I've recently started a chocolate company in Taipei, Taiwan. Perhaps a foolhardy venture since Taipei is famously hot and humid pretty much year-round, but I'm up for the challenge.
Every couple of weeks while tempering I get one batch that thickens up like peanut butter. It's this consistency while around 32-33 C, but will happily return to a smooth liquid state if I heat it back up to 45C. I do all tempering "by hand," ie seeding with an immersion mixer. Works great 99% of the time.
My current understanding of what's going on is that the chocolate has gotten humid and the higher water content is causing it to be unworkably thick at "working" temperature. So my question is, provided I'm right that humidity is to blame, can chocolate be dehumidified? If I keep it at 50C for 24 hours will the water content decrease enough to make it workable again? Or longer? Logic says if the chocolate is room temp +10 or +20C then ... if there is water in there it's gotta evaporate, at least a little.
Edit: Using a 73-27-42 from Belcolade so it seems to me it should always be very liquid at 32 C...
Any experience or thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks,
Lee
updated by @lee2: 04/12/15 03:16:27