How To Temper Chocolate

I lot of people are intimidated by the thought of tempering chocolate. The fact of the matter is, if you like to work with (and eat) chocolate you need to have this skill. Here are some benefits to working with tempered chocolate:

 Your chocolate will not bloom. No ugly white streaks in your chocolate.

Tempered chocolate cools very fast.

Your chocolate will have a shiny glossy look.

Tempered chocolate has a higher melting point. You can touch it without it melting on you.

 The chocolate will be shiny and have a nice crisp snap with broken.

Tempering chocolate really isn't as hard as you think. Messy? Yes, but not too hard. I was literally covered in chocolate while tempering chocolate for the coconut macaroons found here.You will need a chocolate or digital thermometer.

Instructions:

Roughly chop the chocolate you need into smaller pieces. NEVER use chocolate chips. Chocolate chips have additives to raise the melting point, you just can't do it.

Melt about 2/3 of the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Heat the chocolate up to 115 degrees.

Remove the chocolate from the heat and stir until the chocolate drops to about 97 degrees.

Add the remaining chocolate and stir, stir, stir. If your arm feels like it's gonna fall off, you're doing it right.  Keep stirring until the chocolate drops to 90 degrees (it's gonna take awhile).

Now you want to test and see if your chocolate is tempered. Take a spoon and dip it into the chocolate. Place the spoon into the refrigerator for 1-2 minutes. If the chocolate is completely set, slightly shiny and you can touch it without any chocolate getting on your finger then you just tempered your first batch of chocolate. Not so bad right?

You can reheat the chocolate to keep it around 87-90 degrees to make it easier while you're working with it.