March 10, 2010
The Wonderful Chemistry of Chocolate Tempering
As a chocolatier, you know everything there is about preparing chocolate confectioneries. For one thing, you know, for sure, that you have to use a good quality chocolate in confectioneries than those used for chocolate fudge. It’s true that when you employ pure chocolate, this chocolate must be tempered correctly in order to attain that crisp snap, glossy sheen, creaminess, long life and the capability of maintaining its form at room temperature.
Chocolate that have not been through chocolate tempering tend to be dull, crumbly, speckled, possess a shorter life and will not last beyond two days. The white blotches that you’ll see over the chocolate surface were the result of blooming due to improper tempering.
Chocolate is tempered because of the cocoa butter. The fatty acids in cocoa butter have a polymorphic attribute during crystallization, possibly forming six different types of crystals. Tempering will create the right features of the finest quality chocolates such as the glossy patina, crispness, smoothness and creaminess. All the three types of chocolates, dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate have to undergo the tempering process.
Like any other substance, cocoa butter has molecules that have to bond to create a crystalline structure. The type of formation that the crystalline created will rely enormously on the temperature prevailing during tempering.
Every liquid has its own melting and freezing states, including chocolates. Freezing is the point where any liquid substance turns into its solid form. Water, for example, melts at a temperature of 32F; at a temperature lower beyond this will cause the crystals in water to bond quickly so that at 0F, water turns into ice.
When a substance move into its freezing point, the molecules will unite together to create crystals. The crystals will pack up all the space that was formerly occupied by the molecules in liquid. As the temperature drops down further, all space will be full of crystals until the entire liquid turns into a solid mass. The consistency of the solid will largely depend on the density of the crystals that has been formed.
The crystals in chocolate also form just like the crystals in water do. When it is in its solid stage the crystals that composes the chocolate are already bonded and it will take a great force to make changes in its form. A well tempered chocolate will stay tempered even at room temperatures. The chocolate would’ve completely melted at 98F. At this stage the crystals will separate from its bonds so tempering will be necessary again, to re-form the bonds. The temperature will dictate what kind of crystal bonds will be formed.
This is why chocolate temperature is important in chocolate tempering. Chocolatiers get themselves a Mercury-Gauge Chocolate Thermometer, to make sure that the temperature is accurate. This thermometer is designed for the purpose of chocolate tempering.
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