my dark chocolate is white out of the mold, help with tempering
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Aloha,
I'm a beginner making chocolate in Hawaii with Hawaiian cacao. At first this was a challenge in my home 82 degree kitchen, but I am now getting a stable temper (does not melt in my hand), but a lot of my chocolates are getting white streaks and the outer layer of my last batch is completely white (see attached picture). With other batches, some have looked great. The only batch I have made that did not bloom at all had added cacao butter which I do not usually add and they are looking great a month later, so I am wondering if a factor is low fat content. In a previous batch of dark w/no butter, some had streaking and some did not. At the time I attributed that to the fact the streaked chocolates were the last to be molded and the melted chocolate was difficult to pour and had already cooled considerably and probably unevenly.
The batch pictured is 72% criollo with no added cacao butter. I've been letting my chocolate age in a bowl for about a week. By then it has tempered on it's own. It seems that doing this helps the stability of my end product but I don't know why. I realized I could probably do a seeding method with this, but I have been heating 4lb batches to 120 degrees, then cooling half on a slab of granite by hand with many fans, getting it down to 80-82 degrees, then back up to below 91. Then molding by pouring or syringes and using a heating pad for the melted chocolate. This white, problem batch I let harden at room temperature whereas I have hardened previous batches in the refrigerator. I decided to try room temp because the drastic temperature change and condensation upon removing my product seemed to affect its flavor over time.
Where am I going wrong? Any feedback on the art and science of tempering (Hawaiian) cacao much appreciated! Thank you!
updated by @sterling: 04/12/15 03:48:40