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Questions tagged [tempering]

57 questions
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Why heat milk and use it to temper eggs instead of mixing cold milk and eggs and slowly cooking the whole thing?

My understanding of tempering (similar to the answer here) is that you're attempting to add egg to a hot mixture slowly enough so that you don't curdle the egg, so that it incorporates in the mixture instead of making, say, scrambled eggs inside of…
mkdir
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What is the purpose of tempering chocolate?

What is the purpose of tempering chocolate? If I'm dipping something in chocolate, can I get by with just melting the chocolate?
KatieK
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Is it possible to temper chocolate at home?

I've read that tempering chocolate is the only way to get glossy, 'snappable' results. I've also read that it can be a complicated process involving precise temperatures. Is it possible to temper chocolate at home without lots of special equipment?
ElendilTheTall
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How long can chocolate be held at temper?

I just got a chocolate melter and have held some tempered pure chocolate (Lindt Excellence 90%) for a day at 33C. I intend to make up 3 or 4 truffles, a few times a week. What’s occurred to me is I can just keep this chocolate at temper…
Dougie
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3 answers

Chemically, what happens when you temper an egg?

Chemically speaking, what happens when you temper an egg? Why doesn't it simply cause the eggs to solidify or scramble?
templatetypedef
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Why do patterns appear on tempered chocolate?

Sometimes, during a single session, spots and lines may appear on tempered chocolate. This seems to happen with the first third of production. Chocolates produced later in the batch do not exhibit any pattern: Why is that? How can this be…
Paul Guyot
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Is there a way to re-crystallize or temper goat butter?

I received a small tub of goat butter for Christmas, and unfortunately I left it too close to my stove last night, and the whole thing melted. (just the butter, nor the plastic obviously.) I read that melted butter doesn't solidify correctly because…
kitukwfyer
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What did I do to make the chocolate bloom like this?

I've been trying to create some moulded pralines and have been tempering chocolate using the microwave method. The microwave method was to heat the chocolate in the microwave in small bursts until there are about 30% callets left. Once there are 30%…
Mark Agbuya
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Are there any situations where untempered chocolate is better than tempered?

Every chocolate-based recipe I've seen either requires tempered chocolate or can use either tempered or untempered chocolate. Are there any recipes or techniques that specifically require untempered chocolate? EDIT: I think the question might be a…
Hovercouch
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Can you temper store-bought chocolate?

Is it possible and necessary to temper store-bought quality chocolate like Lindt? Say, for example, you want to use it to make chocolate moulds - would it be possible to melt and temper the chocolate and have the same result as that of couverture…
ALR
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Can tempered chocolate be seeded with a different chocolate?

I have unsweetened chocolate, which is stored in seized form (soft, grainy). I use it for chocolate sauces. Is it possible to temper this chocolate by: Sweetening it with white or brown sugar? Then seeding it with Some Callebaut 811 dark chocolate…
wearashirt
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Why would dipping a cold item in chocolate "help" with tempering?

I took a chocolate dipping class last week. The instructors gave us globs of chocolate to temper on a marble surface, and lots of ingredients to coat in the chocolate. Some ingredients (hard pretzels, graham crackers, marshmallows) were room…
KatieK
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Bizarre: Chocolate tempering is good on the outside

I poured some undertempered chocolate into molds (as practice). Out of the molds, the exterior of the shells were glossy, clear, and hard as is well-tempered chocolate. The interior streaked terribly. I suppose the polycarbonate/chocolate surface…
ash
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Why does chocolate tempering requires reaching temperatures where "bad" crystals can be formed

When tempering chocolates, we want that the chocolate will only contain beta crystals, for this, we melt the chocolate to a point where all crystals break, then cool it down to below the melting point of beta crystals, and then warm it back up to…
SIMEL
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Tempered chocolate thickens

I have now twice experienced that when I'm tempering dark chocolate is becomes incredibly thick - almost solid- in the cooling phase When it happens I will accidentally heat it up to much as to get it into a texture where I can work with it. (I make…
Anna
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