How To Temper Chocolate In The Microwave
This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. Please Read Our Disclosure Policy.
Learn the easiest way to get perfectly tempered chocolate by using your microwave. Get shiny, glossy chocolate to use in your all your baking recipes!
You know when you get a shiny, glossy piece of chocolate that has a crisp snap when you take a bite? That’s tempered chocolate.
The traditional way of tempering chocolate involves a double boiler and using your stovetop but today I’m showing you the easiest way to temper chocolate – using your microwave!
Beautiful tempered chocolate with zero fuss. Now that’s what I’m talking about!
See Also:
- If you need cream cheese softened fast, then check out these easy ways to soften cream cheese fast for your cheesecake!
- Make your own powdered sugar at home in minutes with just 2 ingredients.
- Shortening can be a messy ingredient to measure, but not with my easy ways to measure shortening that makes it quick and easy.
What does tempering chocolate mean?
Tempering chocolate is a simple process of melting chocolate to a certain temperature then cooling the chocolate down. You would want to temper chocolate when you need to coat or dip something in chocolate and have it stay hardened, and not melt on you – like when making truffles or chocolate covered strawberries.
Using this technique of slowly heating and cooling chocolate stabilizes the chocolate and gives it a smooth, shiny finish that has a snap when you take a bite. You can temper bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate.
To temper chocolate, you start by heating only a portion of your chocolate. Once that’s melted, you use a method called the seeding method, which means you will stir in the remaining chopped chocolate to cool the chocolate back down.
This slow heating and cooling of the chocolate causes the crystals in the cocoa butter to arrange in a specific order that gives that you shiny, snappy finish.
You can temper chocolate over a double boiler (seen below), on a marble slab, or in the microwave (which is what we are doing today!)
Is tempering chocolate necessary?
Melted chocolate that has hardened and not tempered first will be dull and lack that snap. Without tempering first and storing the chocolate properly the chocolate can develop a gray, dusty appearance, called chocolate bloom. You can avoid blooming of your chocolate by tempering it first.
Tempered chocolate vs. melted chocolate will stay hard at room temperature and not need refrigeration. Unlike something dipped in melted chocolate, like a cookie, you will need to refrigerate the cookies so the chocolate doesn’t melt and become soft.
Can you use a microwave to temper chocolate?
Yes you can! It’s easy and fast to use your microwave to temper chocolate. However, there are two rules to follow when tempering chocolate:
- Do NOT over heat the chocolate. Do not heat over 120oF (for bittersweet or semi-sweet dark chocolate), 110oF for white chocolate and 113oF for milk chocolate. This could cause the chocolate to burn.
- Do NOT expose the chocolate to water. This will cause your chocolate to seize up.
How to temper chocolate in the microwave
Easily temper chocolate in the microwave in just 4 easy steps:
- Chop and divide the chocolate. You want to chop the chocolate up finely before you start so it melts easily. You can use a sharp knife or a food processor. Set aside 1/3 of the chopped chocolate pieces and place the remaining 2/3 chopped chocolate into a glass or other microwave safe bowl.
- Melt chocolate in microwave. Heat in 30-second intervals at 50% power. Do NOT heat at full power. Stir in between each interval as the chocolate can hold its shape even though it might be melted. Near the end, you may want heat in smaller intervals, like 1- seconds at a time so not to burn it. Heat to 110-120oF for bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate. Heat between 104oF to 113oF for milk chocolate and to 100-110oF for white chocolate.
- Temper chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted, add remaining chocolate and stir until melted. Cool the chocolate down to a temperature between 88- 89oF for bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, and between 85-86oF for milk chocolate and white chocolate.
- Time to dip! Once tempered, you can start dipping! If your chocolate begins to harden up as you are dipping, you can reheat again on 50% power in 10-15 second intervals.
How can I tell when the chocolate is tempered?
Properly tempered chocolate should harden when something is dipped in it within a few minutes and have a glossy finish.
Test out your chocolate by dipping a spoon in the chocolate and letting it rest at room temperature. After a few minutes, the chocolate should be hardened to a smooth, glossy finish.
What’s the best chocolate for tempering?
You want to use real, quality chocolate for tempering. Here are the best chocolate forms to use:
- Chocolate bars – Not a candy bar but pure baking chocolate bars. Some of my favorite chocolate baking bars to use are Ghiradelli or Guittard dark chocolate bars.
- Chocolate wafers – These are pure chocolate in chocolate disc form. My favorite brands to use are Guittard, Valhrona, or Callebaut.
You cannot temper chocolate with:
- Chocolate chips – Chocolate chips have stabilizers in them which can prevent them to become completely melted and allow for tempering.
- Candy melts – Although easy to melt and use, they are not real chocolate and have added ingredients in them and cannot be tempered.
Tempering Chocolate Tips
- Use a candy thermometer. It’s tough to guess if your chocolate has been heated to the correct temperature and not gotten too hot and when its cooled down enough. Get a good thermometer to use for tempering chocolate!
- Chop up your chocolate into small pieces. You will get better, more even results if the chocolate is chopped finely. You can chop it up using a knife or make fast work using your food processor.
