Ann Reardon

How to temper chocolate in the microwave

tempered chocolate how to temper milk chocolate

Why Temper Chocolate

Have you ever melted chocolate to make decorations only to find once it sets it is soft, dull and bends over when it is not in the fridge?  That is because it is not tempered.

why temper chocolate

LEFT-not tempered, RIGHT – tempered After five minutes out of the fridge

Chocolate manufacturers use equipment to precisely control the temperature of the chocolate during processing to cause the fat molecules in the cocoa butter to align neatly and tightly together.  This is called tempered chocolate.  It is firm at room temperature and has a crisp snap when you break it.  When at home and you heat the chocolate to melt it, you undo that process and so it is no longer in temper.

How to temper chocolate in the microwave

If you want tempered chocolate then the easiest thing to do at home is to simply keep the chocolate in temper, see the video below for details on how to do that.

You only need to temper chocolate if it is real chocolate. Candy melts and some other melts are not real chocolate and so do not require tempering. Watch the video below for an explanation of how to tell if it is real chocolate.

You may also be interested in You may also be interested in:

* How to make chocolate bowls
* How to make a box out of chocolate
* chocolate decorations for desserts

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

262 Comments View Comments

  1. Hi Ann,
    In the video “how to temper chocolate” you say that the chocolate has to be finely grated. I wonder how to grate chocolate without melting it.

    Thanks, you are great 🙂

  2. Hi ann the chocolate temper vidieo you did I followed the recepiec to make the Ganash on the Instagram cake but the chocolate was like a gooie mixture I’m not sure if it’s right but I don’t get the tempering and all so is there a way that I could improve please let me know hope you have a good day thanks

  3. Hi Anne,

    Thanks for the great and easy to follow tips 🙂 I was wondering if I could use the same tempering technique for chocolate that is already flavored with oils. (Peppermint flavored chocolate)
    Thank you so much!

  4. Love the stencil you used on the tempered chocolate tutorial-where can I find them?

  5. Hi Anne, which in your opinion would be the better chocolate for making a chocolate collar for a ganched cake?? I guess I;m answering my own question by saying that most people would say the taste of stuff such as the “melts” (as in the compound ones, not the other “real” choc melts for baking”) is not very nice, especially compared to real chocolate, but I;m having problems tempering chocolate in the microwave 🙁 Even if the chocolate is not the best couveture chocolate, I assume that even a cheaper type of proper chocolate with a lower % of cocoa butter still needs to be tempered…any further hints,tips would be most appreciated…love your work! Thank you very much.

    • These topics are so cosfuning but this helped me get the job done.

  6. I have a question please reply soon after i have tempered chocolate if it is set can i reheat it and use it . Will it still have that snap to it . i am soon gona make the chocolate cup any special tips given by you will help a lot . I LOVE YOU a lot i wish i also lived in sydney so that i can meet you

  7. Hello
    I am a big fan and i am from Norway.
    Can I temper chocolate with nutz?
    Because I am going to make some easter eggs chocolate.

  8. My cooking choc contains cocoa powder so how do I temper my choc
    I use dewchoc

  9. Hi Ann, I don’t understand what kind of chocolate to use to make decorations. Are you talking about chocolate chips. Also the castle you made with the dragon coming out of the top. How did you make it to look like you could see the gray on the inside. What’s an app?
    Thanks

    • Hi Dora,
      Check you chocolate ingredients if it contains cocoa butter then you need to temper it. If it contains vegetable oil then you can just melt it and use it. An app is an application for an iPhone/ipad/android device you can get it from here… https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/surprisecakes/

  10. Hi ann! i tried making truffles but i find that the chocolate i tempered was really thick and hard to work with (dipping). Is there any way i could “thin” it but still make things work? thanks in advance!

    • Hi Maria yes adding more cocoa butter makes it thinner when melted, higher quality chocolate has more cocoa butter so ones like lindor chocolate…

  11. Hi Ann , I m using nestle melts chocolates for coating (the one you showed )and I melt them on double boiler but after making butterflies ,once they are set they again gets melt not so quickly but after 5 min so I won’t be able to make different shapes and can I use them for coating the truffles?or can I reheat the leftovers to use it again? Thanks loads

    • Hi Sania, yes you can reheat and remelt the nestle melts

  12. My tempered chocolate turned white after a few hours. what did I do wrong?

    • A prcoioatvve insight! Just what we need!

  13. hi, i have a question what kind of chocolate that you use when its melts and when you frozen it it again will harden again i use Hershey’s chocolate but it didnt work

  14. Ann, your “Chocolate” section contains instructions on how to temper chocolate in a microwave. I’ve ever only used Belgian couverture (real chocolate), but I don’t own a microwave. Hate them! Would you please include instructions on tempering chocolate without using a microwave? Thanks in advance.

  15. Hi Ann, I’m new at baking and I’m still confused as to what kind of chocolate I need for decorations? Is it the one with cocoa butter and I will just have to follow your instructions as to how to keep in in temper? or the one with vegetable oil?

    Hoping for your quick response.
    I will be making your mickey mouse cupcake recipe for my nephews birthday.
    Thanks!

    • Hi Mariel, if you are new to baking and don’t want to temper the chocolate then use compound or fake chocolate (check the ingredients and it will have no cocoa butter in it). Real chocolate has cocoa butter and needs tempering.

  16. hello, Ann,
    I wood like tu know if the best chocolate for decorating is milk or dark
    Thx

    Klizice

  17. Thanks for your videos!
    I want to make a Crib cake for my daughters shower. For the crib , I want to use chocolate modeling clay made from real chocolate partly for taste. I saw McGreevy cradle crib you tube video – McGreevy used 50/50 gum paste and modeling chocolate. Gum paste tastes awful and must be hard to combine the two together. What do you think about adding Tylose to the chocolate?

    I did consider using MMF fondant for the crib itself as fondant can dry very hard. But I need some plasticity to be able to trim the parts of the crib when it comes time to assemble it around the cake.

    I’ve had to recently learn a lot – made MMF and worked with it, buttercream and crumb coating, painting on fondant which I was not happy with. So I will color fondant and cut out and roll sections that will be the quilt ( it will match my daughters quilt for the baby)

    I will put a baby on the fondant cake mattress as well as on cupcakes guests will take home. My dilemma with cupcakes is whether to use stiffened buttercream for the flower and put the baby on it (baby will be made from modeling chocolate)
    or just try to make a lovely chocolate flower and put the choco baby on it instead. I know there is a lot of questions here.

    Thank you ahead of time and any thing you would like to add would be greatly appreciated.

  18. Hi Ann,

    Thank you for your instruction. It’s wonderful. However, I still have 1 question. After 1 covering turn, I still got lots of leftover tempered chocolate. If the tempered chocolate set back, can I keep it in refrigerator and temper it again for later use?

    • That’s cleared my thoughts. Thanks for cointibutnrg.

  19. i love your videos! im a culinary student that loves to learn on my own and your videos are great! thank you!

    • You’re a real deep thekinr. Thanks for sharing.

  20. Hello Ann,
    I just wanted to thank you for all these nice videos! You explanataions are very nice and me, as a German, it is also nice to read thorugh all the recipes! I wish I would have found this website ealier! 🙂

    • * your

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