Mrs. Emerald, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 26, Hospitality Administration
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Paralegal
Engagement Date: October 8, 2006
Wedding Date: September 2007
Blogging Since: November 29, 2006
Venue: Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook IL
About Me: I have been dreaming about my wedding forever, and flipping through bridal magazines since high school, so I am in my element! I am calling our theme "Vintage Inspired French/Asian Fusion." Mr. Emerald is very involved in the planning process, but of course he generally defers to me cuz I have a strong opinion of how I want everything to be :-).
S.O.S. Chocolate S.O.S.!!
August 21st, 2007 @ 5:41 pm by Mrs. Emerald
Many many months ago, I came up with the brilliant idea that I wanted our wedding favors to be hand-made chocolate Eiffel Towers. It totally went along with our Parisian theme, and our test chocolates came out pretty well. So this past Saturday (3 weeks before the wedding), my sister and my future-sister-in-law came over and we got started on these suckers.
We bought 21 pounds of chocolate morsels (mostly Nestle, but some Ghirardelli and Hersheys as well) and started off with 5 Eiffel tower mold trays and 2 microwavable chocolate making squeeze bottles.
Ugh. So. Freakin. Tedious. We spent 4 or 5 hours and completed about 60-some chocolates. The worst part was waiting for them to harden in the fridge! I did read suggestions about cooling them in the freezer, but they didn’t look right when we tried that. But before I go into the procedure of how we made these, let me now show you some pictures.
Here is the finished product on Saturday night:
Lovely, and seemingly worth all the effort. It’s hard to see, but the detail on the mold is amazing!
And this is what it looked like last night (3 days later) when I checked on them:
AGHHHHHHH WTF!!! Why does it look like it’s molding? It might be hard to see, but it’s like chocolate that you leave in your fridge for a year, when it develops that white film on top and you can’t eat it anymore. I know that it’s not molding, something just happened to my beautiful favors. Mr. E was trying to console me that they still looked… edible… but there is no way I would put these out. They just look so gross!! So what did we do wrong?! Let me take you through what we did:
1. We filled the squeeze bottle with morsels and microwaved it for 45 seconds on the Defrost level, took it out, “massaged” the bottle to distribute the heat and melt the chocolate (these were the instructions that came with the bottle). Put it back in the microwave for 30 second increments (ok, the directions said 15 second increments) and repeated the procedure until the chocolate was melted.
2. Continued to add more chocolate to the bottle, microwave, massage bottle, etc, just to fill it up and save time.
3. Filled the molds (we tried to tap out the air bubbles, but that was difficult).
4. Put the filled molds in the fridge for 30 minutes until set. The molds are large and fairly deep, so it took longer than expected!
5. Popped the chocolates out of the mold and set them on a plate to harden in the freezer for 20 more minutes.
6. Bagged them up. Each round took almost an hour!!
7. Stored them in my basement, aka a “cool, dry place” per recommendations.
Unfortunately, I think our mistake may have been:
A) Melting too much chocolate at one time
or
B) The fridge/freezer was too cold? Or not cold enough? Or shouldn’t have transferred them from the fridge to the freezer? 
I already ordered another 5 trays of molds so that we could continue again on Saturday, but at this point, I’m almost ready to give up! They took SO much time and effort and look like crap! I have 2.5 weeks left, what can I do on such short notice? Or what did I do wrong?
30 Responses to “S.O.S. Chocolate S.O.S.!!”
from a chocolate site:
Sugar bloom is normally caused by surface moisture. The moisture causes the sugar in the chocolate to dissolve. Once the moisture evaporates, sugar crystals remain on the surface. If this process is repeated, the surface can become sticky and even more discolored. Although sugar bloom is most often the result of overly humid storage, it can happen when the chocolate has been stored at a relatively cool temperature and is then moved too quickly into much warmer surroundings. When this happens, the chocolate sweats, producing surface moisture.
Fat bloom is similar to sugar bloom, except that it is fat or cocoa butter that is separating from the chocolate and depositing itself on the outside of the candy. As with sugar bloom, the most common causes of fat bloom are quick temperature changes and overly-warm storage.
Although it might look a little less appetizing than a lustrous, rich chocolatey-brown piece of candy, chocolate that has suffered bloom is still okay to eat. You may find the texture of sugar-bloomed chocolate to be a bit grainy on the outside, but it should still taste good. To prevent this from happening to your chocolate, simply use proper storage methods.
