Thursday, December 22, 2005

Making dipped chocolates, part 2

After making the ganache, it's necessary to dip them. Once again, the process itself isn't that complicated or difficult. What is difficult though, which I realized today, is getting it to look good, but more on that later...

What dipping entails is putting a thin layer of melted chocolate on one side of the ganache square (or rectangle), letting it set, cutting the big square into smaller pieces, and then finally dipping those small pieces into tempered chocolate. Tempering the chocolate is the involved part; everything else is pretty self-explanatory.

Tempering chocolate is basically melting chocolate and then cooling it to a precise temperature. This allows the chocolate, when it cools, to have that signature snap and shine to it, without any unsightly streaks. Of course, if you don't care how it looks, you could just dip the ganache pieces into melted chocolate, but where's the fun in that?

Tempering works best with a substantial amount of chocolate - about two pounds. A larger quantity stays in temper easier and it is also easier to submerge the ganache into a greater volume. I found that out the hard way when I used too little. I ended up not having enough to dip all my pieces!

The process itself involves melting about 2/3 of the chocolate in a double boiler, removing it from the heat, and adding the remaining 1/3 of the chocolate -- called the seed chocolate -- until it all reaches a certain a temperature (about 90 degrees for dark chocolate, 87 for milk/white chocolate). Of course, frequently check the temperature with your instant-read thermometer and it drops below the temperature, heat it over a gas flame for a few seconds and resume dipping.

The dipping part is simultaneously the most fun and most frustrating part of it all. Place a ganache piece on a fork (fondue forks work well) and place it in the tempered chocolate. This is where it pays to have tempered a larger volume of chocolate. Then, push it in to submerge and then take it out with the fork, scraping the bottom on the side of the bowl. Place the dipped piece on a plate or whatever lined with parchment paper and you're all done! If done properly, it should be a smooth coat without any streaks. This is indicative of a good temper.

And just like that, you've made dipped chocolates! I'm sure that you will, just like I have, find out that it really isn't all that much magic to it. Enjoy!

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