If you're celebrating Christmas, your kitchen probably doesn't look like this. It probably has stacks of goodies, an overflow of ingredients, and maybe a dusting of flour.
How can you store your chocolate so it'll be at its best for holiday entertaining?
- Keep it cool. Chocolate melts if it gets warm, so that box of chocolates on the hearth is going to be a disappointment. A pantry or a cool cupboard is fine for chocolate storage.
- Don't get it too cold. If you keep your chocolate in the refrigerator, then you might end up with bloom, a whitish deposit on the surface of the chocolate. It doesn't affect the taste or the nutritional content of your chocolate, but it doesn't look pretty. Baking chocolate is okay, but chocolates that will end up on your buffet should stay out of the extreme cold.
- If you do get it cold... Maybe you keep your house at subtropical temperatures, or you bought those chocolates way ahead of time. You can freeze chocolate or refrigerate it. Just do so in an air-tight container and -- this is very important -- let it come to room temperature before you open the container. This will lessen condensation and limit bloom.
