Equipment

If you have the right equipment and start with the best ingredients, you're more than half way to producing fabulous-tasting chocolates.

What equipment do I need to make fine chocolate?

At a minimum, you'll need the following equipment:

• a glass bowl and a saucepan to melt the chocolate or a microwave-proof bowl and microwave (or a chocolate melting tank if you are already serious about chocolate making and can afford the investment!)
• stone benchtop or marble bread board (if tempering by the 'tabliering' method)
• scales (if tempering by the 'seeding' method)
• spatulas (I've tried using a variety of locally available spatulas, but specialist chocolate spatulas are best - see our on-line shop for supplies)
• chocolate moulds - polycarbonate moulds are best and really the only ones to produce great results (lightweight moulds can be used for solid shapes but you'll quickly grow to love your polycarbonate moulds once you try them!)
• fridge to cool the moulded chocolate
• somewhere with a cool and stable temperature to store your chocolates (or avoid this step and just eat them as soon as you can!). The optimum environment for long-term storage is 12 degrees C and 40% humidity (commercial chocolate fridges are available but not cheap!). To begin with, just choose the room in your house that has the most stable temperature (12-18 degrees); somewhere you might store good wine is a good start (I started by using my laundry as it had a concrete floor, only one small window and stayed relatively cool; however, for commercial production a specialist fridge is needed).

• grease-proof paper
• paper towel