Hi everyone,I have been having more problems the past year with the finish of my chocolate truffles than I had previously. I have a rev 3210 and a rev2 tempering machine with a warming bowl for after it's tempered. Why is my chocolate surface so inconsistent if I'm using professional equipment?To give more info...my truffles are square not round (not sure if that matters just want to give enough info for a diagnosis). The truffle centers, or "innards" as we call them are out of the fridge when I dip them. I thought this might be the issue so we tried them a little warmer. Too warm and they are hard to dip. Still seem to have the problem. The surface just seems to have swirls and little round dots. From everything I've read that points to it not being tempered properly.I will assume the matte finish, as opposed to shiny which I would prefer, is due mostly to the temperature when dipped?The ingredients in my dipping chocolate are cacao paste, cacao butter, vanilla bean, sea salt, coconut sugar and the last 10 minutes sunflower lecithin (liquid) but only about 1/2 to 1 tsp to a total batch of about 8 lbs of chocolate. This grinds for at least 2 days so it's pretty smooth.Any advice would be greatly appreciated.Thanks so muchJenniferP.s. This is raw chocolate we are dealing with if that matters
updated by @jennifer-davis: 04/13/15 09:08:00

Not sure if this could be related...What kind of sea salt are you using?I make a carmel that I dip in chocolate then sprinkle salt on top. I've had to experiment with different salts. When I used a coarse Pink Himalayan Sea salt the chocolate seems to almost weep, and it spotted and swirled in the area around the salt. I used a Fine pink Himalayan and it did not weep, but did get spotty. It's not bloom, and doesn't affect the taste, but it doesn't look pretty! Then I used a plain old kosher salt- and they were just fine! (But I wanted to use a FANCY salt! )Not sure if there is any validity to this, but my pink sea salts seem to be kind of moist.Anyway, like I said not sure if this could be the culprit, and I hope you figure it out

Thanks Ashley, any bit of info I could get would really help. I do use Himalayan salt. It is very fine however and I grind it for 2 days along with the other ingredients. Thanks for chiming in

Hi Jennifer,

Several thing may go wrong here. Please allow me.

When you work with chocolate you need to take in consideration of room temperature, humidity, products you enrobe, the type of decoration you use, dry ingredients or imprint dcor, temperature of your center and equipment. Ventilation, air conditioning depending on how high your ceiling. Working in a basement near the coast line or in high altitude, will all give you different result, very hot humid summer or very cold winter could affect the finished product also. Therefore, all chocolatier has different experience of the shine, humidity,shelvelife andthickness of chocolate during dipping moulding etc...

The Rev line, For my personal experience, The speed of the bowl is turning too fast, therefore I am quite sure that you need to reheat constantly your chocolate, because its get thicker over time and quickly. for small production, I always suggest to use melter like mold'art, Mafter,dry heat or water bath. is depend on your preference and price that offer in your area. Back to the Rev line, You need to work fast enough to prevent the thickness( Vaseline) of the chocolate. This may also be your problem of swirlingby over or under heating?Round dot can be air bubble underneath,

To have a max shine after dipping in chocolate,you center should be around 23oC-24oC. and dark chocolate should be temper at 32-32.5oC up to 33oC. Room temperature should be around 22-23oC. A room to cold, the crystallizing of the cocoa butter is too fast may loose shine. The center is too cold, dip into a warm chocolate will also loose shine. Dipping chocolate if is too thick( over crystallize) will also loose shine and swirl, circle, uneven crystallizing.

As per your post, You put in the fridge for easy dipping, that mean your recipe is not balance and missing some cocoa butter that help it set at a right consistence for dipping. Filling ganache center and dipping ganache center have a completely different formula.

Last some of the sea salt can be more hygroscopic than the other. Smaller, less refine particle will have tendency to absorbed the humidity in the air(ERH equilibriumhumidity relative) in a simple explanation,if your room humidity ishigh,your product will absorb the humidity in your room. If your room is too dry, the product will dry out. Therefor if you are in an area with high humidity the sea salt will absorb the humidity and transfer on to your chocolate.

Cheers,

Derrick,

Thank you so much! You have given me a lot to think about and test. Thanks for taking so much time in responding to me.

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

No Problem, happy to share.

Derrick

Hi Jennifer,

I had a similar problem. I think it was because my chocolate was too thick. I have since started working with Belcolade which is more liquid (thinner), and have no problem now.

Anjali