Molding Chocolate
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Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Wow, just awesome.Thank you very much, Alan.First, you trying to diagnose without see things at my place was pretty accurate, using only a few small thermoform molds and lack of air flow in the kitchen.Now to clarify the issue of moisture and pre-cooling of the molds, here is what I did at home.1. I took the tempered chocolate and poured it into the molds and left it on the counter top to cool. Blooming appeared significantly on the underside.2. Then I took empty molds and put it in the fridge to pre-cool. Then I took them out and poured tempered chocolate into them before leaving them on the counter top to cool. I get no blooming on the underside.Although the temperature is warm at 72 F, the relative humidity is very low, so low that our hands and lips are chapped, caused by the propane heat that keeps our house warm. We do not have a humidifier.It seems to me that the cold surface of the pre-cooled molds causes the tempered chocolate to cool faster, leaving less time for the cocoa butter to separate.Another strange thing I forgot to mention at the start of this post is that when I pour
untempered chocolate (about 100 F) into the molds that are not pre-cooled and leave them on the counter, I also get hardly any bloom (only a few little white spots). It's pretty shiny, but it melts much quicker in your mouth of course.To conclude, I think relative humidity is so low, it can be ruled out. Therefore pre-cooling the molds would only hasten the cooling of the chocolate.I shall try all this again in the summer when it gets humid.Again, I really appreciate your feedback. I'll be refrigerating now.