Crystallizing solid pieces of chocolate/cocoa butter

[Bentley]

I used a 10gr chocolate bonbon mold to make some cocoa butter tablets and they did not crystallize very well.  I tempered the cocoa butter and tested the temper.  As shown in the photo, the top of the tablet (the bottom of the mold cavity) came out looking nice - smooth and glossy - but the bottom half is dull and grainy.   My guess is that the heat from the crystallization was rising and took the cocoa butter at the top of the mold out of temper?   

 

What is the best way to crystallize a solid piece of chocolate or cocoa butter like this?  

[teonzo]

Being pure cocoa butter means that the amount of cocoa butter per volume unit is much higher than for dark chocolate or other chocolates (so says mister obvious). Which means you get much more latent heat per volume unit developed during crystallization. Heat tends to go up, not down, so that's why the bottom of your pieces are ok.

The possible solutions are the usual ones for similar cases: put them immediately in the fridge; put them in a colder room with good aeration (a fan pointing at the molds); so on.

 

 

 

Teo