You are not some ascetic that can ignore the temptation of chocolates. They even come in three types of temptation: dark or unsweetened, semi-sweet or milk, and white chocolates.
Dark chocolates have cocoa butter, chocolate liquor and a little sugar or none at all. You can weaken the bitter tang with vanilla because the more cocoa solids there are in your chocolate, the bitterer it is. Semi-sweet chocolate has identical ingredients as the dark variety, except for the addition of milk. White chocolates aren’t exactly chocolates but according to purists even without the chocolate liquor they still need tempering for the reason that it has cocoa butter.
Tempering is done to increase the shelf life and to impart shine, snap, creamy texture and heat resistance to chocolates. Blooming, the result of improper crystallization of the fatty acids of the cocoa butter and appears as white spots, is also prevented.
Artisanal chocolatiers have mastered the art of tempering by hand as well as mustered the patience necessary to go with it, particularly as slight temperature changes or over- and under-mixing chocolates will lead to non-production of type V crystals, in which case tempering is repeated until successful. Ideal tempers don’t stay long as well so you have to work as quickly as possible.
A tempering machine produces only type V crystals so that the chocolates are made shiny and snappy; hence it’s the ideal chocolate candy making partner. To maintain accurate temperatures, a computer chip directs all the activities involved in tempering as well as eliminates space constraints and humidity problems in the kitchen.
A tempering machine is perfect when tempering large quantities of chocolate because you’re assured of producing only consistent quality chocolates every production time; it can temper chocolate from one to 10 pounds. When shopping for a tempering machine, you should consider how many hands will handle it and how often. Undoubtedly, a tempering machine will be a boon to your chocolate confectionery business.
There are several to choose from. Beginning chocolatiers can opt for ChocoVision’s Revolation 1 machine, capable of tempering 1.5 pounds of chocolates per hour. The alternative is the ACMC Tabletop Temperer which could manage one to six pounds of chocolates, has a removable stainless steel bowl, a digital thermometer, front control panels, digital displays for status checks, and 100-watt lamps that are used as source of tempering heat.
Revolation 2 model is appropriate for more advanced hobbyists/enthusiasts shifting to tempering machines. It has additional more features than the Rev 1–it has a digital temperature display, overnight standby mode and a pause option.
You can manage quantities of chocolates up to 10 pounds with a Revolation x3210 model which has a microprocessor sensitive to temperature shifts. You can also pause tempering for a while as well as let chocolate stay tempered overnight.