Working With Chocolate 101

Equipment

Below is list of equipment you will need when working with chocolate. You may not need everything listed. The tools you require will depend on your preference, what you’re planning to create, whether you’re making a few products at home once a while or making products on a regular basis to sell.

The products here will focus on equipment one will use for small-scale or at-home work.

Manual Tempering Machines

There are mainly two types of tempering machines: automatic and manual. Unless you are spending over $10,000 dollars for an automatic tempering machine (which have built-in cooling systems such as a LCM, SELMI, or FBM), you will have to use a manual tempering machine. Manual tempering machines make tempering easier, but it will not do the tempering for you. You still must take part in the tempering process by adding “seed” (already tempered chocolate or tempered cocoa butter) to the molten chocolate in order to build proper cocoa butter crystals.

Manual tempering machines are the most cost-effective and realistic machine for at-home or small-scale production. When using manual tempering machines it’s not simply a matter of letting the machine do the tempering for you. It will not exactly temper the chocolate for you, but it performs in a way that guides the tempering process and does much of the work for you. The manual tempering machine will move the chocolate, but you will have to seed it and monitor it while it cools. Generally there are two types of manual tempering machines: rotating bowl or rotating wheel (see below).

If you wish to avoid using seed (either tempered chocolate or tempered cocoa butter) then you will either have to purchase an expensive automatic tempering machine, or use the table method (granite/quartz) to manually cool the chocolate (which can be messy and frustrating for beginners) before using it to pour and mold.

Important: I frequently see online chocolate melters sold online as tempering machines. Tempering machines do not simply have a 1 dial thermostat to lower or raise the temperature. A tempering machine should have either a rotating bowl or wheel, and have multiple settings to warm up, cool, and hold the chocolate.

1. Table-top tempering Machines

These machines generally have a central bowl which rotates. They also have a built-in thermostat with settings that tell you when to add/remove the seed and also hold the chocolate at the working temperature while you use the chocolate. The benefit of these is that you do not have to stand there and stir your bowl and monitor the temperature manually as you would if you were simply tempering chocolate in a bowl by hand. The machine does that for you. It also has a built-in thermometer and settings which remind you when you need to take action. With these, you can add your seed and walk away, wait for the beep when the desired temperature is reached, and then remove any seed and start using your chocolate.

I would suggest one of these types of tempering machines as a beginner, as they are the most user friendly. There are many brands and sizes, with some holding less than a kilo of chocolate to many kilos of chocolate at once. Keep in mind what you wish to use the tempered chocolate for. Is it to dip/coat products, to make solid bars, or to cast shells? If casting shells or other 3D forms, it might be best to buy a machine with an opening that is at least as big as the longest part of the molds you tend to use. This way you can dump the chocolate back right into the tempering machine when pouring/casting your 3D molds.

Please note: You still need to learn how to “read” your chocolate and know when it is ready, which is true whether tempering by hand or using any machine. The machine cannot detect a good temper - that is something you have to determine with a good procedure or using a temper check.

2. Wheel Tempering Machines

These work essentially the same as a table-top tempering machine. A few main differences is that the chocolate sits in a stationary basin which does not rotate the chocolate. What moves is a large wheel which is about 1/3 inside the basin, and rotates in one direction. As the wheel rotates it brings chocolate up with it and back down (or also through a spout) and moves the chocolate this way. There is a built in thermostat which you will have to manually adjust. You have to monitor how much seed to add, and when to stop adding, along with the temperature using a thermometer. I would say it’s not as beginner friendly as a table-top tempering machine.

Also, since the main basin where the chocolate sits is stationary, the chocolate in the corner of the machine often becomes stagnant and may even thicken or solidify if not monitored. It’s a good idea to periodically stir this chocolate into the middle. Due to more of the chocolate being exposed to air, it may cool down faster. It also requires a minimum of chocolate inside the basin in order for this machine to work. They tend to be able to hold higher volumes of chocolate than machines with a rotating bowl.

Melters

Melters are often sold online as tempering machines. They are NOT tempering machines. All they simply do is melt the chocolate, just as you would on a double boiler. They have a thermostat with one round dial to adjust which temperature you wish for the melter to sit at. In some ways, melters are glorified bowls - but they certainly are convenient if used for the right purpose. Instead of you monitoring the temperature of the chocolate in your bowl, throwing it on the double-boiler to re-heat it, these melters have their own thermostat to bring the temperature of the chocolate up or down to roughly the temperature you wish for it to be at (give or take a few degrees sometimes).

