Succeed your Easter chocolates

Choose the right chocolate To make your Easter fries, eggs, bells or rabbits ... Buy a couverture chocolate, richer in cocoa butter, at least 32%, whether it is black , with milk or white. It will be more fluid, so easier to work. It comes in the form of plates, balls, pistoles ...   

Tempering The fluidity of chocolate is obtained through tempering. This technique makes it easier to shape your chocolates but also to make shiny, smooth, crunchy chocolates with good texture. In addition, good tempering also ensures good chocolate shrinkage during cooling facilitating demolding.
To temper the chocolate is to obtain a good crystallization of the cocoa butter contained in the couverture chocolate. Tempering is essential because chocolate is composed of several fatty molecules, each of which has its own structures and characteristics and melts at different temperatures. That's why chocolate needs to be prepared by going through 3 steps to stabilize the cocoa butter crystals: melting, pre-crystallization (cooling) and crystallization (ready to be worked). It is therefore advisable to follow temperature curves to obtain the desired result, that is to say, as beautiful to look at as good.
For example, if the melting temperature has been too high, your chocolate will be less aesthetic, it will have some white traces, a matte appearance and will cause difficulties in demolding.   

The essentials you'll need: - a saucepan + a goblet or a bain marie saucepan ,
- a chocolate thermometer or only a tempereuse bain marie électrique which has the advantage of respecting all the temperature curves and keep your chocolate at a good temperature so that you can work it without cooling.   

3 important steps - 3 different temperatures:  

1-Cast iron Grate your chocolate into a plate if you bought it in this form.
Melt chocolate::
- for dark chocolate: 45 and 50 ° C
- for milk chocolate: 45 and 48 ° C
- for white chocolate: 40 and 45 ° C  

2-Pre-crystallization Remove the remaining chocolate from the bain-marie, mix and cool until the temperature reaches:
- for dark chocolate: 28/29 ° C
- for milk chocolate: 27/28 ° C
- for white chocolate: 25/26 ° C
Stir regularly so that the temperature drops more quickly.  

3-Crystallization Return to the water bath until you obtain:
- for dark chocolate: 32 ° C
- for milk chocolate: 30 ° C
- for white: 29 ° C
Check the temperature regularly, because it rises quickly. If you exceed the temperature, do not worry, you can start the whole process again. Indeed, chocolate can be tempered as many times as necessary.   


That's it, your chocolate is temperate, immediately fill your molds while it is at a good temperature. Do not let it cool down ... but again you can always repeat the previous steps.   

To make small fries with various shapes. Using a brush, apply a first layer of chocolate, let cool for 3 to 5 minutes at room temperature then fill the molds with the help of a ladle for example.
Tap the molds so that the chocolate is evenly distributed and remove any air bubbles.
With a spatula remove the excess chocolate.
Let the mussels cool to room temperature, when the chocolate begins to freeze place them in the refrigerator for about thirty minutes.
Then take them out, if there are surplus chocolate, scrape the surface of the mold with your spatula.  

Return to the refrigerator between 1:30 and 2 o'clock.  

By hardening the chocolate will shrink and they will be easier to unmold.