Why Your Home Kitchen Is Ruining Your Tempered Chocolate

Making chocolate in your home kitchen can be difficult, but it's worth it. Tempering the finicky chocolate is the hardest part of making treats like homemade peanut butter cups or chocolate covered strawberries. That's why we asked Nicole Patel, owner and chocolatier of Delysia Chocolatier, about tempering chocolate in our home kitchens.

"You can't simply melt the chocolate and use it. It must be tempered to receive the shiny outer chocolate layer," says Patel. "The environment must be conducive to working with chocolate." The temperature of your kitchen matters. Too warm and the chocolate won't set properly, too cold and it may harden faster than you'd like. The best temperature is around 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of your work surface matters as well. Patel informs us that the "surface must be cool and dry, preferably made of marble or granite, to maintain a consistent working temperature." 

Finally, the humidity of your kitchen makes a difference. If the humidity is too high your chocolate may turn out dull or have white streaks. Ideally your kitchen is at 50%-65% humidity. This feels like a lot to control for, but it's possible.

"Chocolate is temperamental. It needs a lot of tender love and care," Nicole Patel says. To get your kitchen ready for chocolate making, first, get that AC running to get the temperature in the right zone. If you don't have marble or granite counters, you can purchase a marble pastry cutting board. If needed you can chill it in the fridge for a little bit to make sure you have a cool, dry surface to work with that will keep the temperature consistent.

Humidity is a little trickier to control. You can get a dehumidifier, but getting one large enough for your kitchen may be pricey. If you have central air running the AC will help to lower the humidity. Otherwise you may want to just wait for a less humid day.

Other tricks to temper chocolate at home include using a heating pad to keep the melted chocolate at the right temperature for an extended period of time. This hack works well after you melt down the chocolate in a double boiler and then add more chocolate to cool it down. Now that your kitchen is all set, why not try something fun like making chocolate dipped jalapeños?