White marks & release marks - help!

[understandingcocoa]

Hello all, 

 

I'm hoping someone can give me some guidance as I've exhausted every resource I can find.

 

I have been making bars with the same polycarbonate moulds for a couple of years without issue, however I've just moved house and I'm having huge issues with marks on the bars.The room I now make in is much colder (about 18 Celsius compared to previous 22 Celsius) and I am using a new fridge - these are the only changes.

 

At its worst it leaves large white marks over a large section of the mould side of the bar - the chocolate is definitely well tempered . I have tried warming the moulds prior to use which showed some success but seems to be hit and miss.

 

Could it be the cocoa butter crystallising too quickly? Or too slowly? Underneath the bar still has a good shine and the taste is the same!

 

I've just left my job to go full time with the business (as of last week!) and this is really slowing me down and making me panic as I can't seem to find a solution.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you 

[pastrygirl]

can you show us a picture?

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

I'm with @pastrygirl - picture please. You have identified two significant changes - room temp and fridge. Do you know the temps of old fridge vs new fridge?  Can you change your room temperature?

[understandingcocoa]

Thanks for replying @Kerry Beal & @pastrygirl, i've been waiting to take some photos as frustratingly (or not) the bars over the past few days have been better than usual - today the white marks of doom reappeared.Moulds are clean and polished, it looks like cocoa butter but the same mould prepped in the same way keeps giving entirely different results.

 

The photo of the dark bar is about the best it ever gets.

 

I can change the room temp by making it warmer (central heating) but have been told the lower the better, and unsure of old fridge temp vs new, but I have the new one set on the lowest (warmest) setting.

 

[Daniel D]

How thick are your bars? They look pretty thick in these pictures. The thicker the bar the more difficult it is to get a perfect temper.

 

Does your new fridge have wire shelving or solid shelving (eg glass shelves)? If your shelves are solid, the heat may not have a place to escape.

 

Also, do you have any air circulation in your refrigerator? I’d attempt to add a fan to see if increased air circulation helps.

[understandingcocoa]

Hi Daniel,

 

The bars are quite thick, approx 11mm. That's a good point, the old fridge had wire shelves and this one has solid glass! I haven't got a fan either so that's worth a try thank you.

 

My confusion is why there's so much variation... perhaps fluctuating fridge temp throughout the day

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

I think @Daniel D may have pointed out one the big issues there - the solid shelves. It's hard to get decent air circulation with solid shelves - I much prefer wires ones. If you can't swap them out for wire ones - perhaps putting some large cookie cooling racks on top of the solid shelves to encourage air circulation. 

 

Who suggested the cold room? Perhaps it's not as useful as they would lead you to believe as there may be a bit of shock happening when you pour the chocolate Into molds that are colder than they were before and causing some uncontrolled crystallization when the warm chocolate hits the cold mold.

 

 

[understandingcocoa]

Yes I think you're right @Kerry Beal & @Daniel D, it was a quite successful chocolatier who I went on a course with who advised the cold room, so I'm not sure how they make it work. Heating the moulds up with a heat gun is making a big difference! As is using wire shelves (thanks all)

 

However I'm still left with the issue of release moulds and it's driving me crazy. All I can think is that the moulds are just slightly too thick. 

 

Can anyone recommend me a 100g bar/slab mould that you use successfully with no release marks?

 

 

Edited November 9, 2017 by understandingcocoa (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Can you give us a picture of your current mold? Duh - just looked back and saw it.

 

I have a bunch of this mold - because of the surface detail it doesn't have a problem with marks.

 

This one is also 100 grams.

 

These two pages on Chocolat-chocolat's website contain the 100 gram bars. 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Kerry Beal (log)

[cc.canuck]

On 10/30/2017 at 4:38 PM, Daniel D said:

How thick are your bars? They look pretty thick in these pictures. The thicker the bar the more difficult it is to get a perfect temper.

 

Does your new fridge have wire shelving or solid shelving (eg glass shelves)? If your shelves are solid, the heat may not have a place to escape.

 

Also, do you have any air circulation in your refrigerator? I’d attempt to add a fan to see if increased air circulation helps.

Reviving this thread as I'm also trying to refine my process with moulded bars. I am going to start putting my moulds on a wire rack when I put them in the fridge but, if this doesn't completely solve the issue of release marks that I have, would it be worth popping a tiny handheld fan in there with them?

 

Gosh, my husband is definitely going to be driven crazy by my adventures in chocolate making!

[Kerry Beal]

5 hours ago, cc.canuck said:

Reviving this thread as I'm also trying to refine my process with moulded bars. I am going to start putting my moulds on a wire rack when I put them in the fridge but, if this doesn't completely solve the issue of release marks that I have, would it be worth popping a tiny handheld fan in there with them?

 

Gosh, my husband is definitely going to be driven crazy by my adventures in chocolate making!

Worth a try!

[Jim D.]

I use this fan placed in the refrigerator near the wire racks used for molds.  You need to be sure whatever you purchase is refrigerator-proof.

[cc.canuck]

Just posting to say that a wire rack had made all the difference to my bars releasing! Thank you for the tips.