Chocolate University Online

Recently, I was asked this question:  “I love the taste of chocolate and orange but when I add orange zest to my coating it curdles.  Why?”

This presents an excellent technical lesson in working with chocolate.

The issue is moisture.

“Curdle” is not the correct term, but I think the idea is clear – chocolate will not function properly if moisture is introduced.  Even the tiniest drop of water is problematic.  When water and chocolate mix, it will “seize.”

Fresh fruit, including the peel of an orange, is moist and adding it to a chocolate coating spells disaster.  For this reason, chocolate candy bars use dried fruit, candied fruit, or an oil based flavoring.

You can cheat a little (and get away with it) by adding a fruit zest or juice to a ganache and then enrobing the ganache in chocolate.  If the candy is eaten within a few days, the moisture captured in the creamy center should not be a problem.  Truffles tolerate this process the best.  Don’t add the moisture to the coating.  Instead, add it to the candy center.

Another common problem arises when dipping fresh strawberries in chocolate.  Make sure you dry the outer skin completely before covering in chocolate.  This will buy you some time before the moisture makes it way through the fruit and to the surface of the chocolate coating.  When this happens, the moisture will destroy the appearance (with bloom) and texture (making it bumpy or grainy) of the surrounding chocolate.

Have you ever cut corners while cooking?  Ever used short cuts that the original recipe had you make from scratch? 

I have.  And why not?  Most often those “changes” don’t affect the final product and it saves lots of time.  Yes, sometimes I even buy frosting in a can (shhh, don’t tell my kids!).

One thing I have learned from my experience working with chocolate is that there are some short cuts that work and some that don’t.

Let’s consider the making of chocolate-covered strawberries.  Can you cheat at making chocolate covered strawberries without anyone noticing?

Yes, but………

The real timesaver when making chocolate-covered strawberries would be to figure out how to quickly temper, or harden, the chocolate coating.  Normally, the tempering process takes time and certain amount of skill gained by practice.  Although there are ways to speed up the solidification of chocolate, there is no good way to fake a tempered chocolate.

There are many recipes you can get your hands on that tell you how to make chocolate-covered strawberries.  And almost all of those tell you to melt the chocolate, dip the strawberries, and then put into them in the refrigerator to harden.  Voila, done!

That method is indeed fast and easy but it only works if you eat the strawberries within seconds of taking them out of the fridge.  If you want to put those remarkably delicious works of art out on a plate for your guests to admire before eating, the quality of the experience will certainly be diminished if you took the easy way out. 

The chocolate coating should be tempered.  This is not a step I recommend you skip.  An un-tempered coating will start to melt in your hand almost immediately.  It will bend when you bite it – giving you a soft and pasty feel in the mouth.   The chocolate will melt quickly on your tongue and the flavor will be gone before you can savor it.

A tempered chocolate will give a crisp snap when you bite and won’t get all gooey on your fingers while you hold it.  The chocolate will melt slowly in your mouth and allow a full blast of chocolate flavor to come through. 

If the strawberries with un-tempered chocolate sit long enough, they may start to bloom.  This means they will develop a white dust over the surface and look very unappetizing.

Try dipping strawberries in tempered chocolate and notice the difference.  If needed, refer to my earlier blogs on how to temper chocolate.  It will be worth the effort.