♡ Good Tempered Chocolate ♡
Make your own box of Raw Bon Bons
Chocolate: The Aztecs referred to cacao as “nourishment of the gods”. Chocolate contains the chemicals theobromine and phenylethyline believed to affect neurotransmitters in the brain. They are known as Love Chemicals produced when we fall in love and during the Big O.
Need I say more?
Chocolate pros use a technique called tempering which produces snappy smooth chocolate…you know, the mmmelts in your mouth not in your hand kind of chocolate.
So if you are having a tantrum for chocolate, make sure it’s the good-tempered kind.
I have adapted the recipe below to include a bit of spicy Melodia flavor. This chocolate is perfect for making bars or for dipping.
What you will need:
- 250 g Cacao Butter (shaved with a knife)
- 150 g Cacao Powder
- 100 g Coconut Sugar or Xylitol
- 1 tbsp. Coconut Oil
- 1 tsp. Maca Powder
- Dash Himalayan Salt
- Dash Cinnamon
- Dash Cayenne
Professional Chocolatier Method copied from The Raw Chef.
· In a medium mixing bowl, in this order, add butter and then powders.
· Bring water in the lower container of a double boiler saucepan to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and put the bowl of ingredients in the upper container to melt down gently and gradually. Don’t stir the mixture until 30% of the butter has melted.
· If you have a Vitamix Blender, allow the ingredients to melt to just about 65%, remove the upper container of the double boiler and wipe the bottom of the bowl so no water drips into your chocolate when pouring into the blender jug. Put the lid on the jug. First turn to low speed and then to high for about 5 seconds. Take the temperature (for more on thermometers, see notes) to be sure you are not exceeding 42c/107.6f. The object here is to heat and smooth the mixture out, to prevent any lumps from remaining in the mixture by the time you reach 42°c/107.6°f.
· If you have a normal blender or no blender at all, then you will want to sift your powders before starting and heating the ingredients to 42°c / 107.6°f over the double boiler.
· Once the ingredients have reached 42°c/107.6°f, it’s time to temper the chocolate. If using the Vitamix Blender, transfer the chocolate to a clean, dry bowl. If using the double boiler method, wipe the bottom of the bowl and pour the mixture into a new, clean, dry bowl; the residual heat from the bowl will continue to heat the chocolate, otherwise.
· Using a flexible spatula or a whisk, gently keep the chocolate moving and scrape the sides of the bowl every 30 seconds to 1 minute. That’s it, you are now in the process of tempering chocolate.
· Depending on the room temperature, this can take between 10 to 25 minutes or longer. You are looking to bring the chocolate down in temperature to 31.5°c. So, after about 7 minutes of stirring or whisking, measure the mixture’s temperature. You can also tell if the chocolate is coming down in temperature as it will begin to thicken. If you end up bringing it down in temperature beyond 31.5°c it’s not a bad thing. The chocolate will still be tempered.
· Once the chocolate has reached 31.5°c or lower, you can now cast it in a mold or just pour it into a clean, dry plastic container. Tempered chocolate contracts when it sets, so it will easily come out of any mold you cast it in.
· You can set the chocolate at room temperature for several hours (depending on your room temp, of course) or you can pop it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to set.
· I would suggest that you not add anything to this batch of chocolate, just leave it plain so you can get the full tempered chocolate experience. Also, if for some reason it doesn’t temper, you can try again or troubleshoot.
That’s all. It may seem a little much right now, but you will get the hang of it in no time. If you make a mistake, don’t stress, it’s just chocolate. Don’t look at it as “expensive ingredients going to waste”; look at it as a learning experience, a fun hobby, something that makes you happy and therefore nothing else matters!
And for a little more, watch this awesome video!
