Why tempering machines are good for your business
Chocolates bait people because of their lustrous shine, creamy smoothness and crispy bite. But these are qualities that are imparted to them and are by far not their natural qualities; it’s tempering that bestows these qualities to chocolate. This tempering is a three-step process consisting of heating, cooling and reheating and during all these stages in tempering, keeping temperatures unchanged and accurate is absolutely necessary.
But keeping temperatures unchanged and correct is the toughest part of tempering by hand, for many reasons:
- The problem begins with the fact that the fatty acids of the cocoa butter in chocolate take on six different crystalline shapes.
- These six types of crystals have the unique tendency to dominate at six different temperatures.
- Your aim is to produce more of the type V crystals of this six-crystal family because only this specific crystal form can bring shine and snap to chocolates.
- The other five types of crystals may hamper production if you fail to keep only the particular unique temperature at which the type V crystals form.
- The two methods that you can use to temper by hand are tabliering and seeding; whichever method you choose, you won’t still avoid maintaining precise temperatures while working.
- Even a small lapse in attention or temperatures will cost you another round of tempering.
- Likewise, you should guard against moisture both in the kitchen and in your production paraphernalia. You should also make sure that you always use a reliable thermometer for maintaining specific temperatures.
More than tempering by hand, it’ll be wiser to employ a chocolate tempering machine if you plan on producing large quantities of chocolates because you can’t afford a quality that varies in the different batches of chocolates that you craft. You’re relieved of the burden of maintaining and correcting temperatures with a chocolate tempering machine because a microprocessor handles this aspect of your work. The temper of the chocolate also lasts longer if it’s tempered by a machine. Your time and energy are thus saved when you use this machine and hence you can focus more on new innovations to improve the quality of your chocolates and on business development.
All the same, you should know the basics of tempering by hand because you may face situations when you may have to undertake tempering by hand. Still and all, a tempering machine is still a wise and necessary investment if you want to achieve a uniform quality in all the chocolates you produce and to deliver your products at the right time as desired by your buyers.
