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Why does couverture / chocolate need to be tempered?

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Why does couverture need to be tempered?

The beautiful lustre of products made from couverture is of the utmost importance and gives the end product its appetising appearance. The products made from couverture or chocolate legally obtain this lustre if the couverture or chocolate has been tempered correctly. The complex cocoa butter is responsible for the appearance and therefore also for the lustre. This is polymorphic and contains various fat groups (stearic, palmitic and oleic acid) with different melting points ranging from 20 ºC to 47 ºC.

These different fats have the property of solidifying into unstable and stable crystal forms when cooled. The fat components contained in cocoa butter therefore consist of "stable" and "unstable" fat crystals. As all couvertures contain cocoa butter, it must be tempered in order to avoid any impairment of consistency or aesthetics. Tempering couverture / chocolate means processing the fat components of the cocoa butter in such a way that it is easier to mould and achieves the desired gloss and breakage after processing (whether as bars, chocolates or hollow figures). For inexperienced people, tempering works best with the inoculation method, in which 2/3 of the couverture is melted and then inoculated with 1/3 fresh couverture drops. This process creates the perfect balance between stable and unstable fat crystals. You can find out more about this HERE.

If this is not done, the couverture can stick to the praline, tablet or figure moulds or take on a greyish appearance. Although this is not so attractive visually, it is harmless to the taste.

So you could say that if a chocolate or couverture did not contain cocoa butter, this would naturally simplify many things, as the couverture would not need to be tempered. This is exactly what was done with cake icing (also known as fat icing or cake melts). Cake icing is a chocolate-like mixture that does not need to be tempered but is still glossy. In cake icing, the complex cocoa butter is replaced by coconut, palm or other vegetable fats. These fats ensure that the end product has good flow properties and a beautiful shine. Cake icing saves a lot of time, as tempering itself does take some time. However, the disadvantage of cake icing is that its flavour does not match that of chocolate or couverture. Cake icing should therefore never be used for high-quality confectionery products such as pralines or chocolate bars. Fat icing is only suitable for coating cakes, pastries, confectionery or decorating biscuits and cookies.

Storage & shelf life

In general, chocolate, couverture and cake icing should always be stored in a dark, cool and dry place.

The shelf life varies depending on the variety. As a rule, white chocolate | couverture has the shortest shelf life of 6 months, followed by milk for 1 to 1 1/2 years and dark chocolate for up to 2 years.

 
Posted in: Things to know, Chocolate

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