by Kate | Aug 16, 2018 |
Do you like a challenge? Are you keen to learn a new skill? Boy, do I have a weekend baking project for you! This post is a step-by-step tutorial guide on how to temper chocolate. Whether you’re making chocolate decorations, a chocolate collar, a chocolate dome to fill with mousse or simply want to make your own chocolate pralines with fillings, you’re going to need to know how to temper chocolate. Well, if you’re using really good- quality couverture chocolate, that is!
Lucky for me, I’m married to a chocolate-maker – he just needs to look at chocolate and it tempers itself! So, when Food & Home Entertaining Magazine asked us to team up and show bakers how to temper chocolate for Easter, I thought it would be a good idea to share it here, too.
Why does chocolate need to be tempered?
You know that lovely shine a chocolate bar has when you open it? And when you take a bite, it gives a solid snap? That’s all down to tempering. When you buy a slab of chocolate, it is tempered. However, when it’s melted again, the cocoa butter crystallizes. This makes the surface of the chocolate dull and it loses its shine and snap. This you’ll know if you’ve probably tried to make chocolate decorations without tempering it. Tempering is basically a process of heating and cooling which arranges the cocoa butter crystals in a uniform way.
How to temper chocolate
There are a few ways of tempering chocolate by hand. I’m going to share my two favourites. Both require a little patience (as with all baking!) but getting that shine, is so worth it!
The tabling method
This is the fastest method for small amounts of chocolate (and the most fun!). You will need a marble slab or cold stone surface, though. You’ll also need the following special equipment: 2 x palette knives or bench scrapers (you can get the kind used in the images from Builder’s Warehouse!), digital thermometer. If you don’t have these things, skip down to the seeding method below.
STEP 1: Chop your couverture chocolate into small pieces.
STEP 2: Place the chocolate in a metal or glass bowl over a pot of gently steaming water. Melt it to the correct temperature as per the table below. Remember, each type of chocolate has a slightly different temperature so keep the table handy.
We’ve used dark chocolate here, so we want to melt it to 45 degrees Celsius.
Tempering Temperature Chart
| Chocolate |
Melted temperature |
Cooled temperature |
Reheated temperature |
| Dark Chocolate |
45C |
27C |
31.5C |
| Milk Chocolate |
45C |
27C |
30C |
| White chocolate |
40C |
26C |
28C |
Pour one-third of the melted chocolate onto the marble. Using an offset spatula, spread the chocolate thinly over the marble. We’re trying to cool it down now. Keep the remaining chocolate to one side.
Move and scrape the chocolate toward the centre of the marble. Then scrape the remaining chocolate off the spatula and spread it out again. Repeat this action, moving, spreading, and scraping the chocolate until it starts to thicken.
Check the temperature of the chocolate again. It should read 27 degrees (check the table for the ‘cooled temperature’ of the chocolate you’re using).
Scrape the chocolate off the marble and immediately add it the remaining two-thirds of melted chocolate. Stir until it is incorporated and completely melted.
The chocolate should now be tempered! If it’s very thick, you can reheat it VERY CAREFULLY to the reheated temperature in the table. Don’t heat it above this or you’ll have to start over!
To test if your chocolate is on temper, spread a small amount of chocolate onto a spatula or knife. You can also dip a piece of paper into the chocolate and allow it to set. If the chocolate is tempered correctly, it will start to set evenly within a minute and will be glossy. If your chocolate didn’t temper, simply remelt it and start again.
The seeding method
This is the cleanest way to temper chocolate and makes the least amount of mess!
- Chop all your chocolate finely (the larger the pieces, the longer it will take).
- Melt two-thirds of the chocolate to the correct temperature (see the tempering table).
- Once the chocolate has reached the correct temperature, add the reserved chopped chocolate. Give it a stir and allow it to melt, undisturbed for a few minutes.
- Check the temperature again – see the table for the cooled temperature.
- Once the chocolate has cooled to the correct temperature, heat it again gently until it reaches the working temperature.
- Your chocolate is now tempered and ready to be used!
Remember, once the chocolate is tempered, it’s important to never heat it over the reheating temperature. This will cause it to lose its temper. I like to use a hairdryer on the lowest heat setting to blast short bursts of warm air into the chocolate. This keeps it just warm enough and gives you full control.
Got any questions about tempering chocolate? Post them below!
In the meantime, here are some treats to make with your beautifully tempered chocolate:
WHITE CHOCOLATE SAILS TO DECORATE A CAKE
CHOCOLATE-COATED TIM TAMS
BLACK FOREST SWEETIE PIES
by Kate | May 15, 2018 |
A baking podcast with Food24 – we chatted about my journey from being a chef to a food stylist and the one baking gadget everyone needs in their kitchen!
