Cooking For Engineers

[greenbean]

I found some of the comments here to be extremely helpful in tempering my chocolate for dipping truffles.
I expecially found that using the heating pad to keep my chocolate at a proper temperature very helpful - as I was dipping approx. 400 truffles total. I did this in three batches - the first batch the chocolate still heated above the 88° I needed it to be at while on the heating pad. So the next batch - I prewarmed a glass dish on the heating pad - and once I returned my chocolate to 118°, I poured the chocolate into the prewarmed pan - and viola! the chocolate stayed at 88° degrees - and the truffles turned out beautifully.
The double boiler pan held onto too much heat - which transferred to the chocolate even after removing it from the heat source - so taking it out of the pan was my secret to success.

Happy chocolate to everyone - thanks for all the good informaton

[christie]

I am a Pastry Student at Le Cordon Bleu. i was here doing some homework reasearch when i found this page. my friends have asked me for ages how do i get my chocolate to be shiny and hard i have tried to explain but this site does it much better than i can. If anyone out there feels spunky you can also blow up water balloons and dip the bottoms in you tempered chocolate, rock the balloon from side to side and back and fourth . place on a parchment paper or waxed paper chill in the fridge then gently pop the balloon and you get great little chocolate cups. you can fill them with candies, or ice cream you can even pipe mousse into them.

[Hayah]

Hi,

I want to temper chocolate and add in bits of candy to it. If the candy is flavored with peppermint extract that has water in it - will that affect the chocolate or does it not matter because the candy is already hardened?

Thanks!

[Jack in Taiwan]

Once chocolate is in temper in the tempering machine (at 88F) is there anyway I can keep it in temper overnight, in liquid form, so that I don't have to re-temper again when I want to begin dipping again the next morning? If I leave it at 88F overnight (or even up to 93F) it will harden. Once it goes up to 94F I lose temper, correct?

[becskr]

You should never melt chocolate in the microwave, it goes grainy. You should double boil it as you explained.

[Michael Chu]

[tasos]

Hi! My problem is that i dont have marble slab at my home... Would a silpat be fine to do that job? If not, is there any alternative more affordable way? thanks a lot.

[Char]

My daughter and I would like to make chocolate covered frozen bananas for a Relay for Life event. She thought we could 'dip' them at the event, but lacking the proper equipment, I feel we should make them in advance. I've looked at several online recipes, but the differences are many. My questions begin:
1. Is tempering the chocolate for this project necessary? Some will just be chocolate coated, others will have 'toppings' added.
2. What would be the best chocolate (block, chips, bars, etc.) for this project?
3. Some recipies call for freezing the bananas first, and others after coating. Since I want to make them at home and keep frozen until the sale, do I freeze them before I dip/coat them?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[Dilbert]

tempering chocolate 'controls' its shiny finish and crispness.

and 'without the proper equipment' to hold the exactly right temperature, dipping on site would be really tricky. if chocolate moves off it's 'ideal' temperature results are not good - ranging from grainy to goopy.

I would not recommend freezing the bananas - did that once and was not happy with the resulting texture-post-semi-thawing.

whether it's necessary to temper is a valid question - I've done with without worrying too much about the temper - just refrigerate the bananas, melt & dip, drain & cool to set, keep refrigerated until served. you'll likely not get a glossy sheen or a snap to the coating (except by accident - which does happen!) but kids don't seem to mind.

[Guest]

Hello! Thank you for your helpful information! I have a wedding in two weeks for which I am making 100 milk chocolate dipped pretzel rods and 100 of white chocolate. I bought Ghiradelli milk chocolate and white chips and noted that at the the bottom of the packages it states, for dipping fruit, to add one Tablespoon of shortening for every one cup of chips. Do I need to do this for pretzels, as it states for "fruit"?Does this in fact take the place of tempering, or is in addition to tempering, and what is its purpose? It also says to place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to harden. Won't this cause my pretzels chocolate covering to bloom and not look nice? Thank you so much!

[Jillianne]

I keep getting dark spots on my chocolate as it dries. I've been carefully melting the chocolate and then I am piping it into designs on wax paper. It is about 73 degrees in my house and after the chocolate sits for 6 hours or so it slowly gets these dark spots all over it??? I've heard of the white spots..but dark spots? Any help?

[Guest]

[Wali]

[Bridget]

Hi everyone. I need help. I want to make ice cream cupcakes in a chocolate bowl. I have ordered molds to practice in. My only problem is that I need to make a out 50 of them. I wanted to start making them the night before his birthday party, however, I don't know what to do with the molds after I have made them. Should I/ Could I leave them in the fridge or freezer and they would be good until the next day? Is this even possible or do I have to make them the day of?

Thanks so much for your help
Bridget

[Dilbert]

you could make the bowls 1-2 days in advance - they'll keep fine.

but if you read the thread, storing them in the fridge/freezer not a good idea - that can produce spots on the chocolate. a cool place, but not refrigerated.