Attempts to make chocolates have always been uncertain prior to the advent of chocolate tempering machines because chocolatiers weren’t sure if they would succeed in tempering by hand or not. It’s a complex stage in chocolate making to be sure but after tempering machines, tempering has become a straightforward matter. Chocolates tempered with machines do not lose temper for longer hours.
But this doesn’t mean that all chocolatiers temper chocolates now with these tempering machines. Since some gourmet chocolate aficionados still favor handcrafted chocolates over the ones made through automation, some artisanal chocolatiers have prospered in their enterprise with tabliering. Tabliering was conceptualized and innovated in France. In this technique, chocolate that’s been melted is cooled on a heat-absorbing surface, usually a marble slab.
Moisture, rapid heating and freezing could spoil chocolates through “seizing”, which turns chocolates into a hard mass. You keep moisture out of your work area and the equipment you used for tabliering and you’re free from the threat of seizing.
Include the following in your mise en place: chocolate, chopping board, spatula, mixing bowl, double boiler, and an accurate thermometer that can measure such low temperatures as 80F. All these accessories are pat-dried just to be sure they’ve no drop of liquid on them.
The chocolate is cut with the knife into slim chips and melted in the double boiler at low to medium heat, to temperatures of 108-115F at which point the chocolate strips should’ve utterly melted. This mush as it is called should flow fine and be free of any solid lumps.
Transfer a third of the mush onto the mixing bowl, then work on the two-thirds on the marble slab or any surface that can draw heat away from the chocolate mush. Bring the temperature down to about 80-82F. While you’re focused on this task, remember to keep the remaining chocolate above 100F so that it doesn’t coagulate. Fold in the remaining one-third gently until the whole mush reaches the same cooling temperatures as before.
Next in the tabliering process is the reheating of the mush. Be guided by the following temperatures when you return the mush to the double boiler for warming up: 86 to 90F for dark chocolates; 86 to 88F for semi-sweet; and 82 to 84F for the white chocolates. Properly tempered chocolates are glossy and crisp once it dries so dip the point of the knife in the tempered mush and let it set for five minutes to find out if it does. If you’ve succeeded, you can now continue on to sculpting, coating, or molding.
Maintaining specific temperatures during the whole tempering process still remains to be the toughest part of tabliering. If this rule is ignored, you’ll have to iterate tempering until you get the preferred results. Keep the chocolate in its tempered state for an extended period of time by placing it on a hot pad or a bain-marie, still protecting it from moisture.