Cooking For Engineers

[catherina]

I tried making white chocolate turtles like I found in Maine. I dribbled melted white chocolate over the caramel pecans. Problem is the white chocolate didn't harden. What did I do wrong?

I melted ghirardelli premium baking bar white chocolate bars in a double-boiler fashion (metal bowl over hot water). After the water came to a simmer and kept it low, I put the large bowl over it. I stirred 3/4 of the two broken up bars until melted. Then I removed from heat and added the last 1/4 of the two bars and stirred. I replaced it over the heat and stirred until all was melted and smooth. I poured spoonfuls over the caramel pecans. It was thick enough to smooth over the candy, but not run onto the pan.

It never did harden. I've put it in the fridge to see what happens.

[Dilbert]

chocolate is a very finicky medium.

what went wrong may be a very long Q&A session.

regardless, one does what one must and chilling it is not a bad start - excepting only for short period.

[Guest]

Does chocolate need to be tempered before mixing in peanut butter? I am making a filling with milk chocolate and peanut butter (2:1). Also should the mixture remain in the 88-90F range when pouring? Thanks for any advise.

[Dilbert]

unlikely.

tempering affects the crystalline structure of the chocolate which then affects the texture as it "sets up" when cooled.

as this is a mixture for a filling with peanut butter (high fat) odds are - lacking the recipe / finished product - just melt&mix will be okay.

[just a girl]

I just made a cheesecake and had a half bag of milk chocolate chips, I decided, why not? and went a head and melted them cautiously, the first time I had tried melting chocolate it got to hot ad turned clumpy, this time I remember hearing about how some people put Vegetable oil or canola oil in it, since both are unhealthy I went with coconut oil and it turned out beautifully O.o, now I'm just waiting for it to harden on top of my cheesecake, I didn't temper it or anything and I don't really care if its soft or 'fudge like' as long as it hardens so it doesn't slide off.
anyway, just wanted to ask if anyone has used coconut oil with their chocolate before, and if they have did it turn out well? (also, it was only maybe a Tsp)

[just a girl]

well, the chocolate set up well.. almost To well XD, its nice and hard... though on a cheesecake that creates a small problem when you're slicing it O.o... oh well, it tastes good even if its not pretty, next time I'll just drizzle it on if I want it prettyful.. but as something for just the family its great! :3, I never really cared for looks anyway, as long as it tastes good it doesn't matter, it all looks the same going down your throat anyway XD

[Jam]

I have read all the post,I'm just wondering I'd chocolate bark,that you see in the super markets ,is that a good chocolate to temper,I have been using that,but I really don't have a clue what I am doing, so maybe some one can tell me if I am wasting my time with that particular chocolate bark

[Dilbert]

within boundaries, chocolate is chocolate.

its quality varies by the amount of coca fat & solids.

tempering is a process which affects how the sugar "crystallizes"

sugar is a bit of an odd beast - it can crystallize into small / medium / large structures at that is what one observes in the issue of "gooey" to "crisp"

which is unfortunately not related to "whatever marketing name" is on the label.

if the label gives a clue as to fats vs solids vs sugar content, you can - with experience - decipher how best to work with that particular brand, but 'chocolate' is not 'chocolate' when it comes to treating everything sold as 'chocolate' in a similar matter.

[Jam]

Thanks