How To Make A Hard Chocolate Coating With Couverture Chocolate

Using couverture chocolate to coat your food products is an application most often used by bakers, pastry chefs, and chocolatiers. Throughout this article, we will talk about coating chocolate applications and what you need to do to get that shiny glossy appearance.

when should you use chocolate to coat your products?

Some of the applications you can use to coat with chocolate are ice cream (think Magnum-style ice cream), protein bars, candy, cookies, nuts, fruits, coffee beans, pastries, donuts, cookies, and biscuits. The applications for coating chocolate are endless. 

Generally, any melted couverture chocolate will harden once it cools down. But for coating applications, we always recommend that you temper your chocolate first, as this gives you a glossy appearance and a fine snap when biting or breaking into the food item. 

THE KEY TO MAKING THE PERFECT CHOCOLATE COATING

The key to making some good chocolate coating is using high-quality chocolate. You could always use regular, compound chocolate to make a quick chocolate coating. However, compound chocolate rarely ever produces that lovely glossy coating. Plus, the compound chocolate coating doesn't give off that satisfying snap when you bite into it.

So, what should you use?

Try using couverture chocolate instead. Also known as real chocolate, couverture chocolate will give you that gorgeous hard chocolate coating you get with desserts at expensive restaurants.

That said, using couverture chocolate can be a daunting task for some. In order for the chocolate to be able to harden properly, you will need to temper the chocolate beforehand. Luckily, we have a comprehensive guide on how you can temper your couverture chocolate. Click here to read it and come back later when you've learned how to do it!

HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE COATING

I’m assuming you’ve learned how to temper chocolate and are using tempered chocolate here.

Here are the ingredients you need:

• 400 grams or 2 cups of couverture chocolate chips

• 2 tablespoons of shortening

How to make the perfect coating:

1. Cover the tray you’re using with baking paper or parchment paper.

2. Then take a heatproof dish (preferably metal or glass) and add your chocolate chips or couverture chocolate coins.

3. Melt the chocolate chips.

4. Add the shortening to the melted chocolate and stir thoroughly.

5. Continue to stir constantly until the melted chocolate mixture reaches the desired consistency.

You can use any melting process to melt the chocolate for coating. When the chocolate melts, simply dip or coat the food item such as fruits, nuts, or anything that you want to cover with chocolate. Then let it set on the baking paper till the chocolate solidifies and you’re done.

Read more: Why Do You Need to Temper Chocolate? What Does It Do?

USING YOUR HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE COATING

So now that you've made your dipping chocolate, what can you do with it? Let's find out three different ways you can utilize your dipping chocolate mixture to take your treats to the next level.

1. ice cream with chocolate coating

Do you want to coat your ice cream on a cone with chocolate? That can be easily done. Simply place a scooped ice cream on a wafer cone, dip it into tempered chocolate, and let it set. If you have tempered your chocolate properly, it should set within 4-5 minutes. Additionally, it will give you a nice crispy chocolate shell, just like your store-bought ice cream in the freezer section of your supermarket.

2. chocolate coating for pralines or truffles

If you don’t have a dipping fork or spiral meant for hand-dipping, you can simply use a toothpick or fork to place your praline into a bowl of melted chocolate until completely submerged. Drip off any excess chocolate and leave it to set on some baking paper until it’s completely solidified. That’s your chocolate coating done!

Read more: The List of Chocolate Tempering Equipment You Must Have

3. chocolate coating for nuts, dried fruits, and coffee beans

The same method applies to coat your nuts, dried fruits, and coffee beans. Use tempered chocolate and dip any of your desired food items into the chocolate to coat and leave to dry on baking paper. Make sure to drip off any excess chocolate before placing it on the baking paper.

Are you considering using Embassy couverture chocolate for your dessert, baking, and confectionery products? You can download our product brochure by clicking on the button below or fill in the form on our Contact Us page to have a sales rep get in touch with you for a free consultation regarding your needs and answer any questions you may have.