I’ve got a long relationship with the foodies over at Food24 – they featured my recipes back when I was trying to put together a small little blog to hopefully inspire others to bake! In fact, I went to chef school with Food Editor, Tessa Purdon and everyone knows, once you’ve survived chef school together, you’re friends for life! I had such fun chatting about all things food – listen to the interview below:
by Kate | May 7, 2018 |
Ah, the perfect macarons have kept many a baker up at night – and all of you, too judging by the amount of WhatsApps, emails and DM’s I get with a ‘My macarons are cracked/flat/wonky/don’t have feet, what did I do wrong?’.
When I was in Mauritius a few weeks ago at the Festival Culinaire Bernard Loiseau at the Constance Belle Mare Plage Hotel I was so blown away by the incredible desserts and pastries I ate every day (tough life) – each petit four, buffet dessert and macaron was so expertly crafted by the pastry chefs at the hotel that I simply had to pick their brains on this elusive cookie. While I have my tips and tricks for the perfect macarons, I don’t 1. make macarons nearly as often as pastry chefs do (which is daily) and 2. make them in massive quantities. So who better to ask? What’s that? You thought I was lying on a beach all day? Nope, I was working – don’t say I never do anything for you! 😉
So what are the most important tips for nailing the perfect macarons? Interestingly enough, none of the 5 pastry chefs I grilled, had the same answer! We know that the perfect macarons need to have the characteristic ‘foot’ or ruffle, with a smooth glossy top, and a chewy texture. But getting those three things is easier said than done!
Rajeshwar Rugoobur from Constance Prince Maurice was the winner of the Nespresso Café Gourmand contest (his petit four plate is pictured above). Each pastry chef had to create a macaron inspired by Nespresso and his coffee macaron won the approval of Pierre Herme himself, who was one of the judges. Guys, Rajeshwar told me he only started making macarons 2 months ago! Shortly after winning he told me the secret to perfect macarons is to “Try, try and try again. Macarons take lots of practice. And if you don’t get them right, remember that sometimes even for a pastry chef they don’t turn out perfectly every time”. There’s hope for us after all!
Latika Ramtahul’s coffee creme brulee macaron caught my eye (pictured above). Being mentored by Constance Belle Mare Plage’s Executive Pastry Chef, Nicolas Durousseau I knew she’d have one or two tricks up her sleeve. “Perfect macarons are very difficult to make,” she told me the day before the competition. “The macaronage (macaron mixture) must be a good consistency. Test it by piping a little onto the baking tray, it must flow into a nice glossy round. Don’t overmix it otherwise it becomes too liquid.”
Grace Lucas, pastry chef at the beautiful Constance Ephelia Hotel in Seychelles swears by mixing in the same direction. “If you go right, you have to go right. Mix very slowly and always in the same direction.” Amazing!
Last year’s pastry competition winner Stéphane Labastide, who heads up the pastry kitchen at Constance Prince Maurice had equally ground-breaking tips for perfect macarons. “I sift the almond flour but I keep the larger pieces of almonds aside and then add them back to the macaron mixture just before piping. This gives the macarons a lovely texture.” Mind = blown. Stéphane swears by the Italian meringue method (boiling a sugar syrup and adding that to the meringue) but unlike a lot of recipes which use the meringue when warm, he waits for his meringue to cool. “I add 1/4 of the cold meringue into the almonds and mix that very slowly, then add the remaining 1/2, still mixing slowly. This prevents you from over-mixing. The last 1/4 of meringue, you can adjust the mixing speed fast/slow to achieve the perfect texture.” Clever, very clever!
Iven Chitray, who won the Constance Pastry Competition Pierre Hermé – Valrhona Trophy this year and works with Stéphane also gave me a few pearls of wisdom. I interviewed him just after he was announced the winner and (rightly so) he was simply beaming! “You have to serve macarons a day after you’ve made them,” he told me, “that’s the secret to getting the perfect texture”. Then he dropped some serious macaron philosophy that really got me thinking. “Flavour is also so important”, he said. “You can make beautiful perfect macarons but if you don’t have flavour, it’s nothing.” So true. I’d much rather eat less-than-perfect macarons that taste good than perfect macarons, that taste average.
If you want to taste the creations of these talented pastry chefs, you can simply book a stay at the Constance Belle Mare Plage Hotel during the Festival Culinaire Bernard Loiseau which happens next year from the 16th – 24 March 2019.
