If you are indifferent to manual tempering, you cannot succeed in your attempts. You should keep on tempering and re-tempering till the chocolate is tempered properly. This problem is absent in a tempering machine wherein everything is automated by a microprocessor. Your chocolate will also remain tempered for a longer duration, and if you need it, even all throughout the night until the next day.

But some chocolate enthusiasts want handcrafted confectioneries and for them, there are artisanal chocolatiers who still produce chocolates by employing tabliering in tempering. The concept and process of tabliering was developed in France and in this technique, you use a heat-absorbing surface such as a marble slab to cool the melted chocolate.

Tablieing will be a failure if moisture is allowed to in anything that touches the chocolate mush. Seizing will ensue, turning chocolate into a lumpy form that’s worthless for coating or sculpting chocolate confections. If the chocolates are rapidly heated or frozen, seizing can also happen.

The basic ingredient, chocolate, and such other items as a knife, chopping board, rubber spatula, stainless steel bowl, double boiler, and a regularly calibrated thermometer capable of measuring as low a temperature as 80Fmust be prepared beforehand. You should pat-dry all these utensils just to be certain.

The chocolate bar is thus cut into strips then settled in the double boiler to melt. The chocolate shouldn’t burn and must reach a range of 108 to 115F. The melted chocolate must be checked if it flows smoothly and does not turn lumpy.

Transfer 1/3 of the mush onto the marble slab and then scrape, fold, and spread 2/3 of the mush on the marble slab with a spatula so that the chocolate gets cooled to a range of 80-82F. But you shouldn’t allow the remaining portion in the mixing bowl to get colder than 100F because it’ll definitely harden.

After this, the remaining 1/3 of the mush must be mixed in with the first 2/3 until the entire mass is cooled. After that, re-heat the mush with temperatures as follows: dark chocolate at a range of 86 to 90F; semi-sweet chocolates at 86 to 88 F; and white chocolates to 82 to 84 F. You’ll know you’ve succeeded in your tempering effort if you dip the spatula into the mush and the chocolate becomes hard and glossy after five minutes. Dipping and molding can subsequently happen after tempering.

If chocolatiers don’t focus enough attention on maintaining specific temperatures during tempering, they’d repeat tempering again and again.