Breaking Bad

You've heard about the TV series "Breaking Bad." When I read about this TV show, I was grieved. That's all we need...to glorify unlawful actions and to try to justify them, as the lead character does, by saying it's because of the cancer. Well, the cancer in the body sometimes (not always) shows up because there was already cancer of the soul and/or spirit - especially in this case.

In chocolate, if the "tempering" isn't done right, the chocolate doesn't "set" right. It's not pretty, it doesn't have snap and it doesn't taste as smooth or rich. It won't have that glossy finish and will have streaks and/or spots all over. See the picture. I took that because I wanted to show what "bloomed" chocolate is like. It's called that (bloomed) because it's almost like a bad flower that multiplies itself when the chocolate doesn't set right. The texture is crumbly and soft, falling apart as blossom petals would fall off when a flower is through it's blooming cycle.

When this happens, I as the chocolatier, have a couple of options. I can pitch it, or remelt it and put in additional correctly tempered chocolate and try to reset it - and hope it sets correctly. Usually, my husband and I end up eating the bloomed chocolate.

Thankfully, God won't throw US away when we don't "set" right...at least not right away. He'll continue to work with us until we do "set" right. But the tempering process of our souls continues a lifetime.

However, we can come to a point where we are used of the Master Chocolatier however He pleases, if we stay in "temper." Next time: stories from an angry redhead - why I needed "tempering." The bottom picture is how tempered chocolate looks when it's been chopped a bit. You can see the difference in texture and color. All the chocolate used in this blog post was dark chocolate.