Anyone can make these Valentine’s Day chocolates

By Eric Kim, The New York Times

Remember the last time you bit into a chocolate-covered strawberry? If the shell snapped audibly, pooling on your tongue as it melted, then chances are that chocolate was tempered. Tempering, essentially melting and cooling chocolate, is why that thin shell of chocolate yielding to a juicy berry cracks with such a crisp, satisfying sharpness.

No one needs to learn how to temper chocolate to enjoy it, but knowing this basic skill of a professional chocolatier — and the science behind it — can broaden your understanding of why the chocolate you eat every day looks and feels and tastes the way it does. It also opens up a world of homemade confections. Think chocolate-covered strawberries and whatever else your heart (or sweetheart) desires: bananas, marshmallows, candied oranges.

“The No. 1 mystique that has to do with chocolate is tempering,” Alice Medrich writes in her award-winning cookbook, “Cocolat: Ext...