Then it continued when I made the stamp. What is truly puzzling me is why the stamped bonbons I made today and rolled over to inspect just after shelling were perfect, but then got stuck after adding ganache, capping and de-molding. I don't think the ganache was warm enough at 75F to melt the cb, but I suppose it's possible. Capping wouldn't do it would it? And if it did I would expect sticking near the point where the shell joins the cap.

 

My interpretation of the Harvey method is that you destroy all crystals, then allow only V to form as you never drop the temp low enough for any of the others to do so. At first I didn't get the part in Method 1 about lowering the temp so far, why let any of the other forms proliferate? But recently I ran across a nerdy/science vid on YouTube that explained the reason was that the further below the melting point of V you go, the faster the V crystals form. Even though you get down low enough for IV, V will proliferate very quickly, faster than if you stayed up at 92F or so. Raising the temp back above 78F kills off the IV and you have built a much more extensive network of V in less time.

 

I'm going to try using sylk the next time I mix colored cb, it's the method I've used without fail on bar chocolate and I have lots of sylk. That would take the temperature manipulation regimen out of the equation.

 

Thanks for your feedback, on Christmas Eve no less! Hope you enjoy your holiday.

 

Phil

 

 

 

About using the stamp:  There is a very precise method for using stamps (posted by the people who make them).  It involves heating the stamp to a high temp, then pressing it into the cavities (previously sprayed with CCB) for a very brief time (just a few seconds).  It sounds as if you may be pressing the stamp for a longer period of time.  You are probably overtempering the CCB (all that movement does it).  I have had this happen (with the same results as yours) when I used a finger to mix several colors in a cavity to get a marbled effect or when I use a sponge to deposit color.  It's always difficult to determine what causes a particular defect in a bonbon--any mistake along the way can do it, and the result isn't always logical.

 

Your results are often attributable to humidity .  I live in Virginia, and making chocolates in the summer months is very difficult, even with my space air conditioned.  You mentioned recent rains in your area.  50% humidity inside will work, but it's not ideal.  This probably isn't the cause of your issues, but I'm just trying to cover all the possibilities.

 

I tried using silk to temper CCB for a while, but when working with small amounts, it probed to be too easy to overtemper the CCB, and so I returned to the raise/lower/raise temperature method.  If you use silk to temper larger amounts of CCB, I would use less than 1%.  In the online course I took with Andrey Dubovik, he always checked the temper of his CCB before using it.  On the advice of people on this forum who know far more than I do (especially Kerry Beal and pastrygirl), I don't worry so much about the temper when spraying CCB (with spray gun or airbrush) because the movement involved in spraying contributes to tempering.

[Phil Bard]

5 hours ago, Jim D. said:

 

About using the stamp:  There is a very precise method for using stamps (posted by the people who make them).  It involves heating the stamp to a high temp, then pressing it into the cavities (previously sprayed with CCB) for a very brief time (just a few seconds).  It sounds as if you may be pressing the stamp for a longer period of time.  You are probably overtempering the CCB (all that movement does it).  I have had this happen (with the same results as yours) when I used a finger to mix several colors in a cavity to get a marbled effect or when I use a sponge to deposit color.  It's always difficult to determine what causes a particular defect in a bonbon--any mistake along the way can do it, and the result isn't always logical.

 

Your results are often attributable to humidity .  I live in Virginia, and making chocolates in the summer months is very difficult, even with my space air conditioned.  You mentioned recent rains in your area.  50% humidity inside will work, but it's not ideal.  This probably isn't the cause of your issues, but I'm just trying to cover all the possibilities.

 

I tried using silk to temper CCB for a while, but when working with small amounts, it probed to be too easy to overtemper the CCB, and so I returned to the raise/lower/raise temperature method.  If you use silk to temper larger amounts of CCB, I would use less than 1%.  In the online course I took with Andrey Dubovik, he always checked the temper of his CCB before using it.  On the advice of people on this forum who know far more than I do (especially Kerry Beal and pastrygirl), I don't worry so much about the temper when spraying CCB (with spray gun or airbrush) because the movement involved in spraying contributes to tempering.

Jim,

 

Interesting that the over tempering can occur with movement, hopefully I can overcome this as I like the look of what I'm getting. With further research I ran across some mention of the fact that it might be a good idea to shell sooner rather than later, as it helps the CCB and the chocolate separate together. I'll try that along with the sylk and see if it helps. I may also mix new pigment in case the ones I'm using were overheated in the microwave (don't remember exactly but I know I got pretty warm on one of them previously).

 

Yes I'm familiar with Virginia summers, I went to high school in Annandale and college at W&M back in the 60's. Don't miss those months although out here we have to deal with the rain in winter. Just have to find good indoor projects or put the rain gear on and head out...

 

Phil