I have heard of tempering, but how do you do it.....you would think thats since the Food Network is on 24/7 in my house I would know how to do it!
Heh, if there's no battle involving it, I don't think it's on FN anymore.
It's really simple (and, honestly, mostly for appearance's sake, though if the temperature of the finished items will vary it can be more stable to use tempered) - you melt chocolate in a double boiler or like situation (you can just rest a bowl inside the rim of (not touching the water, just sitting up top) a pot with a couple of inches of simmering (not boiling) water.
Put your chocolate (roughly chopped or chipped so it melts evenly) in the bowl, stand and stare at it and occasionally bat it about with a spatula, until it's all melted. It shouldn't get too hot.
Then, take the bowl off the pan, put it aside, stir on occasion, just let it cool down to room temperature.
Put the bowl back on the simmering water pot. Stir. Wait a few, Take it off the pot, put it back, stir. You just want to rewarm it, not heat it again. It shouldn't be more than middlingly warm (I'm sure there are probably specific temperatures you can check - it's like dough, once you've done it, you know, you know?).
Then take it off, and voila, tempered chocolate. Basically you just melt it, let it cool, rewarm it, then that's it, it's usable at the lower warm temp. If you want to check if it's tempered right, drop some on parchment. If it hardens to glossy, it's tempered. If it hardens to a duller look, well, it's still delicious chocolate, and it's perfectly usable, it just doesn't look as perfectly shiny pretty.
