Chocolate Mousse and Tempered Chocolate

[SweetSide]

I was looking at making the "Paris" in The Art of the Cake this weekend. However in reading the instructions for the mousse, it says to temper the chocolate to be used for the mousse.

Short directions:

Temper 200g chocolate

Add 100g melted butter to tempered chocolate

Add 3cL egg whites

Whip 12cL egg whites and 50g sugar to very stiff peaks

Stir 1/3 meringue into chocolate mixture

Gently fold in remaining meringue

The mousse is then used to cover a dijonaise disk in a tarte ring for the cake. Then covered in chocolate sheets -- which are not tempered...just melted by rubbing on a warm baking sheet.

I have never had to temper chocolate for use in a mousse before. Anyone know why I would have to temper? Will it make it set firmer or something?

I'm clear that the tempering is for the mousse -- detailed instructions are quite explicit, including instructions for the tempering process.

[Wendy DeBord]

There's absolutely no reason to temper it. All it will do is waste your time.

[SweetSide]

There's absolutely no reason to temper it. All it will do is waste your time.

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Thanks, that's what I thought, but wanted to check... It seemed so odd to see it in the directions!

[chefette]

It may be that their intent was that you not have the chocolate too hot

Usually you are asked to melt then cool the chocolate

[SweetSide]

It may be that their intent was that you not have the chocolate too hot

Usually you are asked to melt then cool the chocolate

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The not too hot part I understand -- but the whole tempering process seems way overkill...

I'm wondering if it was just overlooked in the editing process...

[NickLam]

Recchuiti and Jean Pierre Wybauw's books mention the need to precrystallize the chocolate for some ganache recipes. They didn't really explain much into detail....or I wasn't reading attentively enough, but maybe it has something to do with how the beta crystals set up and help the emulsification of chocolate and cream.

I've actually noticed that ganaches do set up firmer and tend to melt less faster using the precrystalisation method than the pour hot cream into chocolate method. For the hot humid Thai weather, that makes it so much easier.

Not sure for mousses though, but maybe your recipe is hinting at the same concept?