What is the difference between melting and tempering chocolate?
How thick/thin should chocolate be for dipping?
How do you keep the nice smooth top if using toothpicks? Ie, how do you get the toothpick out without messing it up?
Where can I buy decent white chocolate that won't break the bank?
Thank you!
Zmama
I think tempering and melting are the same thing, I think. As far as getting the toothpick out can you just wait until the chocolate has completely hardened? Well after a quick google search I think I'm wrong. Here is a link:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article.php?id=155&title=Tempering+Chocolate
I'm going to go read up now.
Katleg
Happy One Year Anniversary here! I don't know why I noticed that but I did so I figured I'd better say something.
i believe..and someone correct me if i'm wrong bc i don't want to give you the wrong information...but in school we heat dark chocolate (with 50% cocoa content or higher) over a double boiler. Sometimes we add butter? but im not sure about how much...and i don't think you have to..
anyway, when the chocolate reaches 115-120 degrees we take it off the double boiler and let it cool down to 90 degrees..then it is okay to use..
the chocolate will be thinner when it is the hottest, and with begin to thicken slightly when it is cooler,...you shouldn't stir the chocolate too much because that incorporates air and can make the chocolate thick and unusable..
another way to do it is to melt a two thirds of your chocolate in the microwave or over barely simmering water in a double boiler and when it reaches 118 (for dark chocolate) or 115 (for milk or white) remove it from the double boiler and add the remaining one third of the chocolate to the melted chocolate and stir it until there are no more lumps (it is all incorporated) then when the chocolate is below 90 (for dark) and 87 (for milk or white) it is time to use it.
in my book it says:
in order to create chocolate candies with high gloss and a crisp sharp snap when eaten, chocolate must be tempered. tempering is a controlled process of melting, cooling, and reheating withing set temperature ranges. high cocoa butter chocolate consists of fat molecules and solid crystals that, when heated above certain temperatures, unchain and become unstable. tempering chocolate re chains these molecules and stabilizes the cocoa butter crystals, making the chocolate homogeneous again. When chocolate is not tempered, it will be crumbly and streaked with gray and will not snap, it takes a long time to set, and is sticky.
Okay, so if it is cooled to 90 degrees, but is thinner hotter, how do I get a thin coating that is stable? I don't want a super thick coat.
when it is cool, it isnt really that thick...you will be able to dip things into it and have them coat it nicely, we do this will things like biscotti...and it leaves a perfect coat on there..
Okay, so if it is cooled to 90 degrees, but is thinner hotter, how do I get a thin coating that is stable? I don't want a super thick coat.
I believe if you want it thinner you'd have to thin out the chocolate with butter/crisco, return to the tempering temperature, then coat. I would dip one piece and see how thick the coating is and adjust from there.
http://www.hersheys.com/products/details/bakingpieces.asp
this might be pretty good for the price, but i have never used it!
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