How to Melt and Temper Chocolate for a Cake
Hello! I'm Jacque Torres from Jacque Torres chocolates for Howdini. And, today I'm going to explain to you how to melt and how to temper chocolates. First, melting, different ways of melting chocolates, you can break the chocolates in small pieces. Put it on a double boiler. When you do that, be careful that the water doesn’t boil too fast because then you will burn all your chocolate so just simmering water, boil on top and the chocolates. And then, let the chocolate melt slowly and stir it time to time. Stop when the temperature reached about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Another way to do it is to cut the chocolate in small pieces. Put it on a glass bowl. Put it on the microwave 15 seconds at a time on high. By doing that, the chocolate will stop melting. Stir it melting it a little bit stirring because if you don’t that the chocolate become very hot in the middle and starts smoking. And when the chocolate’s smoked, it’s no good anymore so be very careful with the microwave.
Also, when the glass bowl comes out of the microwave, the chocolate is melted, transfer that in a cold bowl. That will help to temper your chocolates. So, now, why tempering and what is tempering? So, why? It’s because if you don’t temper your chocolates, the chocolates will not shrink out of the mold. Chocolates, when it’s right tempered, you just shrink and then you can unmold it.
Now, as you can see a piece of chocolate here, it’s very shiny. Shiny means the chocolate was at the right temperature. Also, you get a nice snap. The snap means all those molecular are together. The problem when you melt chocolates is that the molecular fat breaks down and you need to create the crystallization stop crystallization in order to temper the chocolate.
So, how to do that is when the chocolate is melted, put a fan on it. Put it in a cool place. And then, on the side the chocolate is going to start to crystallize so what you do, you take those crystal and then you mix them with the core of the chocolates. And then with a thermometer, you look at the temperature of the chocolates. When the chocolate reached 88 to 90 degrees, it’s ready to be used. Anything that you do from lollipops to -- to hollow figure to centerpiece, you need to temper your chocolates and this is how.
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