Those white spots on chocolate are the result of either fat or sugar bloom.
Heres how to avoid it.
Thats the result of chocolate bloom, which is usually due to warm temperatures or moisture.
Chocolate with chocolate bloom typically has a chalky white coating. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES / TRYGVE FINKELSE.
But what exactly is chocolate bloom, and how can you avoid those white spots on chocolate?
Read on for everything you should probably know.
What Causes Chocolate Bloom?
There are two types of chocolate bloom: fat bloom and sugar bloom.
At room temperature, they’re all solid.
Fat bloom happens when chocolate is exposed to warm temperatures.
The cocoa butter in the chocolate softens, melts, and rises to the surface of the chocolate.
It then re-solidifies in gray streaks known as bloom.
Is it Safe to Eat?
Chocolate with fat or sugar bloom is completely safe to eat.
It creates a chalky kind of feel to the chocolate, Reid says.
With a tempered chocolate, you’ll hear itif you break a bar in half, it snaps.
When it’s not tempered, it has kind of a crumbly or very short-grained mouthfeel.
It doesn’t have that really pleasant melting, unctuous property that chocolate has in your mouth.
It changes the mouthfeel, and also some of the aromas in chocolate are captured a little bit different.
Store chocolate in a cool, dark and dry place with low humidity.
But if you have a recipe such aschocolate-dipped strawberriesthat does require refrigeration, opt for a tightly sealed container.
To avoid chocolate bloom whenmaking your own chocolate treats at home, check that to properly temper your chocolate.
Temperature is extremely important when tempering chocolate, so Reid recommends using a digital probe thermometer for accuracy.
The chocolate should look hard and shinyif not, its probably not tempered.
If you bake a cake wrong and it’s burned, well, you throw it in the trash.
