Please help, chocolate not looking as good as it should.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Off the bat, I can say that honey may cause issues. Honey contains water, and water and chocolate dont mix. It can cause the chocolate to seize and pull the cocoa solids out of suspension. However, whatever your doing you're getting to the point where you can pour into molds. The issue looks similar to what I've been fighting all chocolate season. No matter how I temper, the molds wont set right and they fall out of temper.
Two things that solved the issue for me is a) double check your thermometer and calibrate your tempering machine. It may not be working right as the thermistor may have drifted somewhat and if possible you may need to recalibrate that, or work around what the drift is. Part of my issue is my thermometer was off by over 4F, so when I was tempering I thought I was "within range" but in fact, I was 4F hotter than the upper limits of the range, so I was never actually in temper to begin with. That may or may not be your issue here, but after 2 consecutive years having similar issues it's my first go-to troubleshooting step when tempering is an issue.
Second is the temp your molds are setting up/cooling in. If that's too warm, the chocolate can fall out of temper. From trial and error experience as well as reading a bit online, optimum room temp to deal with chocolate is between 68-70F/20-21C It may be beneficial to get a cooling tunnel, cold box, or some sort of cooling area for the chocolate. Optimum temps based on various forum posts seem to be 55F/12.8C, I'm still working on my cold box which is a temperature controlled fridge setup with a fan inside for airflow. 55 is my starting temp.
You have a chance of running into issues using a fridge, although it is quite possible and many do that without issue. The problem is a refrigerator will end up by being too cold. And as a result if you leave the molds in too long, condensation is a very real risk. If condensation forms it can cause sugar bloom and ruin the batch.
Something else to note that you didnt mention: Are you performing a temper test to ensure the tempering machine is giving you proper temper or are you relying on the machine to give you tempered chocolate? The reason I ask is you can see my results. My room temp rose up to 74F/23.3C. Which, frankly, is normal for my area. However, I'd get a clean temper test, but the molds would start to swirl and/or discolor. The back swirls are obvious, the discoloration of the chocolate touching the molds wasnt any different in most respects than what you've shown.
updated by @timwilde: 02/16/16 02:39:46

