Chocolate – Can you add alcohol to chocolate being tempered

alcoholchocolatetempering

I want to make a tempered white chocolate coating with brandy flavour. Will adding the alcohol ruin the tempering process, or is there another way of going about this.

Best Answer

There are two issues, both of which make this a bad idea:

  1. You temper chocolate to give it a hard, snappy texture. Adding any liquid would be counter-productive to this goal.

  2. All normal alcohol has some percentage of water in it (as much as 60%, for example, for a typical vodka). Small quantities of water will make chocolate seize turning into a grainy, paste-like mess.

If you really want to flavor chocolate that is to be tempered, you should use a pure essential oil. These have no water, and are used in very small quantities.

Still, the better bet is to flavor the filling or other ingredients in whatever you are making.