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Tempering chocolate: seeding...

post #1 of 11
10/5/11 at 12:56am
Thread Starter 

I've only successfully tempered chocolate by "tabling"/"marbling" but finally tried seeding today with chips and it was a royal disaster time and again.

 

The basic problem was that the added unmelted chips (to bring down the temperature to 80 for bittersweet or 75 for milk) would never melt either before reducing temperature or after bringing the temps back up to max (90 & 88 respectively).

 

I was in a fairly cool kitchen. I was using reasonably small amounts (maybe 800g at a time).

 

Any advice? I can certainly see the advantages of seeding over tabling when it comes to things like quickly dipping things and I'd like to know how to do this at all, if not somewhat reliably.

 

Thanks in advance (and apologies if I didn't find better threads on this topic)...

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post #2 of 11
10/5/11 at 1:00am

How much are you holding back for seeding?

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post #3 of 11
10/5/11 at 1:02am
Thread Starter 

not reserving a set amount, just adding around 50-75g at a time

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post #4 of 11
10/5/11 at 1:08am
Thread Starter 

i realize i don't really know what you mean by holding back, as I would back about a third (of melted chocolate) when tabling... i assumed you meant unmelted chocolate for adding for seeding

 

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post #5 of 11
10/5/11 at 7:47am

You don't need much to seed, at the most 5%.  Most people heat the choc.quite hight, around 45 C and cool it down by adding in chips.

 

Remember you also need time and motion to pre-crystalize couverture properly.  Once the seed is introduced it needs time to take over and motion to to take over as well.  I've seen Top pastry chefs at sponsored demos using a small shaft mixer in the tub of couverture.

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post #6 of 11
10/6/11 at 4:28am
Thread Starter 

i was stirring a lot but that didn't seem to make much of a difference.

 

are you talking about an immersion blender? chef mentioned that (and his disdain for it) but watching just desserts tonight (it was the "death by chocolate" show so they had to do a chocolate showpiece and such) i noticed they had large amounts of chocolate sitting tempered and they were using what looked like an immersion blender.

 

so my problem with seeding sounds like i was adding way too much.

 

gonna keep working at it, thanks. 

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post #7 of 11
10/6/11 at 7:28am

Yes, sounds like that is the culprit.

 

If you have $80 bucks handy, probably the best book you can get is P. Grewling's "Chocolates and confecctions".  In the first few chapters various methods of tempering (properly called precrystalizing) are discussed, with their caveats and bonuses.

 

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post #8 of 11
10/8/11 at 6:37am

Ditto

cancel your cable and food network and buy the book.wink.gif

did you mention what chocolate you are using? I don't like seeding

with a small chip. To much surface area.

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post #9 of 11
10/10/11 at 11:29pm
Thread Starter 

(btw "Choc... & Confections" is my "textbook" but I hadn't recieved it by the time of the original post)

 

okay i figured out the problem, melting all to smooth at the low temp point isn't an issue when using coveteur (ie, you don't need to) - my misunderstanding was that it all needed to be melted smooth at the low temp point, but when using coveteur chocolate the issue is only bringing down the temp of your melted chocolate, not that it all needs to be smooth at that point (it does at the higher points, 88 & 90[f] respectively, s/b smooth - and not a degree higher!).

 

made some molds today and they were beautifully shiny and thin-but-snappy.

 

been a real interesting trip tho, reading about "phase V" crystallines & such from cadbury's and other craziness from the chemical pov has been illuminating if not thoroughly boring for this more savory oriented culinarian...

 

cooking savory with chocolate is another matter however, and my next misadventure...

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post #10 of 11
10/11/11 at 8:09am

Don't quite follow you.

 

If you have chunks of couverture in your melter, then your temp is too cold and you will have three problems:

 

1) Couverture doesn't flow properly--too thick and you will have thick walls on your bon-bons, and bubbles/loss of detail in corners of the molds

 

2) You will have chunks of couverture in your mold/product

 

3) At this stage (unmelted couverture chunks) your couverture is too cold and overtempered--over-seeded.  Chocoalte shrinks when it dries, and since it is already cold, it won't shrink much.  What this means, is that it will be a b**ch to unmold,and inspite of a nice shine, will stick to the mold.

 

 

 

Don't follow you on Cadburys.  They make cheap chocolate and not much else.

 

Callebaut, on the other hand sells "Mycro" which is pure beta 5 crystals.  This is NOT rocket science. What is in the can, is pure cocoa butter that has been heated to 45 C, then shot onto a frozen roller in a cold room, and then scraped off and packaged.      

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post #11 of 11
10/19/11 at 5:38pm

Not sure why your chef has a disdain for immersion blenders; they've been such a saver in terms of efficiency and reliability. I've never had a broken ganache with the immersion blender before. But, I realize you're talking about tempering, so...

 

You said you're adding around 50-75g at a time. I've found that adding the seed all at once, waiting for the temperature to drop to around 100 degrees F, then start gently agitating the chocolate until it drops to the correct temp works pretty well. However much chocolate I'm tempering, I add in 1/4 of that in volume as the seed.

 

http://chocotuile.blogspot.com/

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