Temper Troubles
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
From my experience, I would first invest in the infrared laser gun. It takes the guess work out of it. I have had a Hilliard 80# for 30 years. The night before I need it, I fill up the bowl with chocolate, set the temp for 115, cover and let it melt. When I go in the morning, remove lid, set temp to desired temp--86-90 depending on your chocolate. Turn the spinning on. Load up the back of the bowl with fresh (well tempered) solid chocolate (either callets or broken pieces). In about 15 minutes, you are ready to go. The solid chocolate seeds the melted chocolate and it all cools down. I ALWAYS test the temper on a piece of parchment or a knife. Much easier to catch bad tempering at this stage than after you have filled your molds. I don't heat my molds and my room is between 65-70. Each brand of chocolate will have it's best temperatures and you just have to play until you figure them out. I don't use a vibrating table, but I rap the molds hard on the table to force the bubbles up.I'm wondering if you are having problems with molding and not dipping, because you are dumping the excess from the molds back into the melter. This would cause a lot of crystallization in the chocolate. Good luck.
That recipe was always a bit soft. Use freeze dried raspberries. I run them through a food processor and then make a paste out of the powder, a drop or two of citric acid and just enough water to make it change color. I then stir this in after beating the fondant for about 5 minutes. It gives a very nice color and flavor. I use about 1/4 cup powder. Also, don't cook it in aluminum as this will invert more sugar as it cooks. Ruth
