chocolate blooms a day after tempering and I can't figure out why

Baking & Technique ChocolateTemperingBloomStorage

My temper looks right coming out. Good snap, decent shine, sets quickly. Then within a day or two there's a dull grey film on the surface.

So either my temper isn't as good as it looks, or I'm wrecking it after the fact. How do I tell which?

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2 replies

Vikram, first figure out WHICH bloom you have, because the two have different causes and opposite fixes.

Fat bloom is a soft greyish streaky film that smears slightly under a warm thumb. Sugar bloom is gritty and dry and won't smooth over. Feel it before changing anything.

Fat bloom means either the temper wasn't as stable as the snap suggested (good snap is possible with an imperfect crystal structure that reorganises over a day or two), or the chocolate went through a temperature swing after setting. Sugar bloom is moisture - usually condensation from moving chocolate between a cool space and a warm humid room.

Given you're in Ahmedabad and it shows up a day later, we'd look at the ambient swing after setting first. A correct working temper can be undone by the room the chocolate sits in overnight.

Practical: control the setting environment, not just the tempering. Avoid the fridge unless you can bring the chocolate back to room temp sealed, so condensation forms on the packaging instead of the chocolate. Store away from temperature cycling. If it persists after all that, then the temper itself needs work - test your seed method against the result instead of trusting the snap.

soft and streaky so fat bloom, and my setting room absolutely swings overnight. the variable I never even considered controlling. thank you

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