Basically I probably wouldn’t put them in the freezer at all, but just in the fridge to harden and then room temp after that.
oh no! sorry to hear this. 
well, how about just buy the chocolates and call it a day?
The biggest problem you have is a result of not tempering your chocolate. Tempering is heating then cooling chocolate in very very specific increments of temperature (within 3-5 degrees in most cases) to align the molecules of the chocolate, which produces shiny chocolate that has a good snap when you break it. Tempered chocolate also sets in a few minutes at room temperature, so there is no messing about with the fridge/freezer.
Basically you want to chop your chocolate into uniform pieces (and you can reuse the bloomed chocolate if necessary) and divide it into thirds. Heat two thirds in a double boiler (being very careful to not let any water/moisture touched the melted chocolate) until it is about 110/115 degrees. Take it off the heat, and add the remaining third of chocolate. Stir (you don’t have to do this constantly) until the chocolate is at 88-91 degrees for dark chocolate or 85-88 degrees for milk. Once chocolate is tempered, you do have to work quickly because it will fall out of temper quickly. There is a ton of info on tempering if you google it–personally I have found that Recchiuti’s method of seed tempering works best for me (and after 3000+ truffles for holiday gifts, trust me, i know! 
).
Crap, I saw something about this very problem on Martha Stewart once. I’m so sorry. I know you must be so aggregated!
I went on a Scharffen Berger chocolate factory tour about 2 weeks ago and what I learned is that, along with improper storage, chocolate will tend to bloom if they are not tempered correctly. Expensive chocolates (ie, chocolates made well), are carefully tempered and re-melting them puts their temperance in an imbalance. Perhaps it is made even worse by chemically altering the consistency of the chocolates by mixing different brands of morsels together? Try just using Ghirardelli chocolate and see how they hold up.
Can you first try to salvage the ones you have? Maybe run them under warm water to soften them and then leave them out to dry/harden in a room temperature setting?
Hm- maybe try adding a little crisco to the melted chocolate? Works great for chocolate covered strawberries; keeps the chocolate shiny. I’ve kept them in the fridge and they always look perfect the next day. Also maybe avoid the freezer altogether. Might be a little too drastic temp change.
yea, per fizzyg’s post, you might have put them inside the bag too soon. being cooped up inside the bag might have made the chocolate “sweat” with the humidity. if you want to continue the hard labor, you might just wait until they cool down to room temp before bagging the lovelies. but i think you should actually ditch the effort and go with tofu’s suggestion. there’s even a 10% discount for bulk orders… and they have a really pretty gold one too. if you really want to package them yourself, you even have that option. but leave to the chocolate making experts what they do best. and then you just go get a mani/pedi and relax. 
So sorry to hear about this. Chocolate is not an easy thing to tame. When you say “morsels”, what do you mean? I would change out your chocolate and go with chocolate candy wafers…check out http://www.wilton.com or check out the candy making aisle at Michael’s.
Maybe you can do it with white chocolate instead? Then if it formed the white mold you wouldnt be able to see it.
You might also want to test not putting the chocolate in the bags right away to see if the discoloration still occurs. Putting them into the bags might cause them to sweat. If they don’t discolor without the bags, maybe you can put all the chocolate into a box and then bag them the one or two days before. Also you might be able to find sealents that you can put on top for the chocolate for shine and help prevent the blooms. Also for the ones you have already completed that are discolor, try candy colors that you can paint over them to see if you can cover it up, maybe gold or silver. You can also try edible gold leaves.
Good luck, please update us on the results.
you need to temper the chocolate which is heating it to a certain temperature, letting it cool to a certain temperature and heating it up again. the temperature differs according to the type of chocolate used (white, dark or milk).
Looks like everybody’s covered the basics on how to fix it
I wouldn’t suggest Michaels’ wafers, though. I always get my wafers from a local bakery/cake decorating shop, and they’re much yummier, imho You can probably find something from a local source, too.
Man o man o man. Looks like I didn’t temper the chocolate correctly AND I may have bagged them too soon!!
*sigh* I would LOVE to take the easy route and just buy the damn things, but at this point, I don’t know if I’m willing to fork over $400 for favors ($2/piece x 200).
I’ve already spent $40 on molds, $50 on chocolate and another $20 on bags, ribbon, etc. BLAHHHHHHHH.
Can you salvage them with a light dusting of cinnamon to hide the bloom?
