Cocoa butter is fat that is composed of three to four glycerides of fatty acids. What complicates matters in chocolate making is that each of these different fatty acids solidifies at a different temperatures. Once you melt a chocolate bar, the fatty acid crystals separate. The objective in tempering melted chocolate is to stabilize the fatty acid crystals of cocoa butter back into one stable form.

Oil and water don’t mix and chocolate is made up of dry ingredient suspended in cocoa butter. A small drop of liquid will moisten the dry ingredients and allow the cocoa solids to separate from the cocoa butter. This is why you never cover a pot with a lid, or the steam will condense and drop into the chocolate. Any mistake separates the cocoa solids and the other dry ingredients from the cocoa butter gets lumpy and will not have the right consistency.

The temperature of the melted chocolate—it should be between:

Dark Chocolate: 46–50°C
Milk Chocolate: 40–48°C
White Chocolate:37-40°C /high milk and sugar content in white chocolate will cause it to burn easily/

The best way to temper chocolate is not over a Bains Marie. The best way to temper chocolate is with a Thermomix and follow these steps;

Step #1. Place the amount on the Thermomix and put on speed 8 for 5 seconds.
Step #2. On speed 2 use counter-clockwise on 50°C and spin the chocolate until it is smooth, shiny and easy to pour.
Step #3. use a silicon mold or a Silpat and form the chocolate as required.
Step #4. Let it settle and set.