>>1 That really depends on the quality of the chocolate. The lower the quality the worst it will be. Crap you by at the normal store wont temper at all unless you get Ghirardelli. It's not the best chocolate there is, and it's rather expensive, but it will temper. Go online and order some Bakers Chocolate, or if you have a store in your town that sells restaurant supplies they might have some good bakers chocolate, if you really want good chocolate. And I don't care what your formula (we use formulas not recipes in baking and temping chocolate is part of Pastries) says, the best way to temp chocolate is to bring it up to 118F, down to 80F, and up to 95F. After that just make sure you keep it below 98F. If you bring the chocolate above that it will be ruined. You can cool it down and just heat it back up to 95F when ever you want without tempering it again.
