Can you freeze chocolate?

That’s an excellent question, reader Clare. It something that’s surely on the minds of many whose Valentine’s bounty exceeds their capacity to consume it. Yes, there are those people out there.

But to the question: can chocolate be frozen? The answer is that it can be, but it must be frozen carefully, and even when it is frozen carefully, it can still be damaged (at least cosmetically). The reason is because freezing accelerates the crystallization process. Certainly for water, but also for other key chocolate components like fat and sugar. It’s crystallized fat and sugar that’s responsible for the “bloom” one finds on chocolate that’s been stored for too long.

Fat bloom really isn’t a big deal in terms of what it does to a chocolate’s taste and texture. Sugar bloom is another matter entirely, since it makes chocolate chalky and bitter tasting. You can tell the difference by sight. Fat bloom looks more like a film, sugar bloom creates crystals of a size you can actually see.

The trick to freezing chocolate is to try to bring its temperature down slowly. Wrap the chocolate as tightly as you can in heavy-duty freezer bags (vacuum packing is ideal for this job), then place the chocolate in the refrigerator for several hours, followed by the freezer. If all goes well the chocolate will store there, largely intact, for up to six months.