Making Christmas sweets/truffles - my chocolate ALWAYS blooms! Anyone got any miracle tips?

[sprigatito]

Just that, really - every year we have a go at making various Christmas sweets, and mostly they work out really well. Marshmallows, jellies, rum balls, fudge, marzipan fruits etc, all great. Except for anything coated in chocolate - it always blooms and looks dreadful! I've tried all the advice I've found online over the years on how and when to cool and store them, to no avail. Has anyone had better luck with chocolate? The sweets always look so lovely when they're freshly made, but they end up manky no matter what I do

Yes. I'm a professional chocolatier

When do they bloom? How long after the chocolate sets

Are you tempering the chocolate?

It's usually during storage after the chocolate has set - so they set at room temperature, all good, then go into the fridge in airtight tubs with baking paper between layers. The blooming is happening during storage. How does tempering work? We just melt the chocolate in the microwave and dip the sweets.

It's because you store them in the fridge.
Chocolate should be store in dry, cool conditions.
Best around 18°C

OK. You need to temper the chocolate or this will always happen.

You can use your microwave but you need to go through stages of heating, mixing and cooling the chocolate.

Or it will always bloom.

It's quite a skill but not beyond you to achieve.

Storing in the fridge is a bit of an urban myth. Both that its terrible and that it's brilliant.

The moisture levels in the fridge aren't ideal but I'm sure we've all put chocolate in the fridge and it hasn't turned white! Properly tempered chocolate won't bloom if kept in the fridge for periods of a few days to a week.

Milk chocolate will melt in the 20s so if your home is hot the fridge is better! White chocolate obviously has an even lower melting point.

But its not the fridge that is your problem. It's not tempering the chocolate.

If tempering sounds hard work you could make ganache based truffles and coat with cocoa powder. These must be kept in the fridge due to the cream.