Step-By-Step Guide to Perfectly Melt Chocolate

While melting chocolate is simple in theory, the process can be a bit tricky. If you’re not careful, your chocolate can become greasy, separate (into solid and liquid parts) or even scorch. Some of the easiest methods you can use to melt chocolate are microwaving it at 50% percent power or utilizing a double boiler. The other method you can use is melting your chocolate together with other liquids. You can do so by using liquids such as liqueurs, water, cream, milk, and an array of other flavorings. Often, this method is the fastest. Some people consider it convenient since it prevents issues such as overheating.

Tips and Tricks on How to Melt Chocolate

Of great importance to note is the fact that melting chocolate is completely different from tempering chocolate. However, melting is an important step in the process of tempering. Here are some fundamentals guidelines to help you successfully melt chocolate:

1. Make sure you chop your chocolate into uniform pieces. This guarantees even melting. Refrain from melting large blocks or bars of chocolate that haven’t been chopped.
2. Always avoid contact with water. When it comes into contact with water, chocolate seizes and becomes unworkable. Therefore, ensure your spatulas, bowls and the entire workstation is completely dry.
3. Slowly melt your chocolate over low heat. Since it’s delicate, it can become grainy or lumpy when you overheat it.
4. A rubber spatula is handy to help you stir chocolate frequently once the outer edges begin to melt.
5. When melted, chocolate retains its shape. Consequently, stirring it is the only way to ensure it’s truly melted. Avoid overlying on appearances alone.

What You’ll Need 

1. Rubber spatula
2. Heat-proof bowl
3. Large saucepan
4. Serrated knife
5. Cutting board
6. Bar of chocolate

Step-By-Step Guide on How to Perfectly Melt Chocolate

1. Chop your chocolate

The first step entails chopping your chocolate into tiny pieces. This is regardless of the method you choose to melt your chocolate. The pieces should roughly be the size of sugar cubes. To obtain this small sized cube, it is highly advisable to use a serrated knife. Hold your serrated knife across one corner of the chocolate and evenly press down. Cut roughly one inch from the corner and then turn it. Repeat with other corners until you chop the entire chocolate block.

2. Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl

Set your chocolate pieces at the bottom of the glass bowl or metal bowl. Make sure that it is heat proof.

 3. Place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water

Boil roughly an inch of water in your saucepan. Be sure to set the heatproof bowl above the water and that the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl.

 4. Stir your chocolate

As your chocolate softens, occasionally stir it. Do you have only a few unmelted chocolate chunks left? If yes, then remove the bowl from the heat. Residual heat should be able to melt the rest.

There you go. It wasn’t that hard, right? When melted perfectly, your chocolate should be smooth. You can test this by seeing if it readily runs off a spoon’s edge. 

Conclusion

Chocolate-chip cookies, chocolate –covered strawberries – perfectly melted chocolate takes a simple dessert from being delicious to divine. There’s no doubt about that. The key to perfectly melting your chocolate is to do it over low heat. As earlier highlighted, excessive heat can make the chocolate grainy or even burn it.

In any form, chocolate is incredibly delicious. Therefore, you may wonder why you would want to melt it. By melting your chocolate, you can form it into a tool for decorating, topping or dipping. Melted chocolate is important in certain recipes that call for it specifically. These include goodies such as chocolate soufflé, cupcakes, brownies, truffles, chocolate icing and so much more.

As indicated earlier, you can melt chocolate using various means, but they all need to be gentle. In fact, the first rule of thumb is to establish whether or not your chocolate is formulated for melting. Have you been wondering on how to melt your chocolate perfectly?  We’ve got you covered.