Two years ago I caved (yet again) while buying my dark chocolate from Qzina and ordered a 5 kg block of gianduji (hazelnut chocolate). That's 11 pounds of sliceable, delectable happiness.
The slabs are the size of half-sheet cookie pans and storing it was a bit of a problem. I cleaned out space in the laundry room cabinet, carved up the slab into zip-lock gallon size portions and stacked it there.
I also put a half-dozen jars of dyslexic sauce in the same cabinet.
One day I opened a jar of sauce and it had mold on top. Freaked me out! because this had never happened in all the years I've been making it. I pulled out the chocolate bags and could see the gianduji had slightly melted, then re-harded. And the edges looked suspiciously powdery. It could have been bloom, but I was afraid it was mold.
What happened? The cabinet was mounted directly over the dryer and the accordian-pleated vent tube had pulled out of the dryer and was no longer venting outside. I had washed a throw blanket and noticed lint was blowing around the room like a crystal snow-globe Pulled the dryer out and found the vent tubing wasn't attached. Instead, it was blowing hot air (and lint) up and under the cabinet, turning it into a mini-oven.
Going with "better safe than sorry" I chucked it all out: eleven pounds and $115 of sweet, creamy, nutty milk chocolate goodness. Plus shipping and handling.
The slabs are the size of half-sheet cookie pans and storing it was a bit of a problem. I cleaned out space in the laundry room cabinet, carved up the slab into zip-lock gallon size portions and stacked it there.
I also put a half-dozen jars of dyslexic sauce in the same cabinet.
One day I opened a jar of sauce and it had mold on top. Freaked me out! because this had never happened in all the years I've been making it. I pulled out the chocolate bags and could see the gianduji had slightly melted, then re-harded. And the edges looked suspiciously powdery. It could have been bloom, but I was afraid it was mold.
What happened? The cabinet was mounted directly over the dryer and the accordian-pleated vent tube had pulled out of the dryer and was no longer venting outside. I had washed a throw blanket and noticed lint was blowing around the room like a crystal snow-globe Pulled the dryer out and found the vent tubing wasn't attached. Instead, it was blowing hot air (and lint) up and under the cabinet, turning it into a mini-oven.
Going with "better safe than sorry" I chucked it all out: eleven pounds and $115 of sweet, creamy, nutty milk chocolate goodness. Plus shipping and handling.