Hi, I have white chocolate in a tempering machine. I turn it on just heating for the weekend on…

Hi,
I have white chocolate in a tempering machine. I turn it on just heating for the weekend on Friday, and when I come back on Monday it has gone rather thick and not as runny as it was on Friday? Any ideas what may cause this? does it attract moisture?
Thanks for your help


Archived Comments

Thanks Guys, that is really helpful

Well – and you’re going to hate this answer – it depends. White chocolate thickens because of how the lactose and proteins behave, and how they behave depends quite a bit on how they were processed. Since no two companies have the same processes – everyone’s is a little bit different. Generally speaking, keep it dry – 50% is great; keep it from overheating, and if you can stir it intermittently (say – 15 minutes every hour) – that goes a long way in keeping melted white chocolate usable for longer.

@Sebastian – do you happen to know the humidity level where this starts to become a real issue? Most recommendations are to try to keep the RH of a production kitchen in the ~50% range. At what point does it become really problematic. Thanks!

White chocolate will both absorb moisture (has to do with something called the glass transition of lactose), as well as ‘gel’ – if you have intermittent agitation throughout its liquid storage time, it’ll thicken less – but it will still slowly thicken over time. You can adjust it a bit by adding a very small amount of fluid lecithin (start with, say, 0.05% and let it mix) – or of course adding more cocoa butter will thin it out – but that’s a very expensive way to go.
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