I got a bit bored with never remembering the crucial temperatures in each part of the tempering process every time I wanted to work with chocolate in my bakes. Searching for websites or leafing through numerous books is time consuming so I thought I’d draw up a resource to help me – a visual aide memoire on tempering temperatures. The result is an infographic that I can refer to quickly – I’ve actually got it stuck to my cooker hood.
Further down, I’ve added a bare bones reminder of tempering (more like revision notes really) and a few links to websites that have really good information on tempering chocolate.
Tempering infographic
The tempering process – the utter basics of the bain marie method.
Only use this as ‘revision notes’ on the process of tempering (please first read how to do it properly in one of the links below or one of the many others online).
- put finely and evenly chopped chocolate in a bowl over a pan of just simmering water
- let it melt, while stirring gently, to the first temperature given (#1 on the infographic for each type of chocolate)
- pour 3/4 of the choc onto a slab and work it with a spatula until is teaches temperature (#2)
- keep the remaining 1/4 warm in the bowl
- put the worked, cooled choc into a slightly warm bowl then add (enough of) the kept-warm choc and stir until it reaches temperature (#3)
Useful tempering links
BBC Good Food – How to temper chocolate
The Guardian – How and why to temper chocolate
Callebaut – Tempering with callets
Valrhona – How to melt chocolate
Ink Sugar Spice ~ Lynn Clark 
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