You may be devoid of good judgment if you think that chocolate candy making is not a difficult thing. Maybe having all that you need, like a thermometer, spatula, double boiler, cookie cutters, candy molds, cookie sheets, and chocolates, are within reaching distance.

Actually preparing chocolate candy seems straightforward, too. You melt chocolate strips at low or medium heat on a double boiler, stirring now and then so as not to burn the chocolate, then you move the chocolate mush and pour over a cookie sheet to cut into bars, or onto chocolate molds to create different shapes, or even robe fruits with the molten chocolates for fruity-cored candies. You chill and serve, and your friends and relatives are happy.

But if you want to sell chocolate candy, then you’ll need that thermometer to always be near at hand because it’s for checking temperatures during tempering, a series of melting, cooling and re-heating stages to make chocolates attractive and therefore sellable for profit.

The shine, smoothness, snap and creamy texture are not original to chocolates so you need to temper because it’s what makes chocolates appealing to buyers. Correct chocolate temperatures are an important part of tempering because if you don’t maintain accuracy, chocolates will revert to its distempered state after melting so you’ll need to re-temper again.

Every chocolate type (white, dark, milk) has different tempering temperatures. It the distinctive polymorphic behavior of the fatty acids within cocoa butter that makes tempering a complex activity, and the reason for the need to keep temperatures accurate. These crystals form and multiply at six different and particular temperatures so temperature variations will always lead to tempering failure.

You should also know that the type V and type IV crystals can multiply together; keeping temperatures constantly accurate will discourage the type IV crystals, which melts away easily at room temperature, from proliferating.

Tempering could be carried out manually or by using a chocolate tempering machine. Especially when you’re tempering several pounds of chocolate at a time, you’ll need to automate tempering. It has a microprocessor that controls temperatures and directs the tempering cycle accurately so you can keep chocolates tempered while you’re working, or even holding them tempered overnight.

Artisan chocolatiers, however, prefer tempering by hand as they are in the specialty chocolate niche. You’d do well, though, to learn their technique even with a tempering machine as there may be times when you won’t have electricity. In which case, manual tempering will come handy and helpful.

Two tempering methods are available: tabliering uses a marble slab to lower chocolate temperatures; and seeding uses “seeds”previously tempered chocolate solids cut into small piecesto lead in the crystallization process so only the right crystals get produced.

You’ll need to keep repeating the tempering process if the temper of the chocolate gets ruined because you forgot to adhere to strict temperatures.