When I was in college I wanted to make homemade chocolate dipped pretzel sticks for my friends for Christmas gifts. You know, with the shiny chocolate coating for the perfect combo of crunch, salty and sweet? Chocolate and pretzel is SUCH a good combo.
Anyway, my little college self headed over to Walmart and got a bag of chocolate chips, pretzel sticks (the big thick ones) and some sprinkles and I set to work in my dorm room.
Chocolate in a bowl, microwave until melted, dip, dry then package in cute little cellophane wrappers with a bow. They were SOOO cute! I couldn't wait to pass them out.
Well, if you know anything about chocolate you know the end of this story.
The next day I go to pass out my beautiful dipped pretzel sticks and to my horror they are covered with splotchy white and tan powdery stuff! It looked kind of like mold. I thought something was wrong with the chocolate so I tossed them out. I was so upset!😭😭😭
What was the mystery powder on my chocolate dipped pretzels? Bloom. It's called bloom.
Turns out, you can't just melt chocolate chips and get a shiny smooth coating for dipping. There's a lot of science behind it actually, and the process of melting chocolate for dipping or coating (and actually having it look good) is called tempering.
Ready for some science?
Basically, when chocolate melts it needs to cool with the chocolate molecules in the right configuration. And when it isn't in the right configuration it gets bloom. It's not bad to eat but it isn't pretty and the chocolate is gritty and crumbly.
Not what you want!
So, how do we make chocolate look shiny and not get bloom?
I'm going to share a quick run-down on my process that I use to make a big block of tempered chocolate to be used for chocolate curls, but you can use it for dipping as well. This is for white chocolate, the temps will be different for milk and dark chocolate.
Oh, and if you are using candy melts you don't need to bother with any of this because those are basically vegetable oil and sugar, not chocolate.
Also not tasty😂 Which is why I only use real chocolate 😊
Step 1: Get a double boiler going on LOW. Set a towel out next to it and get your thermometer ready. It needs to be one that can detect <100 degree temps. Chocolate melts at body temp or lower so this doesn't need to be boiling. Chocolate doesn't like to be rushed, its a bit of a diva.
Step 2: Chop the chocolate as finely as you can, reserving about a quarter of it. It needs to be tempered chocolate, so like a bar. How can you tell? It should be shiny and snap if you break it.
Step 3: Add to a bowl over the simmering water and stir. Take it off the heat every minute or so and let the residual heat continue to melt it. Your goal is for it to be totally melted about 105 degrees F. At this point the chocolate molecules will be in the wrong configuration and if you start dipping it at this point, you will get bloom.
Step 4: Temp the chocolate once its totally melted. Aim for 105.
Step 5. Add your reserved chocolate, then stir, stir, stir until its totally melted.
Remember those chocolate molecules I talked about above?
Your reserved chocolate is going to add some peer pressure to the other chocolate molecules. Since the reserved molecules are still in their tempered state, they are going to tell the melted chocolate molecules "Hey guys, copy our configurations because it's COOL!" and the melted chocolate molecules will listen because they are all teenagers and love to follow the crowd😂.
Step 6: Temp your chocolate.
If it isn't 84 degrees, keep stirring. If you still have huge chunks of un-melted chocolate then you can place back over the double boiler in like 5 second increments to help it along, but mostly just stir stir stir.
Step 7: Once it's a 84 degrees, use it! Dip, or pour into your mold. (If you pour into a mold MAKE SURE to wipe the bottom of the bowl off first with your towel. It will have condensation on it that could drip into your mold and RUIN your chocolate).
I make mine into a block and use it to make chocolate curls.
You can se my block doesn't have splotches all over it after cooling, and when I shave it off for curls they stay together instead of crumbling. That's the goal!
One of the things I love about my products are the attention to details-like the chocolate curls.
Some bakers would think it isn't worth it to add because it's too much work, but don't you think it just takes this cake to the next level?
Side note, If you are interested in a cake that celebrates these curls, you can order my Crème Brûlée cake here.
-Rachel
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