Melting chocolate

LucyR

I rather enjoy making excessively chocolatey food

as such i need a good way to melt the chocolate, i find using a bowl over a pan doesnt work so well for me, i always manage to get water in teh chocolate.

would a double bottomed pan work out better for me? if so, where can i get one, ideally in cork

Ruu_Old

How did water get into the chocolate? We used to always have water in a pot and a bowl sitting into (just about touching the water) it on the hob. Always worked for me anyway. Look at the image below. You could also microwave it, apart from that I don't know.

LucyR

its a pyrex bowl over a pan that's narrower than it, and the steam seems to collapse back into the bowl and kill the choc

The Hill Billy

Make sure that the bowl sits on top of the pan as in Ruu's pic. Also, ensure that the water in the pan does not come into contact with the bottom of the bowl. This will make the chocolate melt too quickly & it will split.

The key to melting chocolate is to do it very slowly. Chocolate melts at body temprature so you'll only need a small amount of heat to melt it - so you don't have to have the water boiling. Have the water barely simmering - take your time & don't stir it too often & if you do stir - do it very gently.

catho_monster

put it in the microwave on defrost for at least 5 mins...
its so much easier than the other method

scotusone

the microwave method is very handy but be patient and use the lowest settings and go slowly and shake the dish to see if it is melting nicely.

it is very easy to burn chocolate in the microwave otherwise.

a master chocolatier (?) once told me that is important to try not to stir melted choc to avoid it becoming grainy , but i never found the odd gentle fold to do any harm

rsta

The choc melts quicker too if you break it up into lots of small pieces.