Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Decorating By 1_Portillos Updated 13 May 2009 , 4:23pm by panchanewjersey
Hello All,
I made some chocolate covered strawberries last weekend and they turned out OK, however, after I put them in the fridge to cool the chocolate had turned white.... 
Can anyone tell me what I did wrong?
I think that what happened is called "blooming". Sugar blooming occurs when surface moisture causes the sugar in the chocolate to dissolve and the crystals remain on the surface. Fat blooming is when fat/cocoa butter is seperated from the chocolate and ending up on the surface. Usually happens when there is a temperature change .
hth
Two things might have happened - either the condensation caused by the fridge caused your chocolate to bloom or the white happened from lack of not tempering the chocolate correctly. Both are a direct result of lack of temper.
A very very basic description of tempering is to take chocolate to a specific temperature and cool it to a specific temperature. I did say basic. There are several good forum posts under "candy and sugar" forum. Just search for "temper and chocolate". Don't get discouraged by what seems to be complex. It's just something to practice. This post gives an online tutorial. Haven't looked at it, but would probably be a good place to start. If you are using discs, it might be a different problem.
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-372353-temper.html+chocolate
Next time you do this, ( I do this all the time trial & error) wash your strawberries, make sure they are dry and at room temp. DO NOT PUT IN FRIG, especially before coating them in chocolate. After dipping in chocolate put it on a wax sheet until it hardens, Keep in a cool place but not in frig, if you do when they come back to room temp the strawberry get's weepy and it's taste hard on the outside and soft inside. It like when you want to make glazed strawberries add a little sugar to a strawberry and you'll see how it get mushy and it's juices turn to a glaze. Well that's kinda what happens to a choc covered strawberry. For some reason chocolate also turns a little white in frig when uncovered.
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