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Make Working With Chocolate A Delicious Success

by Charles Pieter

Homemade candy is a treat often fondly remembered from childhood. Gathering with loved ones to recreate a beloved candy recipe or attempt a new one can be a fun—and delicious—way to spend an afternoon. If you have ever tried to make candy at home, however, your attempts might have failed to live up to the flavors and textures you remember from childhood, especially if you were attempting to make candy with a chocolate coating. To avoid this problem in the future, you can use these tips to help ensure that your chocolate candy coatings are smooth, satiny and delicious so that your future candy-making endeavors are a resounding success.

Choosing the right chocolate

Fine chocolate candies, such as coconut patties and other assorted chocolates use the very best ingredients available, giving them a consistent taste that their customers remember. This is why you must also choose great ingredients, including the right chocolate, to ensure your recipe is a success whenever you make candy in your home kitchen.

Professional candy makers and chocolatiers use the term "couverture" for chocolate that contains 32 to 39 percent cocoa butter and prefer it to regular baking or eating chocolate. This is because couverture chocolate tastes better and offers a texture that lends itself very well to making candy and other luscious chocolate-coated treats.

Tip: When shopping for chocolate, you may not be able to find one that is actually labeled couverture chocolate in your area. If this is the case, look at the labels and choose one that has the highest available percentage of cocoa butter, making sure that it is also labeled as pure chocolate. Avoid any with labeling that indicates they are chocolate-flavored as these may have other ingredients that will affect the quality of your recipe.

Tempering the chocolate

In addition to choosing the best chocolate for your recipe, it is critically important that you understand the importance of tempering the chocolate. This is done by gently melting and heating chocolate in a double boiler until it becomes tempered. For dark chocolate, this occurs at 118 degrees Fahrenheit and for milk chocolate, tempering occurs at 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tip: When tempering chocolate, take care to ensure that any steam or water droplets that occur during the tempering process are not allowed to contact the chocolate because the moisture will ruin the texture.

While rewarding, making delicious chocolate treats at home can be both time-consuming and expensive. If you would like to enjoy delicious chocolate-covered treats, such as coconut patties, without messing up the kitchen or shopping for ingredients, it is now easy to order many of these delicious chocolate candies online from companies like Sun Delights Inc and have them delivered directly to your home.

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