Tuesday

CHOCOLATE TEMPERING - Daring Baker's Challenge - August / 2011

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Beautiful and shiny chocolate candies, huh? Playing with chocolate, for me, wasn't always like that. I had tried it so many times but only a few were successful and I couldn't find out exactly where I was going wrong.

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

 Now I've learned  the secrets of tempering chocolate correctly, and you just can't go wrong! A correctly tempered chocolate will be shiny, it will set beautifully and remain like that, unless you are located in a very warm place. I experienced temperatures around 26 C inside my home and they didn't change a bit. I was so excited with the results that I went a little further and made liquor filled chocolate, and by that I mean plain liquor, no syrup added, no sugar crystals added, no fondant added, just a little bite sized boozy candy for pure indulgence. Something that I have always wanted to accomplish.



I started working with the chocolate for this challenge in a very shy way. I got some white chocolate that I had in the pantry and tested the technique of tempering chocolate following the detailed step by step that Mandy and Lisa provided. I bought a candy mold and made plain white chocolate candies. No flavors added, no fillings, just plain white chocolate that I had on hand. Guess I wasn't very optimistic after all. However, as you can see, they turned out nice and shiny, and remained that way! I could hardly believe it! I got back to it half an hour later and they were intact!



I got excited with the result, so started to put my projects into action.


Other delicious temptations:


Dark chocolate hiding whole nuts such as cashew nuts and pecans.


100% banana filling (no sugar added) for this dipped chocolate candy, garnished with cinnamon sprinkles.




Cinnamon Chips and sprinkles made with tempered white chocolate. 
Just the other day I read about the idea of homemade cinnamon/white chocolate chips at Barbara Bakes (thanks Barbara!) and made these little beauties, extending the idea to cinnamon sprinkles. More on these in the next few weeks!



Many thanks to Mandy and Lisa for this FANTASTIC  challenge! You both hosted this challenge in an unbelievable way, not only with extremely detailed instructions but also with all the support in the forums during the month. I had a blast!

If you want to see the amazing chocolate creations of my fellow Daring Bakers, please visit THE DARING KITCHEN where you will also find the original guidelines for this challenge.

For more details on tempering chocolate, please click the RECIPE button below. My experiments will get dedicated  posts in the next few weeks :o)


TEMPERING CHOCOLATE

Following the detailed instructions from the challenge, this is how I did it:

I chopped some dark chocolate, using a large knife.


I separated about 1/3 of the chocolate.


In a sauce pan I boiled about 1 inch of water. I turned off the heat and placed a bowl with the chopped chocolate.  Choose a bowl that fits snugly to avoid water vapor from accidentally entering your chocolate. Even a little bit of water can spoil your final result. Also, the bowl should not touch the water.


With a rubber spatula, stir the chocolate until it melts.


Remove from heat as soon as it reaches 45°C - 50°C
Add the remaining 1/3 of the chopped chocolate.


Keep stirring until the chocolate melts and the temperature goes down to 27°C.
Put the bowl back on the sauce pan with hot water for little bits of time (like 30 seconds each time) until the chocolate reaches 32°C.

At this stage the chocolate is tempered and ready to use.

These temperatures will vary slightly when using milk or white chocolate as follows:

TEMPERING RANGES





41 comments:

  1. Great job as always Renata..
    I am really impressed with your determination and stunning creations
    Hats off to you my talented friend

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  2. Absolutely stunning. Just....Amazing! WOW!

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  3. Renata you can start making home made chocolate business that beautiful and addictive.

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  4. Renata, your chocolates are spectacular! When I can get some good chocolate I hope mine turn out like yours! And the photos are amazing!

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  5. Beautiful. Both your candies and your enthusiasm! I love the way you share your fun in the kitchen with us,and I love getting to cook and bake "with" you! I think I will have to try my hand at tempering again to get that gorgeous shine you have! Amazing job!

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  6. Gorgeous as always - A+ pass for chocolate tempering - back to practising for me to get the shine - loved your fillings :)

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  7. Wow! What great choices. Your candies are beautiful!

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  8. You did an amazing job, they all look so delicious. Well done!!

