Simply put, chocolate is awesome. Consistently voted as most
everyone’s favorite indulgence, it rarely fails to delight our customers.
However, chocolate doesn’t always cooperate in the production of confections. Joe
Sofia with Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate identifies one of the most common
problems encountered with chocolate: bloom!
It can appear as spots, streaks, or a homogenous film, and can
range from a dull white to a severe white discoloration, it’s bloom! The most
common source is fat bloom, which is literally cocoa butter fat that has
migrated to the chocolate's surface and recrystallized . While fat bloom has a
negative effect on appearance, the product remains perfectly safe to eat. Pure
chocolate that contains fat bloom can be remelted and retempered to reach the
desired appearance. Unfortunately, finished confections that have fat bloom are
more difficult to repair, since they contain fillings or inclusions and cannot
be remelted.
EXCESSIVE HEAT
Fat bloom can develop for a few different reasons. Excess heat (from sunshine or warm temperatures) can
cause perfectly good chocolate to bloom. The heat melts some or all of the
cocoa butter, and when it recrystallizes it lacks the proper stable cocoa
butter crystal nuclei and cooling for proper recrystallization . The best way to
avoid fat bloom is to keep your
chocolates away from heat!
POOR TEMPER
Another source of fat bloom is poorly tempered chocolate. The use
of a tempermeter , or other means of optimizing your tempering step, will
maximize bloom resistance in your chocolates. Both under-tempered and
over-tempered chocolates will bloom faster than well-tempered ones.
INCOMPATIBLE FATS
A third source of fat bloom is the mixing of incompatible fats. If
you use compound coatings, which are usually palm kernel oil based, these
should not be mixed with cocoa butter based chocolate. The incompatibility of
these fats can lead to inefficient crystallization and eventual fat bloom.
SUGAR BLOOM
Sugar bloom is a different type of bloom, resulting from exposure
to moisture. It is formed by the dissolution and subsequent crystallization of
sugar on the chocolate’s surface. It generally appears as droplets of sugar
crystals on the surface of the product. If sugar bloom is moderate to severe,
most likely the product will contain coarse sugar crystals and should be
discarded. Sugar bloom can be avoided by keeping your refrigerated or frozen
chocolates packaged and sealed until they equilibrate to ambient temperature.
Register now for RCI’s Chocolate Boot Camp® to learn more about chocolate tempering,
trouble shooting and more.
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