Tempering Chocolate

Tempering Chocolate

I had attempted tempering chocolate once before without a candy thermometer, and what a disaster that was! It took me a long time to recover from that failure, because the clean up of the candy molds after the failed chocolate making was terrible. I got a kitchen thermometer recently and decided to give it another try.

I had 2 parts of Ghirardelli 60% Dark Chocolate Chip in one bowl and 1 part in another. Over a double boiler on low heat, melt the 2 parts chocolate and monitor the temperature. Do not let temperature to exceed 120F. Remove from boiler, wipe the bottom dry. Gradually add in the 1 part chocolate chips as seeds. Let the temperature drop to about 82F and reheat to 88, not to exceed 90F. By then chocolate should be stable and in a runny form.

Scoop a little bit of chocolate that’s in liquid form into the mold, swirl around to coat. Add any filling, like dried apricot, rum soaked cranberry, truffle, etc, and top with more liquid chocolate. Scrape the bottom flat. Leave it to cool and dry in refrigerator. Peel back the mold, and the chocolate should be shiny, and doesn’t melt on touch.