Tip of the Day: clean the "bloom" off chocolate

Posted Apr 24th 2008 6:00AM by Emily Matchar
Filed under: Chocolate, How To, Tip of the Day

As someone who eats a tiny bit of chocolate every night before going to sleep, and thus always has several half-eaten bars lying around, I know all about chocolate "bloom."

That's that ugly, whiteish dusty coating that old chocolate gets when it's been sitting on the shelf for ages. What it is is the accumulation of cocoa butter fat crystals on the surface of the chocolate. It doesn't mean the chocolate is bad, but it is ugly - you wouldn't want to serve a dish of bloomed chocolate seashells as after-dinner treats at a party.

Fortunately (as I know this is a serious, serious problem), you can clean bloom off chocolate by wiping it with a barely damp paper towel. Voila, shiny chocolate again. Sugar bloom, on the other hand, is the graininess and discoloration caused by moisture evaporating off the surface of the chocolate. You can't do much about that, so store your chocolate in a cool, dry place.

Tags: bloom, chocolate, how to, tip of the day

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