Yup - if I'm not seeding I do.

I also have a real quick question which regards to tempering chocolate. Do you need to temper chocolate that contains cocoa butter and vegetable fats altogether? 

Anything between a couple of hundred grams and 5 kgs.

I cool the entire mass to 25 to get 'wild' crystallization, then reheat to 30 (which eventually will get raised to closer to 32 as it becomes overtempered) to melt out the undesirable crystals and leave only the form 5 crystals. 

And how much chocolate do u do at any one time???

Do u temper it down to 25 and then ring it back up to 30???

I take milk chocolate down to 25 C when tempering by that method.

I must admit I am not stirring it really well when it is melting.  I melt it half way then transfer it then stir it like crazy until i get it to te temp required.

Are you stirring it really well when you are heating it up?

This is critically important as it keeps temperature of the whole batch uniform.

Equally important when cooling down.

thanks heaps for that.  I transfer the chocolate out of the glass bowl that I melted the chocolate into another one to stir it.  Does that make sense.  But I am going to try the steel bowl.

Now I understand your process.

Please remember that if a given set of temperatures (low and high) was working well before there is no guarantee that it will work today.

Chocolate varies from batch to batch (some less, some more) and changes sometimes need to be made. 

I would suggest replacing glass bowl with a thin walles stainless steel one. One of the problems possinle with your method is that if you heat the glass bowl up (while mixing the chocolate) until the chocolate reaches set temperature than take it out of the hot water the glass bowl is still hot and keeps transfering heat to the chocolate. Using steel bowl should reduce this problem (and if it falls it doesn't break).

Try this, try lower heating temperature until you find the best settings and be ready to do it again in the future. 

I stir it in a glass bowl to cool it down.  once a reach the temp I want I reheat on top of a small pot of water.  it has always worked for me in the past.  I'm not confident enough with chocolate to pour it onto a bench top.

Not sure what do you mean by "cool down by stirring". Do you do it on a steel/marble plate or just stir it in the container that is cooled by room air?

Once you have reached low temperature how do you warm it up?

If you leave the moulds in the room for 20-30 minutes they will be the same temperature as the air in that room, this you can check with a normal room thermometer.

I cool down my chocolate by stirring it.  How do I know the heat of my moulds???  I have always just poured in my chocolate once Ihave tempered it.  You are so right about dark chocolate being forgiving it is so much easier to work with.  I hve so many easter orders for milk chocolate eggs and bunnies but just can't get it right.

Thanks for the reply

 Hi Michelle,

Two possible problems:

1. Your chocolate is undertempered.

You may try to warm it up to 30C or 31C and see what happens, very vigorous mixing throughout the tempering will help as well.

How do you cool it down?

2. Your moulds are too hot when you pour your chocolate in. This melts too many crystals and detempers chocolate. 

Try making sure that the moulds are about 27-28C before pouring the chocolate in.

Dark chocolate is little more forgiving so problems may not show up as much as with milk. 

hi Peter, thanks for your post.

I  temper sbout 1 kilo of chocolate at a time.  I use a chocolate thermometer.  I bring my dairy choco down to 27 then back up to 32.  I use a double boiler when melting choco and stir it until it is at the correct temp.  I don't do anything to my molds.  I never have.  What am I doing wrong???

Could you describe your tempering process?

How do you check if chocolate is tempered correctly?

What is the temperature of your moulds before depositing chocolate?

- See more at: https://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/forums/new_posts/14825/where-is-the-tempering-errors#sthash.0l3zAvu8.dpuf

Hi All, Since I got such wonderful responses last time I posted I thought I'd try again.  I'm having problem with milk chocolate.  I'm molding in 3d molds.  My easter bunnies won't pop out and it is really sticky and tacky.  The molds aren't the problem as they are fine when I use dark chocolate.  What am I doing wrong this tme.

I've often found I get white marks the first time I use a mold - they disappear in subsequent batches.

And its also summer have atthe mo and really hot. I have been having problems tempering my chocolate so wondered if that had aything to do withit

It was really strange but I had washed and dried it and then I redid it and filled them again and they came out perfect. There must have been something on the mold.  Thanks for replying

 That does seem odd comming from the same batch and conditions. Normally we see this with tempering, humidity, mold temperature etc.. You mentioned washing the molds - It is critical the mold is 100% dry

- It is possible that the mold may have some residue you cannot see left in that area - from hard water, crystalized sugar, or other prior molding problems, an extreme case would be the mold surface itself is degraded, although unusual.

  I normally don't like people to polish molds but in this case, first wash with warm water and very SMALL amount of non abrasive dish detergent, lightly rub the area with your finger and the water to loosen. Dry with air a pure cotton cloth, then lighly buff with another dry cotton cloth. Make sure the mold is not cold, min of room temp or mid 70's or higher 70's if possible.

Another obvious quesion - do you only have one of the bunny molds?

Hope this is clear enough

Can you post pictures?

I am hoping that someone can help me.  I have got some molds that I have been using.  When I pop the chocolate out of the new molds there is white specks on the chocolate.  I know that this is a sign of chocolate not been tempered correctly.  But this isn't the case as I have used the same batch of chocolate on other molds and it has been perfect.  Why is it happening on only 1 mold.  I have washed the mold and dried it.  What am I doing wrong?