can unsweetened baking chocolate be used for tempering?

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Permalink Reply by Ice Blocks! on May 25, 2011 at 6:26pm

 

100% unsweetened (winnowed, ground and often roasted cacao) is referred to as chocolate / cacao / cocoa liquor which may be why your having problems finding it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_liquor

 

If your still having problems, what you could do is buy pure cacao powder (e.g. http://www.bigtreefarms.com/cacao/ see link at bottom for stockists) and cacao butter from a health food store and combine to reconstitute a liquor. You would have to know the proportion of butter (fat) in the powder to do that, roughly aiming for a 50% butter content by weight.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by darkandbitter on May 25, 2011 at 6:56pm

thanks for your reply!

 

so, are you saying; dont use the unsweetened baking chocolate?

is the chocolate liquer solid or liquid?

will it solidify if mixed (and tempered properly) with the maltitol sweetened chocolate?

if i am going to use the cocoa powder:

1. dutch process or no?

2. would cosmetic grade 100% cocoa butter work?

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Permalink Reply by Ice Blocks! on May 25, 2011 at 10:27pm

 

It's really up to you, the baking chocolate we usually have here is adulterated in some way.

 

Solid at normal room temperature.

 

I'd imagine so but no experience.

 

1. I don't personally like the process of dutching. It's and aesthetic thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_process_chocolate

 

2. No, Food grade only! You can use other fats e.g. butter, coconut, etc ... Obviously other fats will effect tempering and taste drastically.

 

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Permalink Reply by Mark Heim on May 25, 2011 at 10:24pm

You can temper unsweetened chocolate.  When you purchase the bars, they're tempered.  When blending chocolates, especially adding cocoa powder look for a change in percent cocoa butter of your new blend.  This will have a significant affect on the chocolate from processing to eating quality. 

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Permalink Reply by darkandbitter on May 28, 2011 at 8:47am

okay, that's what i thought.  if unsweetened chocolate is tempered, it makes sense that it should be able to be re-tempered, right?   not sure why i was having such a problem. perhaps it was a humidity issue.  it rained for two months here in new york during the course of my multiple efforts.  i tried again now that it has dried out a bit, and tempered for one hour+.  seems to hold a temper, no bloom yet.  however, when i tested the tempering chocolate with a spoon (to check if it was tempered and would set) during the process, it did not set.  that's why i tempered it for so long.  in the end, i did my dipping and molding, cooled in the refrigerator. 

chocolate is mysterious and wonderful.

 

 

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