If you melt chocolate
and let it cool, it will set as an unattractive, dull brown mass streaked
with grey: its texture when eaten will be chalky and grainy. Tempered
chocolate, on the other hand, is shiny, even-coloured, crisp, smooth
tasting in short much, much better. The reason for the difference is complicated,
and in order to understand it completely one would need to study the behaviour
of the chocolate crystals at the molecular level. For our
purposes it is sufficient to say that in tempered chocolate
the chocolate crystals have formed in a completely uniform way.
How to temper chocolate.
The trick of tempering
is to control the temperature of the melted chocolate very
precisely: first cooling it and then reheating slightly. At each step of
the way the temperature of the chocolate must be precise
and uniform: even tiny variations can ruin the result.
The Chocolatier électronique
computer-controlled chocolate temperer takes all the risk
and difficulty out of the process. The Chocolatier électronique
contains both a super-sensitive thermometer and a mini-computer which do
the job for you. Not only will the machine produce perfectly tempered
chocolate every time, it will also keep the chocolate
in temper for hours on end, if necessary. |