Tips

A marble slab or other cool flat surface is essential. Work from one end of the marble to the other, and then back again so that the temperature of the marble remains stable. At the end don’t be tempted to scrape off the hard bits from your palette knives as this will mess up your tempered chocolate – leave for consumption later, or give them to any willing helpers to lick. A stable room temperature of 20–24°C helps as does low humidity, less than 50 per cent. Different chocolates have different tempering curves. The precise temperatures vary with each chocolate. This is a technical point, and most manufacturers supply this information to anyone who needs it, as it is pretty important to get good results.