It’s most likely from the condensation from the fridge or freezer. Or it can be from your “cool dry place” not being cool or dry enough. Or from improper tempering.
Does it wipe off with a paper towel? If not, can you hide it by dusting them with cocoa powder?
Awww I’m soo sorry! I was about to post about tempering the chocolate (I learned this the hard way too) but I see that people already have. That is most likely the problem, since there was cocoa butter content in the chocolate. I can think of two solutions if you want to take them on:
1) Redo the project and temper the chocolate this time. My favorite baking/candy making site is http://www.kitchenkrafts.com and they carry a chocolate tempering thermometer.
2) (tThis is what I would do) Redo the project and use confectionery coating chips instead of actual chocolate. This does not require tempering and will go a lot faster — since they’re made for melting down and remolding, they come out really smooth and creamy and retain the shapes perfectly. Also at Kitchen Krafts (chocolate flavored available) or you can find in smaller amounts at Michael’s.
Again, I’m sooo sorry!!! Keep your head up!!
ms. emerald, it says in the quantity discounts that you can get 20% off an order of 200. i know it’s still $160, but maybe that’s worth your peace and sanity? at this point in the game, i’d vote for peace… and maybe you can use the chocolate you’ve already purchased for christmas goodie gifts?
If you already bought bags and ribbons, then why not buy them in bulk (from tofu’s site)? It says that 1lb. bulk purchase (approximately 40 pieces) is only $18.99! That’s less than $0.50/each!!! So for 200 pieces, that would cost you under $100. Not bad for all the time and effort. Then you can bag and ribbon to your liking!
I made chocolates for a shower, using the same method, except I melted them in a double boiler, a very simple method that ensures that the chocolate doesn’t cook too much. The chocolate should only take 10-15 minutes to cool completely when using this method of melting as well. If it is over-melted, chocolate takes forever to cool completely, and can get that yucky color on it after cooling.
i could have easily had the same problem (we made chocolate fortune cookies, dark chocolate w/ pink raspberry and white mint on top). luckily i had learned about the tempering due to my food network obsession.
we used candy wafers instead and they worked out great - instead of trying to temper the chocolate, it is probably more worth your while and more time effective to just get the wafers. i’ve never tried tempering, but it sounds like a LOT of work, esp if you’ve never done it before.
good luck!! i’m sure they will come out great.
I used to make these all the time. We used wilton’s chocolate though (you can find it in a craft store) it still tastes just fine, just like any other chocolate. We’d put them in the fridge to cool then kept them at room temp in a box in the living room til we used them. never had any ‘blooming’. I am not sure you want to go out and buy all new chocolate though.
Miss Emerald, I am SO SORRY. Please persevere - I think your idea is wonderfully cute. I used to make chocolates with my mom, and even for an experienced candy/baking person, tempering is very very tricky. I HIGHLY recommend (along with some other bees) using high quality confection chocolate wafers - it really works a lot better, and you will have beautiful chocolates at the end.
When I made my chocolate mold favors I used molding chocolate from the party store and put them in the freezer to harden, and did not get the bloom. You might want to reconsider the type of chocolate you were using, maybe the fat content is too high. Good luck!
i’ll add my voice to the temper crowd. and the double boiler should really be called a double simmer-er. You really don’t need to boil the water under your bowl. Sur La Table sells chocolate thermometers if you don’t want to wait to order one - conventional kitchen thermometers don’t have a low enough range for chocolate. (if you were in DC, I’d lend you mine!) But your local store should have a chocolate section - it’ll be there somewhere.
I vote to save yourself the stress of re-doing the project. Take all unopened bags of chocolate and unused molds back to the stores and get your money back. Order the online ones for $95/200. While you’re bagging them and tying them up, console yourself by eating the ones with bloom.
BTW, I love your tags! Did you use a punch and hand-write them?
Will it be structurally sound– on a hot day, I mean?
Another option to cover up your problem is to brush on an edible gold dust (called luster dust). I’ve done this many times on molded chocolates and it looks really pretty. You can buy luster dusts at cake decorating specialty shops or online. I know that http://www.cakecentral.com carries them. You just brush the dust on lightly with a paintbrush. Good luck! Or redo with candy wafers so you don’t have to worry about tempering.
[…] for all your helpful suggestions, everyone! In the end, convenience and peace-of- mind won out. I ordered 6 lbs (approximately 240) […]
