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You cannot skip doing tempering of chocolates because without doing it, your chocolates will not be shiny and smooth nor have that clean snap. These are not original qualities of chocolates. You do make cocoa granules finer by conching but only when you temper chocolate does it become velvety rich.

Due to tempering, chocolates also acquire an extended shelf life as well as keep blooming at bay. Otherwise, chocolates can have a gritty texture and a surface dotted with unattractive whitish-gray crystals. Selling such unattractive chocolates will indeed be a distant dream.
Chocolates are tempered by the commercial chocolate makers when they sell them but since chocolates are melted at temperatures above 90F when you prepare them for dipping and molding, their original temper is lost that’s why you’ll need to temper again.

Tempering by hand comes handy when your tempering machine develops a problem or if there’s a power outage; hence you’ll also have to learn the skill for these instances.

Tempering by hand is done two ways: tabliering and seeding. Tabliering is a French innovation; it’s also known as the marble-slab technique since it’s on this cold surface that you work melted chocolate to lower its temperature.

Tabliering’s first step is to cut a one-pound chocolate into thin pieces, melting them on a double boiler using low to medium heat, and stirring so that chocolate don’t burn and seize. One-half of the chocolate melt is worked on with a rubber spatula on the marble slab. The other half is also worked in gently; the objective of both is to lower chocolate temperatures to appropriate levels until the consistency is thickened.

“Seeding” is almost a similar procedure but tempered chocolate is used as a “seed” for the loose crystals in the chocolate melt to copy the Type V bonding structures. You should melt only three-fourths of the chocolate strips on the double boiler, leaving the other one-fourth as is. Both are then blended together to melt everything to the same temperature and consistency as in tabliering.

In both tabliering and seeding, keeping chocolate temperatures on an even keel at all times is crucial as temperatures dictate what kind of crystals and appeal your chocolates will have after they’re air dried and set. Only after tempering can you proceed with coating fruits and other fillings as well as making delightful shapes out of your chocolate melt.

Tempering by hand is an intricate, complex process because you need to be always be on the look for accurate tempering temperatures. This tough step can even be fraught with mistakes for experienced chocolatiers. You’ll need a lot of time and patience to do tempering by hand and this may well hinder creativity on the main art of chocolate making.

If you need chocolates to be of consistently high quality, a chocolate tempering machine can help. You’ll be able to produce bulk quantities for gifting and commercial purposes given that a tempering machine directs all stages of tempering single-handedly.