Making homemade treats at home is a wonderful family affair. Imagine all of the holiday dipping you could do at Christmas time! You can dip your treats in melted chocolate or candy melts and that's very easy to do. Sometimes, those melted chocolate don't set up well if you want to save your treats for the next day. It's best to dip your treats in tempered chocolate if you are looking for your chocolate to look beautiful later in the day or even the next day.
We use a ton of tempered chocolate at Madyson's Marshmallows. Let us show you how to do the same thing at home!
Artisan chocolate can be a little temperamental to work with. If you know that going into this process, you will hopefully have more patience.
Here is how to temper chocolate...
1) First, you need some quality chocolate. I like using Guittard brand chocolate coins as they melt easy and temper well.
2) Melt 2/3 of your chocolate over a double boiler or slowly in the microwave at only 20 seconds at a time. Be sure to set some chocolate aside as you will need to add more solid coins later. Melt your chocolate to 108 degrees. Ideally, an infrared thermometer works best for measuring this temperature. A candy thermometer will also work. Tempering chocolate is not about how long you spend stirring but instead it's about adding the right about of tempered chocolate back into your melted chocolate and getting the correct temperatures.
3) When your chocolate has reached 108 degrees, add the rest of your chocolate coins. Your goal here is to get the temperature of the chocolate down to about 87 degrees. You will add coins and stir vigorously to bring the temperature down.
4) When your chocolate has reached the ideal temperature of about 87 degrees, use parchment paper to take a swipe of your newly tempered chocolate. Your chocolate should harden on the parchment paper and have a nice glossy sheen within minutes. If your chocolate does not harden quickly, it is most likely not in temper and you will need to start the process over. Like I said, chocolate can be temperamental to work with. You'll get the hang of it!