Reader Paul C. writes in with this: I was very interested to read your pieces on tempering and fat crystals. Does the fact that unstable [crystals] form at a lower temperature than stable crystals have anything to do with the softness of untempered chocolate? An excellent question, and the answer is yes, it does. The […]
READ ONReader Greg writes in with this tip on maintaining the temperature of a batch of tempered chocolate: I have tempered chocolate using the seeding method and found it really a difficult process. On a “Good Eats” episode, Alton Brown used a heating pad to melt and maintain the chocolate at the correct temperature. I tried […]
READ ONThe best way to learn how to temper chocolate is just to do it a few times. It doesn’t take very long, maybe twenty minutes including set-up, then maybe half an hour to an hour for the chocolate to harden, depending on how thinly you spread it. I suggest simply practicing on a parchment-lined baking […]
READ ONIt’s easy to lose your cool trying to create a perfectly tempered batch of chocolate. I know I usually do. The thing is, professional chocolatiers have high-tech mechanical temperers that keep melted chocolate at just the right temperature for hours at a time. The rest of us have to make do with the tools we […]
READ ONWhenever you buy chocolate, it’s tempered. Bars, chips, disks, chunks…whenever chocolate leaves the factory, it’s tempered. The only time you’ll ever bring home untempered chocolate is if it’s been baked (say, in a chocolate chip cookie) or if you happen to leave it in a hot car and it melts. In either case, the carefully […]
READ ONNo, wait…it’s both! Here’s a fascinatingly redundant gizmo by Taylor that I can’t quite figure out. One thing is for certain, however, I’d eventually put it into the dish washer. (Hat tip: April. Thanks!)
READ ONGiven that there are two different sorts of very interesting chocolate components at work in the opera cake project that’s underway (tempered chocolate and ganache), I thought it might be worthwhile to take a slight detour into chocolate chemistry the next couple of days. Understandably, I’ve received quite a few questions about the process since […]
READ ONIt was a beautiful early autumn weekend here in Kentucky, and the Pastry clan took advantage by spending most of it roving around the Louisville area. One of our stops was at an historic plantation home where a variety of performances and reenactments were taking place. Truth be told, we really went there for the […]
READ ONIf you ever doubted that Michael Pollan wanted to rule your life, you need to go check out the most recent New York Times food section. In it, there’s a short essay by the man himself, previewing his upcoming January release. The book is a compilation of Pollan-approved eating and dietary rules, offered up by […]
READ ONAny time you set out to make cake — especially a foam-based sponge cake like joconde — it’s very important that you have all your ingredients pre-measured and at-the-ready. You also want to have all your ingredients at room temperature. Begin by brushing melted butter on your parchment-lined sheet pans. If necessary, trim your parchment […]
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