How to Prevent Fat Bloom

Come closer look at these pralines. 

Here, the pralines are very shiny. This is what we are looking for. These are not shiny at all. This is fat bloom 

Fat bloom will appear like a white, greyish bloom on your chocolate,

In itself, it does not affect the taste of your chocolate directly but it simply does not look appealing. Now there is a simple trick to tell fat bloom from sugar bloom. 

If the white bloom disappears when you rub your finger over it, then it's fat bloom 

If it doesn't and the surface feels grainy then we are talking about sugar bloom. They are both different and caused by different things. 

Now let's focus on fat bloom and how to delay it for as long as possible. There are three main reasons that cause fat bloom.

Firstly, it occurs when chocolate hasn't been properly pre-crystallized. It will never set into a hard, shiny, and snappy product. And fat bloom will appear within hours. 

So remember, pre crystallizing your chocolate is crucial.

Secondly, and the most common cause of fat bloom is when the fat in your fat-based filling migrates into the chocolate shell. 

This is very often the case when you work with a nut-based filling. It will show on the outside of the chocolate like a whitish bloom. Get your own chocolate molds here!

To prevent this, it is essential to pre-crystallize your filling properly. And lastly, always store your chocolate in perfect conditions.

Avoiding temperature swings. Those would accelerate the process of fat migration significantly. 

Fat blooming will appear faster when using a fat-based filling such as praline. In order to delay that, we're gonna add 5 to 6% of cocoa butter to the fat-based filling. 

And what is very important, is to pre-crystallize the filling. Which means that you need to bring the filling around 23-degree Celcius in order to have the perfect crystallization.  

As simple as that. 

You can also watch this video on Youtube.  Subscribe to the Callebaut Chocolate channel.