- Use quality chocolate. You want quality chocolate here in bar or disc form. Do not temper chocolate chips. They have stabilizers in them which prevents tempering.
- Do not over heat the chocolate. If the chocolate gets too hot it can burn and lose flavor. Heat to 110-120oF for bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate. Heat between 104oF to 113oF for milk chocolate and to 100-110oF for white chocolate.
- Avoid water. This can cause the chocolate to seize up and prevent it from being tempered.
Recipe FAQs
If during the tempering process, your chocolate seizes you can still save it and not throw it in the trash. Stirring vigorously, add in a little melted butter, water or oil into the chocolate. Although you can’t use it as tempered chocolate you can still use the chocolate in other ways. Try using it a glaze on a cake, stir into a cup of cocoa, or serve over ice-cream!
The three different tempering methods. You can use a double boiler on the stovetop, a microwave, or on a marble slab (seen below). The microwave method is by far the easiest!
don’t recommend it. It’s easy to over heat the chocolate using a microwave and ruin your chocolate. And since we are working with high quality chocolate here it’s not worth risking.
How to use tempered chocolate
You can really use tempered chocolate and dip whatever you want in it! Try dipping cookies, pretzels, marshmallows in the tempered chocolate.
Here are my four favorite ways to use tempered chocolate:
- Truffles – Make some homemade chocolate truffles and instead of rolling cocoa powder, dip in tempered chocolate instead.
- Chocolate covered strawberries – Use tempered chocolate tempered chocolate to make one of my favorite desserts, chocolate covered strawberries!
- Oreo cake balls– I usually use candy melts for Oreo cake balls, but you can swap and use tempered chocolate for pure chocolate heaven in a bite.
- Chocolate covered Oreos – Dip some Oreos into tempered chocolate and cover with sprinkles. Chocolate covered Oreos are an easy no bake treat to make for any holiday!
- Peanut butter cups – I love making these Reese’s peanut butter cupsaround Easter and are great way to show off your new tempering chocolate skills!
More Recipes To Try
Let’s Bake Together!
Subscribe to my newsletter to never miss a new recipe or baking challenge! And if you bake one of my recipes be sure to tag me on Instagram. You can also follow along with me on Facebook and You Tube.
How To Temper Chocolate In The Microwave
Equipment
Ingredients
- 12 ounces quality chocolate chopped finely
Instructions
- Chop and divide the chocolate. You want to chop the chocolate up finely before you start so it melts easily. You can use a sharp knife or a food processor. Set aside 1/3 of the chopped chocolate pieces and place the remaining 2/3 chopped chocolate into a glass or other microwave safe bowl.
- Melt chocolate in microwave. Heat in 30-second intervals at 50% power. Do NOT heat at full power. Stir in between each interval as the chocolate can hold its shape even though it might be melted. Near the end, you may want heat in smaller intervals, like 5 or 10 seconds at a time so not to burn it. Heat to 110-120°F for bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate. Heat between 104°F to 113°F for milk chocolate and to 100-110°F for white chocolate.
- Temper chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted, add remaining chocolate and stir until melted. Cool the chocolate down to a temperature between 88- 89°F for bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, and between 85-86°F for milk chocolate and white chocolate.
- Time to dip! Once tempered, you can start dipping! If your chocolate begins to harden again, reheat again on 50% power in 10-15 second intervals.
Notes
- Use a candy thermometer. It’s tough to guess if your chocolate has been heated to the correct temperature and not gotten too hot and when its cooled down enough. Get a good thermometer to use for tempering chocolate!
- Chop up your chocolate into small pieces. You will get better, more even results if the chocolate is chopped finely. You can chop it up using a knife or make fast work using your food processor.
- Use quality chocolate. You want quality chocolate here in bar or disc form. Do not temper chocolate chips. They have stabilizers in them which prevents tempering.
- Do not over heat the chocolate. If the chocolate gets too hot it can burn and lose flavor. Heat to 110-120°F for bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate. Heat between 104°F to 113°F for milk chocolate and to 100-110°F for white chocolate.
- Avoid water. This can cause the chocolate to seize up and prevent it from being tempered.
Hi Heather.
Thank you for this post! I am going to try it! Question for you: Once the chocolate is appropriately cooled and in temper, can you keep it in a warming pot to keep it the right temperature for dipping? If not, and it cools too much to dip, when you go to reheat it in the microwave, do you just go back to the dipping temperature?
Finally, if you don’t use all of the chocolate and want to save it for a later date, do you refrigerate and then have to fully re-temper it? THANK YOU! I don’t know why tempering has always scared me! I just don’t fully understand the chemical reactions so your post was most helpful. Thank you!
Hi Trish, keeping it warmed on the stove is fine just keep an eye that it doesn’t get too hot on you. If your chocolate begins to harden up as you are dipping, you can reheat again on 50% power in 10-15 second intervals. If you were to want to reheat the chocolate that you refrigerated it’s recommended to re-temper again as before. Glad you found the post helpful!!