Why does chocolate need to tempered?
The melting point of chocolate is very low, it will melt at 40-50°C. Therefore, the method of heating with insulated water is usually used to melt the chocolate. If it is heated by direct fire, it is likely to burn, so you need to be very careful. The thermal conductivity of chocolate is very poor, and it needs to be cut into relatively uniform pieces to accelerate the melting. In addition to temperature, the biggest enemy of chocolate is water. Mix a small amount of water into the melted chocolate, and the water will be locked by the chocolate and solidified into clumps to produce small lumps.
The cocoa butter in chocolate is composed of a variety of fatty acids. It starts to soften at 28°C and melts into liquid at 33°C. It is very narrow between its freezing point and melting point. Do we hold the chocolate in our hands or is it solid and melts in the mouth for a while? It is because of human body temperature that cocoa butter changes from solid to liquid. The properties of cocoa butter are the most important properties of chocolate.
The best temperature for chocolate storage is 15-18°C. After the chocolate is stored for a period of time, the surface will turn white and look like a layer of frost. This is fat bloom is the crystallization of cocoa butter, commonly known as oil spots. This is because unstable cocoa crystals melt and move to the surface, where they recrystallize. The chocolate needs to be tempered. The surface is to make the chocolate more beautiful and taste better at room temperature, to avoid oil spots, and to facilitate reshaping.
Of course, what we need is the real principle, what exactly has changed in the tempering of chocolate. The next part of the content, I hope you can compare the pictures to deepen your understanding.
Theoretically speaking, the so-called temperature adjustment means that all the chocolate crystals are transformed into stable crystals through the process of heating, cooling, and heating. It makes the surface of the chocolate smooth, convenient for infusion molds, and also facilitates quick and clean demolding, avoids the formation of white oil spots in the chocolate, better storage, and has a fine and smooth texture.
The main steps of temperature regulation
Melt and stir the chocolate into a liquid state, then stir to cool the chocolate, and finally stir to warm the chocolate. The three stages have specific temperature requirements, which are called: chocolate tempering curve. If the temperature is not in place, it needs to be remade.
Chocolate’s tempering curve
For every 5% increase in cocoa butter content in chocolate, the melting point of chocolate will decrease by 1°C. Therefore, different chocolate products have different temperature adjustment curves. When we operate, we need to read the specific product instructions.
The main method of temperature adjustment
The temperature of small batch chocolate products is mainly adjusted by the desktop cooling method, which is more suitable for small dessert shops and studios. If the production volume is large, it is generally operated directly with a tempering machine. There is also another method of temperature adjustment is the seeding method, which is to mix the melted chocolate with the solid chocolate, dissolve all, and at the same time reduce the temperature, and then increase the temperature.
The meaning of churn
Should I just melt the chocolate and let it cool by itself? Doesn’t it need to be so troublesome for desktop cooling?
The answer is of course no. First of all, the temperature adjustment process of chocolate always requires stirring, which can promote the transformation of unstable crystals into stable crystals and produce a chain reaction; and the interlocking of such stable crystals is a process that requires sufficient time, so cooling is also Can’t be too fast.
