Tempering chocolate is tricky business, it can take professionals a year or more to master it. When melting chocolate, if you want to get that lovely shine and snap back into it when it sets, you have to temper it. Tempering is when you precisely raise and lower the temperature of the chocolate during the melting process, afterwards adding an amount of un-melted chocolate to the melted stuff. It's very technical and I am yet to master it myself...although I did accidentally do it once when melting chocolate in the microwave but I'll come to that in a later post!
Anyway, if the chocolate overheats it causes the chocolate to 'bloom' creating a streaky surface (as you can see in the above picture). Un-tempered chocolate takes a long time to set, up to 20 minutes, has a fudgy texture and will melt in your fingers almost immediately if you pick it up. Tempered chocolate will set in 3-5 minutes!
I wanted to practice my food styling/ photography so used my chocolate anyway, layering it with raspberries and chantilly cream.
...another cheeky appearance from the Portmeirion too
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