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I saw this method of tempering chocolate on the food network, from Alton Brown - that man is pure genius – and wanted to try it out
Whenever I want to coat things/ dip things into chocolate (more than just a drizzle), then I’m always faced with the idea of having to temper the chocolate.
Normally, I wouldn’t really care if there was a little bloom on the chocolate, but when you’re a food blogger, you feel the pressures: you can’t have grainy, bloomed chocolate all over those cookie right!? Does anybody else feel judged for having un-tempered chocolate? nope? just me? Alrighty then.
Anywho, I tried this method out for an upcoming recipe, and thought I’d create a step by step guide with pictures (no .gifs this time – seeing a food processor blending through the tiny chute in the lid isn’t the most informative thing , as I discovered while making this post…). It worked quite well – it wasn’t as annoying as having to heat chocolate to different temperatures and cool it and keep checking the temperature and crying in the corner when you find all your effort was wasted; and it worked pretty well -
I had a butter knife with some of the tempered chocolate on it, sitting on the counter and my friend wanted to - what else – eat the chocolate off the knife. She picked it up and when she tried to lick the chocolate (which she thought was still melted because it was SO DANG SHINY), I just heard her say:
“Woah, mindfuck, it looks like it’s still melted, but it seriously isn’t”
Yup, that’s how I judge how well this worked. Such is my life.
Update: I’ve posted the recipe where I used this method of tempering the chocolate - it’s so shiny! :O
Creds to Alton Brown for this method – (I tweaked it a little)
You will be needing:
- at least 7 oz of chopped chocolate, or chocolate chips or chocolate chunks – semi-sweet / bittersweet works best ( I used half semisweet chocolate chips and half 70% chopped chocolate)
- a food processor
- a thermometer (you only need to use it once)
Put the chocolate into the food processor Blend until you get a mixture that resembles fine bread crumbs.
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Scrape down the sides and bottom of the food processor (I utilized a spatula for the sides, and the end of a spoon for the bottom)
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Scrape down the sides and bottom of the food processor.
Blend until the chocolate clumps up into a ball – break it up using your hands.
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Blend again until you get a thick, ganache like texture. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the food processor.
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(ooh so swirly)
Blend until you get smooth, fluid chocolatey goodness. Test the temperature – you want it to be at 90 degrees F – if it isn’t then:
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Warm a glass / ceramic heatproof bowl by pouring boiling water into it and leaving for 5 minutes. Pour out the water, dry the bowl well and pour the chocolate from the food processor into the warmed bowl. Stir the chocolate.
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Boom. Done.