No matter how chocolate is tempered, its
temperature must be held in the tempering
range until it is used. If allowed to cool, it will
begin to solidify prematurely, won’t flow
evenly, and produces an uneven consistency
and appearance.
Melting Tempered Chocolate While
Maintaining It in Temper It’s also possible to
obtain tempered melted chocolate without
actually doing the tempering. Nearly all
manufactured chocolate is sold in tempered
form. A cook using new, well-made chocolate
can warm it carefully and directly to the
tempering range, 88–90ºF/31–32ºC, so that it
melts but still retains some of its desirable fat
crystals. This is easily done by stirring the
finely chopped chocolate in a bowl over a pot
filled with water at 90–95ºF/32–34ºC. If for
some reason the chocolate is overheated, so
that it loses all of its fat crystals, or if the
cook is using previously melted and