How to Temper Chocolate and Make Filled Chocolates

Humanosity says..This one is for all you chocoholics out there! It provides detailed instructions on how to produce amazing tempered chocolates and the science of chocolate. Unfortunately, your waist may not thank me.

Tempering chocolate is the absolute key to produce high-quality chocolate shells. Before we get into the details of the two methods to temper chocolate let’s deal with a little history.

Chocolate was first used as a kind of flavoured broth in Mexico as far back 1900 BC. It became a luxury product in Maya and Aztec culture and was first brought to Europe by Columbus in 1502. Initially, Europeans used sugar and honey to sweeten the broth but it wasn’t until the beginning of industrialisation that many of the techniques for processing chocolate were developed.

The pressing of cocoa beans separates the liquid fats (cocoa butter) from the solids. The process produces only a small amount of cocoa butter but lots of solids. Much of the latter is mixed with sugar or flavourings and is sold off as cocoa powder.

Chocolate, as you probably know, is usually sold in three main forms: milk, dark, and white. Dark chocolate is comprised of the three ingredients mentioned above. Milk chocolate is very similar to dark chocolate but includes the addition of milk. (You can make your own milk chocolate from dark chocolate!) White chocolate is not regarded as true chocolate and is instead called a candy or sweet as it lacks one of the key ingredients from the cocoa bean: Cocoa powder. White chocolate is similar to milk chocolate and is formed of milk. cocoa butter, and sugar. It is because of the lack of cocoa solids that white chocolate has its white colour.

Tempering Chocolate

First of all, you have to melt your chocolate. Once melted there are two ways to temper: the tabling method and the seeding method. The videos below will give you a guide on how to achieve luxuries chocolatier level chocolate.