Replication Data for Tempering of cocoa butter and chocolate using minor lipidic components

Chocolate manufacture includes a complex tempering procedure to direct the crystallization of cocoa butter towards the formation of fat crystal networks with specific polymorphism, nano and microstructure, melting behavior, surface gloss and mechanical properties. Here we investigate the effects of adding various minor non-triglyceride lipidic components to refined cocoa butter and chocolate on their physical properties. We discovered that saturated phosphatidylcholine addition to bleached cocoa butter or commercial chocolate at 0.1% levels, followed by rapid cooling to 20oC in the absence of shear, accelerated crystallization, stabilized the desirable form V polymorph and induced the formation of chocolate with an optimal microstructure, surface gloss and mechanical strength. Final chocolate structure and properties were comparable to those of a commercial tempered chocolate. Minor lipidic component addition represents a novel and effective way to engineer chocolate material properties at different length scales, thus simplifying the entire tempering process.