Putting the Temper in Temperamental

Over the course of a four week period, I have to develop 5-6 recipes for two assignments in my professional chocolatier program. Because I have to travel in March, I wanted to get started early to make sure I had enough time to complete everything (I am Type A, after all). Consequently, last weekend, I started my first recipe development assignment and spent my Friday evening making marzipan and espresso ganache, both of which turned out extremely well. It was the first time I'd made marzipan and I loved the flavour of the finished product -- much better than anything I could have bought around town. I layered it in an 8x8 pan with the espresso ganache and then left the ganache to crystallize for about 30 hours. I went to bed feeling pretty impressed with myself.

Then on Sunday morning, I set up my kitchen for the day and retrieved the layered slab. My first task was to cut the slab into centres. This was not as easy as I'd anticipated. With a large chef's knife, I made long cuts through the ganache, which was firm, but sticky. After every cut, I had to clean my knife. Quickly I learned the value of a guitar cutter and why chocolatiers prioritize it over other types of equipment. (Mental note: add guitar cutter to the business plan.) Eventually, I had 64 centres ready to be enrobed, but I was very worried about how such a soft ganache would perform in the enrobing process.

Next I tempered my chocolate. The temper test set perfectly, so I was ready to proceed (or so I thought). With confidence, I picked up a centre with my left hand, tossed it into the chocolate with the ganache layer facing down, flipped it over in the chocolate so that the marzipan was now on bottom using a dipping fork in my right hand, tapped to remove the excess chocolate, and set it down on a tray. Then I placed a toasted slivered almond on top. It looked beautiful!

And then I did the second one. Not so beautiful. And the next one -- same thing. The top looked great, but the bonbons didn't want to come off the dipping fork. They were sticking. I tried a different dipping tool. Sticking. I tried regular forks. Still sticking. I cleaned my dipping forks and tried them again. I wanted to scream! After about 18 bonbons, I stopped. Something wasn't right.

I wasn't sure what the problem was, but I wondered if the chocolate wasn't in perfect temper (perhaps it was over-crystallized). So, I heated my chocolate back up to 46 degrees to break down the crystal structure and re-tempered it. About 20 minutes later, I did another temper test (which once again set perfectly) and then returned to my enrobing. I had much more success. This time, there was no "sticking" to the dipping fork. I did find that my dipping fork was too big (the tines too far apart) for my centres, but I switched to a different dipping tool and finished off the batch. By the time I was done enrobing 64 centres and cleaning up my kitchen, I was exhausted, but also very happy. 

I had just learned a very valuable lesson: chocolate puts the temper in temperamental. It isn't simply "in temper" or "not in temper." Instead, there is a continuum of temper (I feel like I'm back in grad school writing a paper on identity...). But I'd recognized the problem and I'd fixed it, which is the whole point of these assignments -- putting theory into practice. I also learned just how valuable a tempering machine is in this sort of process. There is enough to do in the dipping of centres and placing of decorations that you don't want to also have to worry about doing the heating pad-heat gun tempering dance.

Based on the feedback I've received, this flavour combination is a winner. What would you have paired with marzipan?