— Dick Li

Now, there are a couple different ways, not many, to temper chocolate, which just means when you buy a bar of chocolate or these chocolates that I'm showing you, they are in temper. They're shiny. They have a nice snap to them, but as soon as they're melted, it goes out of temper, and this is a very big topic. I get this question a lot. It isn't the easiest thing to do always, but we have a video to show you on my preferred method, which is called seed tempering, and what we teach in the course. To seed temper chocolate, start with at least 10 ounces of dark chocolate. Roughly chop 25% of the chocolate into medium-sized chunks. Finely chop the remaining 75% of chocolate. Transfer the finely chopped chocolate to a heat-proof bowl and set over a pot of barely simmering water. Then turn off the heat. Using a silicone spatula, stir the chocolate once or twice until it is melted. The chocolate should be between 100 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. At this point, add the reserved pieces of unmelted chocolate, also known as the seeds. This will lower the temperature of the chocolate. Whisk the seeds rather vigorously until they are melted. Rapid stirring helps stabilize the crystals needed to temper the chocolate. If the temperature of the chocolate falls below 88 degrees Fahrenheit, gently heat the pot of water to bring the chocolate back up to temperature. The ideal temperature for tempered or dipping dark chocolate is between 88 and 92 degrees Fahrenheit. Test to see if the chocolate is tempered by dipping a knife into it. If it hardens in a few minutes at room temperature and remains shiny, it is at the correct working temperature. If it does not, repeat the tempering process by adding more seed chocolate. Here we have added a bigger piece, and then once we reach the correct temperature, we simply remove the remaining unmelted chocolate. Hi. Well, I hope that was helpful. So that is the seed tempering method of chocolate, and it is used by pastry chefs. Another way to temper chocolate is to table it, and you use... And it's difficult, but I will tell you that some people today are using a product called cocoa butter silk, and you can purchase it. What it is, it is cocoa butter that has been tempered, and there are formulas for how much of this cocoa butter silk to use per chocolate. I just purchased some. I haven't used it yet. We'll see. I believe that the air temperature makes a difference. If you're very serious about tempering and you're going to be doing a lot of tempering, the most reliable way to do it is with a tempering machine.