By Eric Kim, The New York Times
Remember the last time you bit into a chocolate-covered strawberry? If the shell snapped audibly, pooling on your tongue as it melted, then chances are that chocolate was tempered. Tempering, essentially melting and cooling chocolate, is why that thin shell of chocolate yielding to a juicy berry cracks with such a crisp, satisfying sharpness.
No one needs to learn how to temper chocolate to enjoy it, but knowing this basic skill of a professional chocolatier — and the science behind it — can broaden your understanding of why the chocolate you eat every day looks and feels and tastes the way it does. It also opens up a world of homemade confections. Think chocolate-covered strawberries and whatever else your heart (or sweetheart) desires: bananas, marshmallows, candied oranges.
“The No. 1 mystique that has to do with chocolate is tempering,” Alice Medrich writes in her award-winning cookbook, “Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts.” So let’s demystify it: Chocolate is made with sugar, cocoa solids, cocoa butter and, sometimes, flavorings like vanilla and emulsifiers like lecithin. Cocoa butter, the natural fat extracted from cocoa beans, is what makes chocolate liquid when hot and solid when cold. To temper chocolate, then, is to melt and cool it (and sometimes warm it again) to the right temperatures to get a snappy, shiny shell that sets and doesn’t melt at room temperature.
Crystallization is the keyword here. When chocolate is first melted, the cocoa butter’s fat crystals melt completely. To start reforming those crystals, stir the melted chocolate to cool it; finely chopped chocolate (called seed chocolate) can be added to jump-start this cooling process. If the chocolate becomes too thick for dipping, reheat it gently. All of this allows the cocoa butter to solidify again at room temperature with even and stable fat crystal formation.
And if it doesn’t set? Feel free to just refrigerate it.
Paul Lorusso has been tempering chocolate since he was a teenager. (His family has been in the confectionary business for generations.) In the 1960s, his mother, Lorraine Lorusso, was working at a gourmet food store in the Chicago suburbs. Paul Lorusso said that it was there that she thought to take the giant strawberries from the fruit department next to her candy stand, then dip them in chocolate for Mother’s Day. “In 25 hours,” she said in a biography of her life, “with an investment of only $700, I had a return of over $3,800.”
Lorraine Lorusso, who died in 2014, didn’t find out until decades later that she had been credited with inventing the chocolate-covered strawberry.
The innovation, now heavily associated with Valentine’s Day, has since become a popular gift item in the United States. Somia Farid Silber, the president of Edible Brands (the parent company of Edible Arrangements), said the company’s box of 12 dipped strawberries is a top seller, with sales peaking around Feb. 13 and 14. Last year, the company sold 37.5 million chocolate-covered strawberries.
It actually makes a lot of sense to dip strawberries in chocolate in winter, when they’re harder and last longer in the refrigerator than when they are summer-ripe. Not to mention, they can use the sweetness of chocolate to offset their out-of-season tartness.
You can buy chocolate-covered strawberries, or you can dip your own at home as an act of love for your family (or to practice your chocolate tempering). This recipe highlights an easy method for those who want to partake in the joys of making snappy chocolate at home. But the real secret to tempering chocolate is this: “Anyone can learn,” chocolatier Jacques Torres said.
In 2000, Torres opened his chocolate shop and factory in New York City because his work as the executive pastry chef at Le Cirque didn’t leave time for real life. But he could make shelf-stable chocolate in advance, which meant he could work normal hours and go home to have dinner with his family.
Still, the one time of year Torres doesn’t get to be home is around Valentine’s Day. Chocolate-covered strawberries cannot be made ahead, since the fruit is 90% water, which means they do not keep well. The magic happens down to the wire: On Feb. 12, the modern-day Wonka seeks out the best berries he can (bribing the sellers with Valentine’s Day chocolates, he joked). On Feb. 13 and 14, he starts at 3 or 4 a.m., tempering chocolate and dipping berries in his factory, so he can sell the coveted treats by the time his shop opens.
At home, a simple way to temper chocolate is to melt a portion of bar chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl set over simmered water, and to then cool it down with unmelted, finely chopped chocolate (the seed chocolate), all the while stirring, to encourage even fat crystal formation as the cocoa butter solidifies again. You can add a teaspoon of olive oil to guarantee sheen. Dip bone-dry strawberries into that chocolate and set aside to harden.
You don’t need a candy thermometer or a factory to make chocolate-covered strawberries. All you need is the desire to learn.
Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
When you bite into one of these chocolate-covered strawberries, the shell will snap audibly and crack with a crisp, satisfying sharpness before pooling on your tongue as it melts. By tempering the chocolate, essentially melting and cooling it to the right temperature, it forms a delicate shell that yields to juicy berries. This type of stabilized chocolate is glossy and doesn’t melt at room temperature. The easiest way to temper chocolate at home for candy making, as this recipe does, is to melt a portion of store-bought bar chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl set over recently simmered water, and to then cool it down by stirring in more unmelted chocolate (called seed chocolate). For the best results, a candy thermometer will help you check the temperature of your chocolate, but there’s really no need: The chocolate is ready for dipping when it’s just a touch warmer than your bottom lip. — ERIC KIM
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Total time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 pound large strawberries
- 2 (3 1/2-ounce) bars dark (bittersweet) chocolate (60% to 70% cacao) or high-quality white chocolate (see Tip), broken into small pieces
- 1 teaspoon olive oil (optional)
Preparation
1. Prepare the strawberries: Rinse and drain the berries well, then dry them off with paper towels. (If you have time, let them further air-dry in the refrigerator, about 1 hour.)
2. Melt the chocolate: Fill a small pot with 1/2 inch of water, bring it to a simmer, then turn off the heat. Place a medium heatproof bowl over the pot. The bowl should not touch the water. Add two-thirds of the chocolate to the bowl and melt completely, stirring occasionally with a flexible spatula. Stir in the olive oil, if using, for a shinier end result. (This oil method is called faux tempering and is great insurance; just note that your final chocolate shell will be less snappy.)
3. Cool the chocolate: Remove the bowl from the pot and add the remaining chocolate, stirring constantly until melted. Then, keep stirring until cool and starting to thicken (if too thick, return to the hot water to melt again). The mixture should feel slightly warmer than your bottom lip.
4. Dip the strawberries: Holding each strawberry by its stem, dip it into the chocolate, twisting it to cover completely, then let any excess chocolate run off before placing on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Successfully tempered chocolate should set in 10 to 15 minutes at room temperature. If the chocolate doesn’t set at room temperature, refrigerate until it does. Stored and refrigerated in an airtight container lined with a paper towel, the chocolate-covered berries can keep for up to 2 days.
Tips
For this recipe, it’s important to use a chocolate bar from the candy section of the grocery store, not the baking section. Baking chocolate and chocolate chips have additives, such as stabilizers, that make them harder to temper. When picking white chocolate, go for high-quality bars, such as Lindt or Ghirardelli.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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