Hi Larry, thanks for the link. It does sound very similar to the issue I am having, I tend to agree with your theory that the light thermoformed plastic mould is flexing with the chocolate as it contracts and then leaving this middle circle area. Going to try and strengthen moulds today and see how it goes, will also post in other thread my findings.

It looks like you are using a light plastic mold (as opposed to a stiff polycarbonate mold). If so, here is a link to a good discussion we had about that issue. https://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/forums/my_posts/12032/mold-release-ring-formation-issue-in-mold

Take a look at the linked discussion & see if it answers some questions.

My quick thoughts:

Swirls in your chocolate are caused by unevely tempered chocolate or the light molds flexing as the chocolate cools. I have some light molds and haven't figured out how to get perfect release every time.

Hi everyone, been having some tempering issues with my chocolate. I melt using a mol d'art chocolate melter, temper everything by hand using a marble slab etc then put into another mol d'art melter at the tempered temperature to hold it while i use it. However i keep getting these odd light swirls just around the centre of my bars. The rest of the bar turns out nice with a decent gloss finish and good snap. I always check the chocolate temp before use, and always do a back of palette knife test, and that alwasy sets hard with no streaks. yet when i de-mould the bars they all have these swirls, any suggestions? really want an even gloss finish.

updated by @james-hull: 04/11/25 09:27:36