Bear in mind the final time you bit right into a chocolate-covered strawberry? If the shell snapped audibly, pooling in your tongue because it melted, then likelihood is that chocolate was tempered. Tempering, primarily melting and cooling chocolate, is why that skinny shell of chocolate yielding to a juicy berry cracks with such a crisp, satisfying sharpness.

Nobody must discover ways to mood chocolate to take pleasure in it, however realizing this primary talent of an expert chocolatier — and the science behind it — can broaden your understanding of why the chocolate you eat daily appears to be like and feels and tastes the best way it does. It additionally opens up a world of home made confections. Assume chocolate-covered strawberries and no matter else your coronary heart (or sweetheart) needs: bananas, marshmallows, candied oranges.

“The primary mystique that has to do with chocolate is tempering,” Alice Medrich writes in her award-winning cookbook, “Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts.” So let’s demystify it: Chocolate is made with sugar, cocoa solids, cocoa butter and, generally, flavorings like vanilla and emulsifiers like lecithin. Cocoa butter, the pure fats extracted from cocoa beans, is what makes chocolate liquid when sizzling and stable when chilly. To mood chocolate, then, is to soften and funky it (and generally heat it once more) to the fitting temperatures to get a handy guide a rough, shiny shell that units and doesn’t soften at room temperature.

Crystallization is the key phrase right here. When chocolate is first melted, the cocoa butter’s fats crystals soften utterly. To begin reforming these crystals, stir the melted chocolate to chill it; finely chopped chocolate (known as seed chocolate) may be added to jump-start this cooling course of. If the chocolate turns into too thick for dipping, reheat it gently. All of this enables the cocoa butter to solidify once more at room temperature with even and steady fats crystal formation.

And if it doesn’t set? Be at liberty to simply refrigerate it.

Paul Lorusso has been tempering chocolate since he was a young person. (His household has been within the confectionary enterprise for generations.) Within the Nineteen Sixties, his mom, Lorraine Lorusso, was working at Cease & Store, a connoisseur meals retailer within the suburbs of Chicago. Mr. Lorusso mentioned that it was there that she thought to take the enormous strawberries from the fruit division subsequent to her sweet stand, then dip them in chocolate for Mom’s Day. “In 25 hours,” she mentioned in a biography of her life, “with an funding of solely $700, I had a return of over $3,800.”

Ms. Lorusso, who died in 2014, didn’t discover out till many years later that she had been credited with inventing the chocolate-covered strawberry.

The innovation, now closely related to Valentine’s Day, has since develop into a well-liked reward merchandise in america. Somia Farid Silber, the president of Edible Manufacturers (the guardian firm of Edible Preparations), mentioned the corporate’s field of 12 dipped strawberries is a high vendor, with gross sales peaking round Feb. 13 and 14. Final 12 months, they bought 37.5 million chocolate-covered strawberries.

It truly makes quite a lot of sense to dip strawberries in chocolate in winter, after they’re more durable and last more within the fridge than when they’re summer-ripe. To not point out, they will use the sweetness of chocolate to offset their out-of-season tartness.

You should buy chocolate-covered strawberries, or you may dip your individual at house as an act of affection for your loved ones (or to observe your chocolate tempering). This recipe highlights a straightforward methodology for individuals who need to partake within the joys of constructing snappy chocolate at house. However the true secret to tempering chocolate is that this: “Anybody can be taught,” the chocolatier Jacques Torres mentioned.

In 2000, Mr. Torres opened his chocolate store and manufacturing facility in Brooklyn as a result of his work as the manager pastry chef at Le Cirque didn’t depart time for actual life. However he might make shelf-stable chocolate upfront, which meant he might work regular hours and go house to have dinner along with his household.

Nonetheless, the one time of 12 months Mr. Torres doesn’t get to be house is round Valentine’s Day. Chocolate-covered strawberries can’t be made forward, for the reason that fruit is 90 p.c water, which suggests they don’t hold effectively. The magic occurs all the way down to the wire: On Feb. 12, the modern-day Wonka seeks out the most effective berries he can (bribing the sellers with Valentine’s Day candies, he joked). On Feb. 13 and 14, he begins at 3 or 4 a.m., tempering chocolate and dipping berries in his manufacturing facility, so he can promote the coveted treats by the point his store opens.

In the event you’re at house, a easy method to mood chocolate is to soften a portion of bar chocolate within the microwave or in a bowl set over simmered water, and to then cool it down with extra unmelted, finely chopped chocolate (the seed chocolate), all of the whereas stirring, to encourage even fats crystal formation because the cocoa butter solidifies once more. You’ll be able to add a teaspoon of olive oil to ensure sheen. Dip bone-dry strawberries into that chocolate and put aside to harden.

You don’t want a sweet thermometer or a manufacturing facility to make chocolate-covered strawberries. All you want is the will to be taught.