How to Temper a Chocolate Mixture: Beginners Guide

If you’re into homemade chocolate, then no doubt you’ve heard of tempering. In this beginner-level guide, Chef Prish explains how to temper a chocolate mixture easily, for molding and other uses.

When it comes to making chocolate at home, tempering is one of the main challenges to overcome, to create a chocolate with a fine snap and glossy finish. Tempering is the line between amateur chocolate and professional chocolate, and without mastering tempering your chocolates will never grow into masterpieces.

With that said, tempering is not as difficult to learn as many chefs and pâtissiers may make it appear. Essentially, tempering is just a process of repeatedly heating and cooling the chocolate mixture, which stabilizes the chocolate. Tempering takes practice, and yes, you will inevitably fail the first couple of tries. But you can simply re-melt it and try again; the chocolate does not go to waste!

In this beginner’s guide, Chef Prish explains how to temper a chocolate mixture correctly, assuming that this is your first time doing it. First she’ll briefly explain the science, then show you how it’s done. Let’s hand over to Chef Prish.

What is Tempering of Chocolate?

To understand how to temper a chocolate mixture, first you need to realize that chocolate has a crystalline structure.

Chocolate is made up of 6 crystal structures (form 1-6) each with its own properties and melting points. Other foods with crystalline structures are butter, margarine, ice, and sugar but chocolate is the only unique one that stays solid at room temperature and melts at 86.72 – 93.92°F (30.4 – 34.4°C).

Chocolate Tempering is the process of warming, cooling, and agitating chocolate to melt away unstable crystal formations (form 1-4 and form 6) in the fats, and reorganize the remaining crystals (form 5) into a stable pattern, called a “crystalline structure.”

Tempered Chocolate vs Untempered Chocolate

Tempering is essential to creating a finished product with incredible flavor, texture, gloss, and clean snap. Well-tempered chocolate will detach from its molds effortlessly. Untempered chocolate, on the other hand, has white blooming on the surface, is dull, greasy/waxy, or cakey/crumbly, and will stick to its mold.

For a deeper explanation of how tempering works and why it’s important, check out chocolatier Simon Knott’s article What is Tempering Chocolate? Next, we’ll look at how to temper a chocolate mixture.

How to Temper a Chocolate Mixture

Tempering Chocolate How to Prepare: Mise en Place

Mise en place is a French culinary term that translates to “everything in its place.” Essentially, it is the practice of preparing and organizing your kitchen, all ingredients and tools before you start to cook.

Tempering chocolate requires precision timing, make sure that you are completely set up for the whole process so as not to interrupt it at any point. Interruptions mean temperature fluctuations, and if this happens, you have to scrap the whole process and start all over again. Set up your space to avoid that.

Your preparation tasks include:

1. Set the room’s ambient temperature to 68°F (20°C)
2. The room’s humidity should be below 50%
3. Make sure you have a digital thermometer, scraper, and clean, glass bowls

Without saying, make sure your kitchen is beautifully clean before you start, and clear away any unnecessary dishes to give yourself ample room to work.

Choose Your Chocolate Tempering Method

When deciding how to temper a chocolate mixture, there are a few different methods you can choose from. They include:

1. Tabling
2. Seeding
3. Sous vide method
4. Tempering machine

You also want to use the best couverture chocolate you can afford, for the best results.

Next, we will discuss each tempering method and its specific requirements. Read through each one, then select one that best suits your situation.

TABLING: How to Temper a Chocolate Mixture by Tabling

We will begin with the classic – how to temper a chocolate mixture using the Tabling method. Learning how to temper a chocolate mixture by Tabling is the most challenging method to master, but does not require extra equipment (tempering or sous vide machine) or ingredients (eg callets).

Tabling equipment:

• Tabling surface: a granite, marble, or stainless steel tabletop
• 10” (25cm) palette knife
• large scraper
• large stirrer

Tip: Read through all the instructions and do a “dress rehearsal” before working with the real chocolate. Your body has to move in rhythm with the chocolate and moving it from table to bowl without letting it harden takes fluid body motion and positioning. Practice makes perfect. This tabling protocol is based on Chef Haymon, of the Culinary Institute of America’s instructions.

Step 1: 1st Tabling

IMPORTANT TIPS BEFORE YOU START:

• Make sure the table and equipment are sanitized and 100% dry.
• Scrape excess chocolate off the scraper and palate knife each and every time you draw the chocolate in, so that it doesn’t coagulate into hardened lumps on your utensils.
• Constant motion is very important to prevent hardening and to organize crystal formations.

To begin, carefully melt your desired quantity of chocolate in a large bowl.

THE MOVEMENT:

Pour half of the melted chocolate (114-122°F / 46-50°C) onto the table. Put the other half aside in a warm place, to maintain its melted state.

Spread the chocolate around on the table surface, from left to right a few times with the palate knife. This motion will start forming crystals and cool it down. The movement should look like moving a large paintbrush from side to side in long, elegant strokes.

Using your scraper, draw the spread-out chocolate back into a small circle – this prevents it from hardening.

