Help needed - tempering chocolate

[mudpiesfortea]

I found this really cute Easter cookie idea:

I'm going to make these to give to family instead of traditional chocolate eggs so I need to make sure they look the business.

I want to temper my chocolate before I dip the cookies to give it a really shiny finish but I've never managed to successfully temper chocolate.

I don't have a candy thermometer and have been using one for meat. Is that where I'm going wrong? I'm also using baking chocolate chips, perhaps I need to use something else?

Any tips/recommendations greatly appreciated!!

If you Google tempering chocolate in the microwave it seems to be almost infallible. Only tried it a couple of times and it seems to work well.

I've tried that method and the chocolate ended up with a chalky finish. Maybe it's the type of chocolate I'm using that's the problem