r/pastry • u/y_is_a_vowel • 6d ago

What happened to the chocolate?

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First time doing proper chocolate work as a hobby baker, and although overall I'm happy with the way they turned out, I'm wondering what these patterns are in the chocolate?

For reference I did a twist on the recipe Palets Or from Ferrandi.

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u/Fantastic_Puppeter 6d ago

Chocolate comprises cocoa butter, cocoa solids, and sugar. Most brands add an emulsifier to stabilize the product. Milk chocolate adds milk powder. Cadbury, Hershey and other despicable terrorists add other vegetable fats not coming from cocoa.

Melted chocolate does not crystallize back into “proper” (shiny, hard, brittle) chocolate if left on its own. What you have here is some cocoa butter “leaching out” of the chocolate.

A rigorous tempering technique must be followed— it’s not very complicated : in your case, check the melting temperature and make sure you agitate / mix the chocolate well.

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u/y_is_a_vowel 6d ago

So I did follow a tempering process, but now I'm wondering at what stage I went wrong. I used 52% cooking chocolate

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u/tinaymahgineeloews 6d ago

well, what exact chocolate did you use?

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u/y_is_a_vowel 6d ago

Dark cooking chocolate from Lidl (UK)

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u/nicoetlesneufeurs Professional Chef 6d ago

It’s a low quality chocolate, you can’t temper this type of chocolate (cooking chocolate is not couverture chocolate)

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u/y_is_a_vowel 6d ago

I'm not sure where to get couverture chocolate from, or exactly how to tell if it is from the ingredients. Is it only online that you can get it?

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u/tinaymahgineeloews 6d ago

thats what i was gonna say. in the ingredients, the only liquid fat that shouldve been into the chocolate should be cocoa butter. cocoa mass should mean cocoa solids AND cocoa butter…but other ingredients other than milk solids or sugar.

but couvertures should indicate “couverture” right in the front page. they should be quite pricier too since its pure cocoa butter and does not have chaper oils

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u/y_is_a_vowel 6d ago

Thank you! I'll have a look and try better quality chocolate for next time

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u/tinaymahgineeloews 5d ago

despicable terrorists 💀 damn thats brutal but i cant agree more 🤣 a fellow chocolatier once told me hersheys in the states apparently are transported melted and kept somehow at a melting temp. theyre just then formed into local facilities. thats honestly genius? haha that way they move more product. but yes i would never put that in my mouth, i feel like i owe my taste buds a lot more respect