I have been hand dipping ganache centres in tempered chocolate for
sometime now. However, I have always been disappointed with the
thickness of the enrobing - too thick.

I use Valrhona Equatoriale Noir for my enrobing. I have considered
adding more cocoa butter to the couverture, but have shied away from
doing so - not wanting to waste a large vat of couverture.

However, what has worked for me is a hairdryer - a quick blast of warm
air removes excess chocolate from the freshly dipped ganache centre,
but (with the right hairdryer) does not heat the couverture out of
temper.

I allow the excess chocolate to fall back into my vat of tempered
chocolate. The chocolate remains in temper fine for many hours (I
temper on a granite slab). However, once the chocolate has been
allowed to cool after use, and then is remelted (to 58 degrees Celcius
as recommended by Valrhona) to begin the tempering process again, it
becomes thick and somewhat lumpy.

I have strained out the lumps and used it ok. But the lumps reoccur
without fail each time the chocolate in my tempering vat is allowed to
cool and set after use and then is reheated to 58 degs.

I had never encountered this problem before using the hairdryer, and
have encountered it every time since.

Any ideas, suggestions or explanations?

Simon