After you gather the chocolate into a circle, spread it out once more, moving your knife left to right a few times.

Draw it back into a circle again.

Spread it out once again, moving constantly from left to right. The chocolate will start to thicken now, as crystals continue forming.

Draw it back into a circle. Measure the temperature with your thermometer. The ideal temperature at this point should be 80.6°F (27°C).

THE MIXING:

Scrape the mixture into the bowl of remaining melted chocolate. Position your body and hand such that you can do it quickly and neatly, since the chocolate is quite cooled down and could harden if you are too slow.

Once the chocolate is in the bowl, stir it well. Make sure you hold the stirrer vertically and not at an angle. Stirring at an angle creates air bubbles.

The melted chocolate in the bowl increases the chocolate to the tempered temperature of 89.6°F (30-32°C).

Feel the outside of the bowl after stirring. The chocolate should feel cool to the touch. If it isn’t, do a 2nd tabling.

Step 2: 2nd Tabling

Follow the all steps above, but this time, pour only one quarter of the melted chocolate onto the table and work much faster. The chocolate is very cooled down and will harden quickly.

Scrape the chocolate back into the bowl and stir once again, scraping down the sides of the bowl. It will be tempered at 89.6°F (30-32°C).

Now, do a temper test.

Step 3: Temper Test

How to Temper Test:

• Sink the palate knife into the bowl of chocolate, coating it well.
• Sit the knife on the table and wait for it to harden.
• If it has a beautiful gloss, it is tempered.
• If it has streaks and no shine, it isn’t tempered. If this is the case, move on to 3rd tabling.

Step 4: 3rd Tabling

Pour an even smaller amount of chocolate onto the table and do the spread-scrape sequence twice, as fast as possible.

Scrape it quickly back into the bowl. Stir it.

Step 5: Temper Test Again

Do a second temper test without removing the chocolate from the first test, so you have a visual comparison.

Dip the knife in only one third of the way so you can compare both.

The properly-tempered chocolate should have a beautiful gloss in comparison to the dull, streaky untempered chocolate.

SEEDING: How to Temper a Chocolate Mixture by Seeding

The seeding method is pretty easy since you do not need any special equipment or technique.

Seeding equipment:

• melted chocolate (114-122°F)(46-50°C) in a large, microwavable bowl
• spatula
• digital thermometer
• dark, milk or white chocolate callets (small disks of tempered chocolate)
• microwave

The following steps are based on Chef Sarah Tibbetts‘s seeding method at Valrhona Chocolate. You will need 20% callets of the total volume of chocolate you are working with. 100g chocolate = 20g callets.

Seeding method:

Before You Start: Remember that constant motion is critical throughout the stirring steps.

1. Pour the melted chocolate into a large, microwave-proof bowl.
2. Add a few callets into it and mix well, holding the stirrer on the vertical. This reduces the temperature and melts the callets in.
3. Once the first few callets are melted, add a few more and continue stirring.
4. As the chocolate begins to cool, you will add fewer and fewer callets at each round.
5. Continue this until all the callets are absorbed. Never stop stirring.
6. Continue stirring and measure the temperature, until you the mixture reaches 82-84°F (28-29°C)
7. Pop the melted chocolate into the microwave, to bring it up to 88-90°F (31-32°C). It should only take 15 seconds.
8. At this temperature, tempering is complete. Do a temper test to confirm.

Do the same tempering test as described in the Tabling method above.

If it isn’t tempered, stir more, and do another test.

MACHINE: How to Make Tempered Chocolate by Machine

Tempering Machine Method

A tempering machine takes all the guesswork out of tempering. It heats and chills chocolate to the perfect temperatures to reach beta V crystals.

To learn more about tempering machines, read our article on how to choose a tempering machine by chocolatier Simon Knott first.

Sous Vide Method

The sous vide method is quite new but produces beautifully tempered chocolate. A sous vide machine is a water circulator with a thermostat and some of them come with a built-in bath. The advantage of sous vide is that it keeps food at the temperature you choose without any fluctuations at all.

To learn more about tempering chocolate with a sous vide machine, see our article on how to temper chocolate sous vide.

Chocolate Tempering Temperature Chart

No matter what method you use for tempering chocolate, here is a temperature guide:

Melting Stage

Cool Down Stage

Reheat Stage

Final Words on How to Temper Chocolate

We hope you enjoyed this chocolatier technique piece by Chef Prish.

By the end of this article you should now have a good idea of how to temper a chocolate mixture, using several tempering methods. While it can be described in words, in addition to this article, you’d be well-advised to look for a video from an experienced chocolatier to see the process.

If you really want to learn how to temper chocolate like a pro, better yet, find a local chocolate maker you can visit, to observe the process and movements in person. Small chocolate factories often run tours, where visitors can see the process behind glass, and you can also ask questions of the staff.

The techniques shown here can be used on your own homemade bean to bar chocolate, or store-bought chocolate if you prefer to keep things easy. In the next article of this series, Chef Prish discusses how to mold chocolate and how to make dipped chocolate items such as marshmallows, to finish off your beautiful chocolate creations.

Happy Chocolatiering!