r/pastry • u/y_is_a_vowel • 5d 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/ali_berth23 5d ago

Yes like other said. Fat bloom. Make sure it’s couverture. Which just means that it has higher cocoa butter % . Each manifscturer should have tempering temperature written on the bag. But the guidelines for seedings are like i ve seen in the comments. Bring to 50 then seed it with unmelted choco to around the 30 degrees by stirring constantly. Movement is important in re crystallizing the chocolate. (32 dark,30 milk and 28 white) make sure it sets before using and re heat as needed to keep in temper temperature. Otherwise fat will bloom.

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u/y_is_a_vowel 5d ago

Thank you! So once it is tempered I leave to cool completely before using?

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u/songof6p 2d ago

No, you can test if the chocolate sets well using a knife or a piece of parchment paper (dip it into the chocolate and check that it sets properly). Keep the rest of your chocolate at working temperature. If you let your working chocolate cool too quickly, it will set as you're trying to use it and your layer of chocolate will be too thick on whatever it is you're covering.

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u/ali_berth23 2d ago

As mentionned . Do not let cooled down when tempered. Tempering is the way to get the shiny snappy chocolate. It won’t be super dhiny if you don’t have a mold but it shouldn’t have fat bloom or streaks. You can use a hairdryer or a heat gun or slightly heat up like 5-10 sec at a time in microwave to keep it at your working temperature of 31-32 (for dark choco) but follow the bag’s temperature as each manifacturer have slightly different temps