Instead of melting the chocolate in a bain-marie (double boiler), or in the microwave, the melter will melt it for you and hold it at the temperature you set it at. It’s a gentler way to warm up chocolate. It also adds convenience, since you can add your solid chocolate the night before, and have it melted the next day when you’re reading for it (although it’s best to break up blocks of chocolate to melt quicker).

You can certainly use the melter to temper your chocolate in (just as you would in a bowl) either by leaving the pan inside the melter or taking it out while you seed and temper your chocolate. It requires more work than a tempering machine which does the moving for you (stirring/shear). Tempering chocolate is not simply about lowering the temperature, but movement/shear is crucial to a good temper.

Melters can be very small holding only 1 kilo or less, or up to many kilos. Keep in mind how you wish to use the melter before purchasing one. Will you be making shells/casting molds and dumping the chocolate back in as you would on a tempering machine? If so, make sure the opening of the melter is big enough where all the chocolate from the mold can fall into. If the melter is too small, you’ll have to dump the chocolate elsewhere which will create more temporary waste and be less efficient overall.

Consider purchasing more than one hotel pan that fits into the model of the melter you are using. This way, instead of cleaning out the pan each time you need to switch between types of chocolates, you can simply wrap/cover the one you are not using and insert a hotel pan for the new chocolate you wish to use.

Melters can also be used as back-up chocolate if you plan to use more chocolate than your tempering machine can hold at once.

Vibrating Table

Infrared laser thermometer

A laser thermometer is a chocolatiers best friend. They offer a more immediate reading, and for anyone who has worked with chocolate, saving 5-10 seconds waiting for a probe thermometer to give you a reading is a huge help. Keep in mind laser thermometers only take the surface temperature. However, all you need to do is stir/fold/mix your chocolate as you take the temperature to get an accurate reading.

You can purchase these online and even and hardware stores. They can also be used to take the temperature of your molds before casting, the temperature of your fridge, the top of your counter/granite, your ganaches, and so on, and so become invaluable.

If you prefer to use a probe thermometer, you can, and these do work well for ganaches. However, keep in mind when it comes to tempering and working with chocolate, time is of the essence, and a laser thermometer will become your best friend.

Hair Dryer or Heat Gun

In most kitchens, I’ve used hair dryers and sometimes heat guns. Heat guns tend to get too hot, far hotter than is required for working with chocolate. You run the risk of over heating your bonbon shells before capping or even melting molds with heat guns. For this reason using a brand new hair dryer for your chocolatier work is a great option. If you do opt for a heat gun, just be careful when using it. Both the heat gun and hair dryers will fail faster if you consistently get chocolate inside it, so be cautions when using them and where you place them when working with chocolate.

The uses for these are unlimited. Here are just a few reasons you would use a hair dryer/heat gun:

• To slightly warm up your chocolate after tempering

• To monitor and slightly warm up your chocolate (either in a bowl or machine) if you need to maintain it for longer and it is cooling too quickly or getting a little too thick

• To slightly warm up cold molds before pouring

• To warm up bowls and tools

• To quickly tidy up your tools and surfaces while you’re working with chocolate

• To remove chocolate from sides of equipment, floors, and so on

• To heat up your spray gun nozzle (either for coloured cocoa butter or chocolate spray)

• To slightly warm up the rims of shells before capping

• To warm up metal trays to be used to melt/glue chocolate objects

• To heat up knives and tools to cut through chocolate/figures

Stainless Steel Bowls

You will require various sized bowls for many tasks such as tempering, holding, mixing, ganaches, etc. Ideally you would purchase stainless steel. You can use plastic and ceramic, but plastic can be an issue with ganaches (grease and splitting), and ceramic bowls are heavy and can break. Stainless steel is great for tempering because it doesn’t hold-in the heat when you’re trying to cool the chocolate (it’s a conductor of heat, so allows it to pass more easily than does plastic or ceramic). That said, placing a bowl of chocolate where you wish to hold the temperature would then work better in a plastic bowl. But for the most part, stainless steel is easier to wash, remain stain and odour free (plastic kitchenware can hold onto strong odours such as if you used them for sauces/onions/garlic). Stainless steel bowls are also most ideal for ganaches as well.

Offset spatulas

Bowl scrapers

Whisk

Emersion blender

Ladle

Piping Bags/syringes

squeeze bottles

Dipping Tools

Cloth Gloves

Molds

Cotton pads/lint-free scratch-free cloths