Can you store finished chocolates in a "cooling cabinet"?
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Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Chest freezers are available through many retail outlets and tend to be very inexpensive compared with specialty refrigeration made for working with chocolate.
They do need to be modified to work for the purpose of storing chocolate:
a) You need to get a thermostat override device like the one from Johnson Controls. While you might get a 7 cu/ft chest freezer for $300 (here in NY), the controller might cost another $70. This is still inexpensive compared with $5,000 to $10,000 or more for specialty refrigeration. You wouldn't use the chest freezer for crystallization, only for storage.
b) You need to add something into the chest freezer compartment to control humidity. One option is PolarFresh; it works like a box of baking soda but it's specifically designed to help control humidity; baking soda is only about controlling odors. There are other options - but as you say, obtainability is the issue.
When putting things into the chest for storage, you'll want to pack them in a way that protects them from exposure to air and humidity. You don't want any humidity to condense on the items when cooling down or warming up. SO ... the best way is not to use huge tubs that need to be opened and closed, exposing all of the contents to the air each time the tub is opened. You could do that for organization purposes, but then I'd wrap "serving size" portions individually and put those into the larger tubs. Opening up the tub would then not expose unwrapped pieces to the air.
When taking items out of storage, you have to let them warm up to ambient temperature before unwrapping them to keep moisture from condensing on the chocolate ... it will condense (if present) on the outer wrapping.
