Working with Chocolate

Couverture Chocolate

Professional-quality chocolate with a higher proportion of cocoa butter (at least 31–32% total cocoa butter), making it more fluid when melted — ideal for tempering, enrobing and moulding.

Example: couverture is used for bonbons, chocolate bars, dipping strawberries and glazes.

Chef’s tip: always temper couverture before using it for moulding or coating, or it will set dull and streaky.

Temper Chocolate

Melting, cooling and rewarming chocolate to precise temperatures so the cocoa butter forms stable crystals (form V). Tempered chocolate sets glossy, snaps cleanly, shrinks from moulds and doesn’t melt on the fingers.

Example: dark chocolate: melt to 45–50°C, cool to 27–28°C, rewarm to 31–32°C; milk about 29–30°C; white about 28–29°C.

Chef’s tip: the seeding method — adding chopped tempered chocolate to melted chocolate — is the simplest for small kitchens.