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  9. Wow - what a beautiful job you did - you truly mastered the art of chocolate tempering, and made some stunning chocolates as a result. I am amazed and impressed.

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  10. Absolutely gorgeous post and beautiful chocolates with beautiful finish .. I always love ur creations :)

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  11. WOW, all your creations look WONDERFUL, I want to try the banana filling, I love the banana-chocolate duo, Beautiful job!!!!!

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  12. I love the simple chocolates (perhaps they weren't simple to make!) that you made by covering a whole nut with dark chocolate. I've seen chocolate dipped nuts before, but making them in a mold like that made them feel really special!

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  13. your chocolates are so beautiful and shiny! perfection. loved reading your posts in the forum this month! you were very inspiring :)

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  14. Your chocolates are beautiful! I can just imagine popping one of those with the liquor filling. Great pictures!

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  15. Your chocolates look beautiful, Renata! I'm so glad they turned out and you had success with this side of the candy making experience. Nice job on the challenge!

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  16. Renata..I'm so happy you mastered tempering through this challenge! Your tempered chocolates are a sight to behold, so perfectly shiny and beautiful! Love every single chocolate you made..they look so professional. Also, love that chart you put up, wish I had thought of that for my post! :) Thank you so much for taking part in our challenge!!

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  17. Wow, your chocolates look gorgeous, I'm so jealous! Love all the fillings you used especially the banana, yummy...Excellent job!

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  18. Your chocolates are perfectly shiny and beautiful! Well done Renata, they look fantastic.
    I'm so glad that this challenge gave you what you needed to overcome the dreaded chocolate fear that most people have (that I had!). Once you know how it's amazing how easy it is.
    So glad you had fun making your chocolates and I think you'd better send me some of those liqueur filled ones :D

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  19. Wondeful post, and delicious looking chocolates! I'm looking forward to reading about how to make the cinnamon-white chocolate chips :)

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  20. So when are you opening your chocolate shop? Your tempered chocolate is the shiniest one I have seen yet in this DB challenge. Really stunning.

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  21. It does look like you mastered the tempering. I wimped out and did rolled truffles so no tempering for me. Looks like you had lots of fun trying a lot of different fillings. Beautiful!

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  22. What a delectable elegant temptress chocolate you've got here.

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  23. wow, those chocs look really professionally done..first time here through the DB challenge, i'm glad to find your blog:-)

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  24. These chocolates are stunning! I wish I could grab one off the screen. Excellent work!

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  25. Aren't they beautiful? I am especially taken with your banana chocolates with the cinnamon sprinkles. If you start a business, i would like to buy a bag of those please.
    Lou.

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  26. Thumbs up, Renata! A great tempering success story! These chocolates are just shiny and gorgeous!

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  27. How beautiful, your chocolate tempered perfectly!

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  28. Your chocolates are so beautiful and shiny! What a success. Bravo!

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  29. That photo with the booze just oozing out of the chocolate should be on a magazine cover! So beautiful Renata. Best, sandie

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  30. ...WOW! All your chocolates look so professional! Amazing!

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  31. You did such an amazing job on the challenge- look at the shine on the chocolates! Bravo! And lovely flavors!

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  32. Beautiful, beautiful job Renata! Such shiny creations. I'm curious about the banana filling, do you cook it down like a thick jam? Sounds like a great alternative to banana bread when dealing with an oversupply of bananas.

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  33. Very well done! Your chocolates look marvelous.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  34. Great job, Renata! My tempering skills still need improving but I loved this challenge too!
    ceecee
    www.withinthekitchen.blogspot.com

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  35. thank you Renata for your visit and your nice comment!Your chocolates are perfectly shiny and beautiful! love it!

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  36. Your chocolates are so beautiful and shiny. What a great job! I wish my tempering would have been so successful. I guess I really have to invest in a better thermometer.

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  37. Renata, beautiful job!! Couldn't make it this month since I had to travel quite a lot, but I'm enjoying reading you all :-)

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  38. Dear Renata, you're such a professional! Your chocolates have the perfect shine and I bet there's the snap, too. You made so many different variations, I can't decide which I love the most because they all are stunning!

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  39. Renata, I love you're chocolates. And also the great pictures. Proffesional indeed.

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