Chocolate Tempering & Enrobing


Boosting creativity through flexible systems


How is technology developing to incorporate new capabilities in small scale chocolate production and meet the consumer demands of today? Kiran Grewal finds out more.


M


ore and more consumers are looking to embrace the indulgent aspect of chocolate but are looking for new flavour experiences and to really embrace the origins of the ingredients. This consumer demand is leading to new methods of chocolate


production, giving manufacturers an opportunity to be creative and flexible in their offerings. The institution of culinary education says with several recent offerings from industrial makers (Barry Callebaut, Nestlé, Felchlin, Lindt and Ritter) over the last year or two, they believe we will see more experimentation with ‘whole-fruit’ chocolates and other snacks sweetened not with conventional sugar, but with cacao pulp-derived sugars. These products may take a while to catch on among pastry chefs and chocolatiers due to unique flavours, differences in the chocolate’s workability and standard-of- identity issues (legal definitions of chocolate). Though a taste for the intense flavours of dark chocolate has


increased, craft chocolate makers are changing our perception of what milk chocolate can be as well, with ‘dark milk’ products that offer higher cocoa percentages, adding extra complexity to familiar creamy textures we expect to find. We will also see increased use of alternative dairy products to produce plant-based analogs for milk chocolate, seeking to deliver a similar experience with on-trend milk replacers, like oat, cashew, almond and coconut. Alternative sweeteners are traditionally more difficult to incorporate into chocolate. There may still be some space for innovation due to the interest in low-carbohydrate diets, but sugar-free chocolate remains a niche market, though Hershey’s acquisition of the popular Lily’s brand in 2021 may be a signal that alternative sweeteners will one day break into the mainstream. The messaging and science on potential ‘healthy’ aspects of chocolate — notably the antioxidant-rich polyphenols that it may contain — are still a bit murky, but expect to see a steady increase in promotion of health-and-wellness positions as well.


Innovations in tempering machinery The purpose of tempering chocolate is to pre-crystallise the cocoa butter in it, which is important to make your chocolate ready for processing. During tempering, the cocoa butter in the chocolate takes on a stable crystalline form. This guarantees a perfect finished product with a satin gloss and a hard snap. It also makes the chocolate contract during cooling, which makes it easier to unmould.


10 Kennedy’s Confection February 2023


“technology has adapted as the industry develops, opening


automation up to manufacturers at all levels”


If chocolate is simply melted (between 40 and 45 °C) and


then left to cool down to a suitable working temperature, the finished product will not be glossy. If you make the small effort of bringing your chocolate to the right working temperature properly, you are guaranteed to get the desired end result. And that’s what we mean by tempering: bringing chocolate up to the right working temperature while making sure that the crystalline structure of the cocoa butter in it is stable. So, why is fluidity so important? The fluidity of your


chocolate determines the thickness of the shell and the snap of your chocolate products: the more fluid your chocolate, the thinner and crunchier your shell will be. Using chocolate with the right fluidity also saves


time: you can cast large moulds in one go with less fluid chocolate. Chocolate with a higher fluidity is better for moulds with a lot of detail, but you’ll need to fill your mould with chocolate two to three times. We ask Mike Gee, Director at Premier Forrester about


what developments he is noticing in the sector, he says: “Most recently, we have seen an increase in product variation, with manufacturers using a wider range of colours and flavours, both in individual confections and across their product selection. Coincidentally, the production trend is moving away from large and inherently inflexible tempering and enrobing solutions, to smaller, more mobile systems. “Whilst large-scale systems with high capacity have historically been the trend, this does not lend itself to


KennedysConfection.com


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